Can we talk about Christmas pajamas?

[Spryte]

I started the annual hunt for Christmas jammies, and am pondering changing this tradition for our family.

We started out always buying our kids new jammies to open on Christmas Eve, and that morphed into matching non-Christmas themed jammies for them when they were small.

Somehow now that we have adult kids with spouses, it’s evolved into buying matching jammies for everyone — adults, kids, you name it. It’s a lot of pajamas! And it’s usually Christmas themed, since that’s easiest to find in a range of sizes. We have a 20 year span between kids, so a 7th grader who loves her traditions, but also a married 30-something with a DIL.

DH tolerates the idea, but the jammies get exactly one wear. I, frankly, am tiring of having a closet shelf of Christmas themed pjs. 

I might go back to buying everyone a new set of pjs, just not Christmas themed, or I might just ditch this tradition and buy jammies for the kids only.

Thoughts? Do you do Christmas pajamas? If you stopped — how did that go? 

 

Edited November 8, 2023 by Spryte

[marbel]

We used to do Christmas PJs for the kids. They wore them all winter though, not just one time. We stopped around middle school age I think - when one kid (boy) didn't really want cute pajamas anymore, and the other (girl) had developed her own taste and cute (to me) snowflake (or whatever)  jammies didn't cut it anymore.  I can't even imagine buying matching or even coordinating pajamas for a whole family including in-laws. I was probably the saddest about the end of that tradition.

I think in your case I would keep it up for the youngest and maybe yourself, if you wear them. I would stop with the adult kids, maybe suggesting it is time for mom to retire and for them to start developing their own traditions.

Edited November 8, 2023 by marbel

[Jaybee]

We never have done it, but I'd do it with just the kids. My grandkids love getting matching pjs.

[prairiewindmomma]

We morphed into non-Christmas jammies about a decade ago (but chose coordinating schemes), and then moved into sporty loungewear, and  we stopped when everyone started hitting adult sizes. It’s been a non-issue. It just evolved like how it’s gone from a 4am wakeup call from the kids to a boozey for me (mimosas!) late brunch. 

[saraha]

We do new flannel pajama pants and fun tshirts or long sleeved tshirts or even thermal shirts, just depends on what is on sale. I have bought old navy pajama pants for at least 10 years. They don’t match (well, some have similar ones received on different years as they are young adults now and not out growing out of them. And there are 6 of them so not always enough new patterns)

I always choose old navy because they last well and they go on sale one day in fall. Up til Covid, they went on sale for one day for $5. Last two years it’s been on sale one day for $9.

[knitgrl]

We do Christmas pajamas, about every other year. I buy them large and the kids can wear them two years, because it's kind of expensive for a family of six. If it's not a buying year, everyone just wears the PJ's from the year before. We wear our Christmas jammies throughout the year, so they get good use.

[4kidlets4me]

We've always done jammies that are opened on xmas eve, everyone gets a new set. Some years they are xmas themed and some years they are something else. As the kids have gotten older I take their personal style into account because we all wear them throughout the year.

We haven't added any SO's to the mix yet, we'll decide what to do when we cross that bridge.

[Faith-manor]

We have Santa hats that are reused each year. The grandsons best Christmas jammies, but they use them all winter long, no single use purpose, and as the eldest out grows his, they are handed down to his brothers. One year we did buy red, long sleeve t shirts for everyone for a group, Christmas photo. We bought plain ones so they were fine to keep using throughout the season, and then donned the santa hats. 

Now with six households besides ours representing our four adult kids, son in law, daughter in law, and honorary kids and their spouses, there is just no way financially we will consider anything but enough Santa hats for the whole crew. I have considered making green and white polar fleece scarves because I can make several from a single yard of each color and then everyone can also keep using them. I might do that. We won't all be together as a crew this year so we are considering mailing the hats and potential scarves to each household who is not coming, and having them take a selfie with their tree on Christmas morning. If the selfies were pretty good, we could make a Christmas collage photo display for each house which would be fun.

I think it is just fine to drop traditions that no longer work. Change is good.

Edited November 8, 2023 by Faith-manor
If I ever meet the idiot who created autocorrect........

[fairfarmhand]

We've never done jammies, because with my dh it would be exactly like yours (a waste since they would go unworn after the initial photo op) but I did decide that stockings would only be for unmarried people who live by themselves and people who wake up in my house on Christmas morning. Married adults get to figure out the stocking thing for their families. I don't particularly enjoy that tradition and my MIL loved it, But then she ended up doing stocking for like 18 people and that was a LOT for her. And then the stockings morphed into this "What can I afford to stuff into them?" thing where she bought clearance candy (one time she bought FISH OIL CHOCOLATE supplements because it was on clearance--for good reason--on accident) random whatever dollar tree crap etc. She loved the idea of stockings, but it's implementation got way out of hand because the family grew. 

So i decided when I started having adult children that since this tradition isn't one that I love, I will let it slowly fade away before it gets out of hand.

I vote that you find a tradition that suits you and your growing family better. And if you have kids at home and married kids, I think it's okay to have a different set of rules for each bunch. My oldest has her own family and she's okay that she doesn't get the stocking and her siblings do, because her dh makes her a stocking in her own home. 

[Laura Corin]

Our dog worries because we don't have fur, so she buys us clothes every Christmas.  Nothing matching - just whatever we need.

[regentrude]

We have never done Christmas pajamas. 
If little kids enjoy it, it would make sense since they outgrow them. Otherwise I see no point in buying new Christmas-themed anything every year.

[Kassia]

We've never done Christmas pajamas.  Ds1 and his gf did last year - surprised us on Christmas morning with them on and it was cute, but not something I'd want to do regularly.  

[Katy]

This year the jammies are coming on Thanksgiving night. I started buying them in September as soon as I see them because they’re typically sold out of at least one size we need if I wait. I usually pick ones with a winter theme or plaid instead of specifically Christmas. I do try and make sure everyone wears them on Christmas Eve.
 

My siblings (for the most part) buy their kids matching jammies too.  I’ve always insisted on staying in our own house on Christmas Eve since we had children. I doubt I’ll buy Christmas pajamas for married kids. 

[ScoutTN]

No Christmas pjs here anymore. Never did matching or for adults ; just whatever I found at consignment. I did get my kids some new winter pjs last yr at Old Navy, but not matching. 

[Melanie32]

We do pajamas on Christmas Eve the same way we do stockings. If you live at home you get them. If you don’t, you don’t. Sometimes we buy Christmas themed ones, whenever the old ones have worn out or are outgrown. The rest of the time we just buy regular pajamas because they are a needed item anyway. My son doesn’t get them as he is married and on his own. My daughter is 21 and still at home and she gets them. This year she is getting Christmas themed pajamas because her old ones are worn out and need to be trashed.

[annandatje]

We never had tradition of giving Christmas themed pajamas.  We tend not to buy items meant for certain occasions in favor of multi use items.  Nowadays since kids are grown, we do a very scaled down Christmas with no gifts except one or two small items in stockings.  I don’t miss all the manual labor associated with big celebrations.  Prefer to have plenty of time for conversation, going places and watching movies together.

[Grace Hopper]

I used to give my little kids Christmas jammies on St Nicholas Day (Dec 6) or Christmas Eve, depending on the circumstances of the year. The purpose was because (a) they were fun, and (b) so the kids would look cute in present opening pics. 
 

I have not been a fan of the whole-family-matching-pjs-family-portrait practice. Buying pajamas for 8 now adults would put a serious hit on my Christmas budget. 

[Grace Hopper]

Oh, we probably stopped at about middle school and all were fine with it until a girlfriend really wanted us to do it. I suggested that she/they could probably find some at Old Navy (iow, I did not jump on the bandwagon and volunteer to purchase them - most are all working professionals making more $ than me and dh). 

[ScoutTN]

Our family has never done Christmas Eve gifts of any kind bc we celebrate with Dh’s family that day and there are plenty of gifts that day already.

[SKL]

When my kids were little, I bought them Christmas themed jammies, not necessarily matching, but aligned with their other interests - for example, in their favorite colors, or with polar bear / horse designs or whatever.  Eventually the Christmas theme part of it fell off in favor of their favorite year-round themes.  Some time in middle school, it stopped feeling necessary to give jammies for Christmas.

Funny thing, now jammie bottoms are in style for wearing to school, so I've bought a few bottoms recently, but not necessarily for Christmas.  I did buy a fuzzy pj bottom for my kid's recent birthday.  And my other kid bought herself a pair of green and red Christmas pjs, whose bottoms she wears everywhere, any month.  She also likes Christmas themed socks, even when it's not Christmas.

But yeah ... I'd drop the matching jammie tradition.

[matrips]

We kind of do them. The kids wore the same ones for years even if they had technically outgrown them. So I only had to buy two sets over the years. For us, the fun tradition was in having some kind of Christmas Eve/morning outfit and not the buying of new ones all time.
 

Now we each just have Christmas tshirts from Walmart because we live in Florida and hate flannel/fleece pjs. The kids tshirts all match (elves) and me and dh have Mr/Mrs Claus type ones. I expect we’ll wear these for a very long time, lol.

[MEmama]

We do Christmas Eve jammies (that is, DS and DH gets them, I rarely do), they are the first thing we open on Christmas Eve so we can be extra snuggly all evening. When DS was young I'd get him cute little kid sets but now they get some variation of flannels or joggers and a t shirt that they can wear whenever, all year. We've never done the matching thing.

[bookbard]

I think this falls into US culture again maybe? I've never heard of it. I am the only one in my household who ever wears pyjamas. Even my kids don't. 

[rebcoola]

We have done Jammies some years but not as tradition. 1 child really loves jammies last year he insisted so they became his presents to everyone. We don't get matching or even themed jammies though just cozy. 

[Drama Llama]

Through the Christmas my kids were 8, 8 and 11, we did matching PJs for all the cousins, usually something that was Christmassy but not Christmas like solid red or green and white stripes, which would then be added to the rotation of PJ's.  They'd open them after church on Christmas Eve, wear them to bed that night, and then look cute in the pictures on Christmas morning.  

The year my kids were 9, 9 and 12 we changed that for a few reasons.  One is that my middle kid really struggled with understanding his place in the family when his cousins were around.  He'd see a little cousin hugging his Dad and think "what if Dad chooses that kid instead of me?".  So we decided to do a matching theme for just the 5 of us so he'd have a visual reminder that we were a unit.  But Dad and I were not going to run around in tight fitting PJ's, so instead we go Tshirts for a favorite sports team that happened to be red, and then the kids got flannel pants that matched and DH and I wore jeans.  

Since then, we've stuck with some kind of matching T shirts for everyone, and flannel pants for the kids.  For the shirts, I try to find something vaguely Christmas connected.  It might be just a red background, or one year we did one with a picture of a snowboard.  For the pants, I'm fine with Christmas, because my kids will wear snuggly flannel no matter what's on it.  They change into pj pants as soon as they are home from school, and have no hesitation about wearing Santa on their butts to Chipotle in April.  

[Corraleno]

Thanks to this thread, plus the one that included recommendations for Hanna Andersson clothes, plus a Reddit post that happened to mention Nightmare Before Christmas, the All-Seeing FB Algorithm just served up an ad for... Hanna Andersson Family Christmas Pajamas in a Nightmare Before Christmas print — 40% off!  (I'm kinda tempted by the dog pajamas, lol)

[Spryte]

34 minutes ago, Corraleno said:

Thanks to this thread, plus the one that included recommendations for Hanna Andersson clothes, plus a Reddit post that happened to mention Nightmare Before Christmas, the All-Seeing FB Algorithm just served up an ad for... Hanna Andersson Family Christmas Pajamas in a Nightmare Before Christmas print — 40% off!  (I'm kinda tempted by the dog pajamas, lol)

I was all set to abandon this tradition, but Nightmare Before Christmas, Hanna Anderson on sale! Tempted. 🤣

[lmrich]

I just ordered pj bottoms for my family. This will be  our last Christmas before we add a son-in-law. I  am a bit nostalgic to the old day. The son-in-law -to-be is great, but he has a big family, and we will have to share holidays. 

[Corraleno]

For folks who do matching PJs but haven't bought them yet, Old Navy has 50% off all pajamas (and 40% off everything else) until Monday 11/13. Most kids sets are on sale for around $15.

[Spryte]

We decided to use the practically new pj bottoms that everyone already owns, and we will all open new lounge type tops that work as sleepwear on Christmas Eve. Yay for a new plan! Everyone’s on board with this, and it feels much more sane. Thanks for all the thoughts!

Edited November 10, 2023 by Spryte

[Forget-Me-Not]

I've done them for the kids for years, and they get them on Christmas eve.  Some years they were all different, some years they were matching, some years it was 50/50 (I have two boys and two girls, so often they were split along those lines). Sometimes they're a surprise, sometimes I let them pick (especially when they grew out of kid sizes and I needed them to try things on).

I was toying with the idea of ditching this tradition this year, but my 10 yo (youngest) still wanted to do it.  He then promptly went and selected a print that his college-age brother 1000% would not wear, LOL.  Older brother is almost 21 and I think he's kind of over it.   He said he could just go without this year, but I managed to find him a plaid he'll wear in coordinating colors. I usually get them at Old Navy.  I've gotten them at Target before, and even Lands End and LL Bean have had some really cute things over the years.  Some years when I was super ambitious I sewed them.  

[Beth S]

My friend has just spent a month sewing PJ pants for all her grandkids. 
I highly recommend The Minimal Mom's free Cmas Workshop (w/ Frugal Fit Mom & But First, Coffee Youtubers).
Like the OP, she suggests rethinking your gift-giving habits, esp. things like PJs that cause a lot of Mom Prep.

https://www.theminimalmom.com/offers/A7DuBBqZ/checkout

[LucyStoner]

We get shirts from $6 shirts and people wear whatever Christmas-y or solid colored pajama pants then want.  If you buy a certain number of shirts (10?) there’s a discount.  
 

The shirts can then be worn other nights to bed or even during the day.  
 

https://6dollarshirts.com

[Serenade]

12 hours ago, LucyStoner said:

We get shirts from $6 shirts and people wear whatever Christmas-y or solid colored pajama pants then want.  If you buy a certain number of shirts (10?) there’s a discount.  
 

The shirts can then be worn other nights to bed or even during the day.  
 

https://6dollarshirts.com

So fun!  Thanks for sharing the link.

[Forget-Me-Not]

13 hours ago, LucyStoner said:

We get shirts from $6 shirts and people wear whatever Christmas-y or solid colored pajama pants then want.  If you buy a certain number of shirts (10?) there’s a discount.  
 

The shirts can then be worn other nights to bed or even during the day.  
 

https://6dollarshirts.com

These are fun! How do the shirts run size-wise? Do they shrink? 

[GoodGrief3]

I would be so stressed out if I was expected to wear pajamas someone else had bought for me for a photo that would presumably be posted publicly every year. I am kind of hard to fit as it is, and have a hard enough time shopping for myself. 

[J-rap]

That sounds like a lot of work and money for something you wear just once.  Can you switch to something like Christmas socks instead?

[Drama Llama]

41 minutes ago, J-rap said:

That sounds like a lot of work and money for something you wear just once.  Can you switch to something like Christmas socks instead?

Why would you wear it just once?

My kids wear their Christmas pjs to death.  They're PJ's no one cares if your PJ's are in season, except the one morning of the year when you are taking pictures before breakfast.  

I am far too lazy to buy socks that have to be matched.  

[Janeway]

This is the first year my grandmother won’t be buying pajamas for the kids. But she never bought them Christmas themed. I did buy the kids new ones this year. The younger ones are getting Christmas themed. I just love the Christmas pajamas and they will wear them all year.

[Forget-Me-Not]

Yeah my kids wear them well outside of the Christmas season 

[historically accurate]

12 hours ago, J-rap said:

That sounds like a lot of work and money for something you wear just once.  Can you switch to something like Christmas socks instead?

I think most people re-wear them. I don't do them because I don't need another thing to have to buy both for financial and keeping-track-of-one-more-thing-stress reasons. 

[marbel]

On 11/11/2023 at 10:45 AM, GoodGrief3 said:

I would be so stressed out if I was expected to wear pajamas someone else had bought for me for a photo that would presumably be posted publicly every year. I am kind of hard to fit as it is, and have a hard enough time shopping for myself. 

I was thinking about this, as a daughter-in-law. My MIL used to buy me clothes (not pajamas) for gifts and it was always a disaster. Sizes are not standard, people can guess wrong, etc., etc. It would be awful to be presented with something that may or may not fit, and have the pressure to be wearing it for photos. I don't do Christmas PJs anymore, and have no DILs, but after my experience with my MIL... if I ever have a DIL, she will not get clothing from me unless I am dead certain it is something she would like and would fit her.  

[Spryte]

Yes, the DIL issue is part of why I just desperately want to ditch the tradition. My DIL has only been with us for one Christmas, and DD was 10 and sooooo invested in matching holiday jammies that I didn’t want to disappoint her — so I tried to make it as pressure free as possible.

We enlisted DS to help with the sizing and choice of pattern. And we told DIL when giving them on Christmas Eve that she could wear them or not, no pressure. DH and I had opted out that year, too, in solidarity. But she’s really fun and threw them on immediately (they actually fit!), so it was fine. 

I just don’t want to do it every year, and I don’t particularly want pajamas every year so I’m really good if this tradition fades out in our home.

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by Spryte

[BlsdMama]

We buy jammies for kids who live at home for Christmas Eve. We usually have adult kids, SOs, grandkids on the 25th/26th so pajamas are not a part of our extended celebration. 

[LucyStoner]

On 11/11/2023 at 7:25 AM, Forget-Me-Not said:

These are fun! How do the shirts run size-wise? Do they shrink? 

I would say they shrink a bit and they are pretty boxy/large.  

[MsTake]

We do PJ's for the kids only. But that's only really because my MIL is a wizard at sewing, and hand-makes them Christmas jammies each year. (which the kids LOVE).

They typically wear them as soon as it starts to get cold though, and often wear them well after christmas as well.

Even our son that has historically never been a fan of PJ will wear his ones from grandma, just because they're comfy, and our house gets fairly cold at night in the winter (super old house).