The real tradition behind Christmas pajamas

*Audio clip is of USU student Kevin Williams.

With Christmas around the corner, many parents and couples run to the stores to buy Christmas pajamas for their families and partners. It’s a tradition most have heard of and participate in — but why? 

Kevin Williams, a USU student, guessed the origin story of the Christmas PJs.

“Christmas is the day to be lazy, completely lazy, and not get out of our pajamas all day,” Williams said. “Then somebody was like, ‘Well, we might as well match,’ and we’re all in the house all day wearing pajamas.

Another USU student, Caleb Taylor, shared his thoughts.  

“It makes the holidays more fun when everyone is engaged in the same kind of family activity,” he said. 

Social media has made matching jammies a viral sensation in the last decade. The most recent example is from the YouTube channel of the Dean and Kim Holderness family

The family quartet originally posted a video titled #XMASJAMMIES! in 2013. The Holderness family video currently has 18 million views and counting, with a new #XMASJAMMIES! song posted each year

“I think it’s really cute, and I like how they’re all matching,” said USU student Olivia Arosva. 

But you don’t need to have a big following to show off your Christmas spirit. Families now show off their matching outfits on Instagram. The hashtag #christmasjammies has 195k posts of families donning red and green matching PJs.

The most recent trend regarding Christmas sleepwear, however, is couples.

USU student Ashley Herbert said it can even mean a step forward in your relationship.

“I would say the more serious you are, the more likely you are to get Christmas pajamas together,” Herbert said. 

A New York Times article titled “Will you be alone for matching pajamas season?” explores the new trend and how single adults view it as somewhat isolating.

“I could see why people are upset about couple matching jammies,” Arosva said. “I think they’re so fun. I also think that just getting matching Christmas pajamas with your friends is just as fun.”  

With Christmas pajamas gaining so much traction over the years, many wonder how the tradition began. 

Debbie Sessions, a fashion historian, addressed this question on her Instagram page @vintagedancercom.

“Matching sets for parents and children and couples took off in the 1950’s and continued off and on into the ‘60’s, ‘70’s, and ‘80’s,” Sessions said. 

However, fashion historian Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, who wrote for The Atlantic earlier this year, argued family coordinating outfits started earlier. She said they stem from “Mommy-and-me” fashion in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s.

In her article, Chrisman-Campbell stated, “Mother-daughter fashions reinforced the primacy of the domestic sphere.”  

Perhaps it could be inferred that matching clothes — including Christmas sleepwear — were produced by clothing manufacturers to re-emphasize the nuclear family and return to the “domestic sphere” after World War II.

Unfortunately, there is no single reason why Christmas pajamas are now a big hit, but families and couples should expect them to stick around.

-Alivia.Hadfield@usu.edu

Featured photo by Claire Ott