Forget about the ugly Christmas sweater. This year, the best way to start celebrating the Holidays at home (unless you enjoy dodging a novel virus that keeps morphing to keep you on your well-pedicured toes at all times), is to finally embrace the Christmas pajama tradition.
Because once December comes around, celebrities, Instagram posers, TikTok bedroom choreographers – and, well, you and I — start the frenzy of posting in our pjs. Even Mariah? Of course not. The Christmas song diva’s version of Holiday pajamas is a satin negligee trimmed in ostrich feathers and diamonds.
If you search for #Christmaspjs on TikTok you’ll get close to 63 million views. Instagram? The count pops to almost 300k posts. No doubt, the avalanche of plaid PJs – even Kim Kardashian, via her uber-successful Skims line, is in on it –, snowflake flannel pajamas and red cozies has started to roll out. And that’s not even counting the Elf onesies like Madonna and her posse were strutting around with while trimming the tree.
But, fear not, the trend is not exclusively for big families. You don’t need to go all matchy-matchy with anyone. Even if in your case that means Emily, your super cute French Bulldog from Paris.
But, wait a second, how did this tradition begin?
Rewind to the 1950s
We need to go back close to 70 years ago, at the beginning of the baby boom era, to start seeing the popularity of matching mother-daughter outfits (unsurprisingly in the Sears catalogue, the Amazon of the times). The nuclear family being the absolute apex of domestic bliss, dad and brother wearing different versions of the same look started entering the picture in the early 60s for the Christmas edition filled with toys. That’s when the novelty of matching family PJs really began to take hold. Cue in Andy Williams’ “Silver Bells” and you’re ready to party while scoffing down mom’s legendary sandwich loaf.
Other than the odd antique Christmas catalogue still in existence in the rarefied vintage section of eBay, or tossed out family albums re-emerging on Ancestry.com, not much had been documented regarding the Christmas Day family breakfast or the gift opening ritual while wearing, bien sûr, the festive pajamas.
That is until the roar of social media came along, prompting absolutely everyone to start feverishly documenting every single mundane activity of the day. If it weren’t for filters, would bedroom monologues be possible to tolerate in Stories? Probably not as much…
Catalogues and Online Shopping
Some say the current fixation for Holiday matching sets began in the early 90s when an obscure Oregon-based mail order company called Hanna Andersson – yes, the founders are Scandinavian – started selling family pajamas, creating countless new collections every year based on the classic red and green palette, peppered with animals (“run, run, reindeer”), ornaments and motifs traditionally associated with Christmas.
They got the ball rolling and, since the aughts, lingerie and fashion big names like Victoria’s Secret, The Bay, La Senza and Simons began selling their own versions of holiday at-home clothing.
It’s 2021 and, of course, loungewear has become the de facto style we choose to dress, day in and day out, whether it’s for working from home or entertaining. We shop online for the PJs we’ll give as Christmas presents and dress up with on New Year’s Eve.
Once the sweats-set genie got out of the bottle at the beginning of Covid, it’s proven almost impossible to bring her back in, since new routines have emerged and comfort is one of the best antidotes to coping with a stressful world. Hence, the uptick in loungewear.
Luxe Loungewear
The cozy mindset is here to stay, with search for terms like loungewear, matching sets, nap dress, silk pajamas, and home bedding trending on Google and Pinterest since the first lockdown, and still going strong for 2022.
According to Business Insider, “sales of pajamas, loungewear and clothing for stay-at-home and work-from-home have exploded. Recent research estimates the pajama global industry will be worth three times more by 2027.” And expensive fabrics are on the rise, too. The silk market is expected to grow by USD 6.87 billion during until 2024 because of new opportunities created by the pandemic.
The growth of luxe sleepwear is similar to the boom that athleisure and loungewear have seen. Some people paying top money for upscale leggings (we’re talking to you, lululemon…), are now switching those dollars for high-end sleepwear like silk pajamas and styles designed by coveted international fashion houses (think Dior, Gucci and, here in Canada, Shan) and storied heritage brands like Liberty London. In 2018, the iconic department store even created a sleepwear collab with Florence Welch from rock band Florence and the Machine; a prophetic move clearly ahead of its time.
Maybe the perfect Christmas morning is now lounging on a lavender velvet sofa (soft, tactile fabrics are on the rise, too, for homewear, to bring comfort to the touch-deprived), wearing a Liberty London pajama in a maximalist print while slowly savouring a tin of Quality Streets sweets.
You don’t get more Christmassy than this in 2021. Happy Holidays!
