The Christmas season is full of traditions. And one of our favorites is our Christmas Eve pajama tradition. This is a fun activity that your entire family will look forward to each year, and it’s not that hard (or expensive) to pull off!
Christmas traditions are important
They give people, especially children, something to look forward to each year. From decorating the tree, to making cookies, to reading the story of Jesus’ birth, Christmas traditions really give meaning to the season. Every family has different things they do each year, and when my hubby and I got married, we decided to start a Christmas Eve pajama tradition of our own.
Our Christmas Eve pajama tradition
My husband and I got married back in 2013, and we were pretty excited for our first Christmas as a married couple. We lived in a little apartment that had a cute fireplace, and I had visions of a cozy Christmas morning huddled by the fire, exchanging gifts, and drinking coffee.
But as Christmas drew closer, I realized this little dream wasn’t going to happen. We went through what most newly married couples go through: the dreaded family holiday shuffle. Obviously, when we were dating, we each spent Christmas day with our respective families (and my husband’s family lived three hours away at the time). So when we got married, we really felt obligated to see everyone for the holidays.
So about two weeks before Christmas, I was about ready to have a nervous breakdown. We were going to spend our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day rushing from one house to the next to see my family (and then travelling to see my husband’s family a couple days later). The cozy Christmas with my new husband I pictured in my head wasn’t going to happen.
And that was how the Christmas Eve pajama tradition was born. I decided that even though things would be crazy, we were going to have some time together as a family, just the two of us. And now that we have Little Man, we get to enjoy this special time even more!
*Side note: we are much better about managing our holiday obligations now. And if you’re struggling with that, Lindsey over at Sparrows and Lily wrote a great post about why her family stopped going from house to house for the holidays. It’s a great read.
How to start your own Christmas Eve pajama tradition:
This process can absolutely be customized for your family, but this is how we do it!
First, buy pajamas for each member of the family.
When it was just my husband and me, we bought cozy pajamas for each other. He picked out some for me, and I picked out his. Confession: I have a problem with pajamas. I love being cozy, and there’s nothing like pajamas to get you to that level of comfy where you just can’t even stand it. So I have a ton of pajamas. But that doesn’t stop me from getting more. It’s a problem, seriously.
But the fun part about our Christmas Eve pajama tradition is that we don’t know what jammies we’ll get to wear beforehand. We shop for them separately, wrap them, and place them under the Christmas tree.
We’ve come away with some really great pajamas, but we’ve also had a few misses. For example, one year my hubby and I both misjudged and got the wrong size for each other. That made us feel super great about ourselves (they were too small). Another time, my husband got me some jammies that were a really weird material, and they weren’t comfy at all. But practice makes perfect, and there have been way more scores than misses.
My advice? When in doubt, buy bigger rather than smaller. And don’t get offended; pajamas are way comfier too big than too small. Pay attention to the material (washing instructions, etc.). The last thing you want is to wash your holiday jammy-jams and have them shrink in the dryer. Both Target and Amazon have some really great pajamas that aren’t too pricey.
On Christmas Eve, have a Christmas morning preview by letting everyone open one present: their new pajamas! Then, have them change into those comfies before proceeding to the next step.
Second, queue up a Christmas movie.
Christmas movies are my jam! I love them, especially the classics I grew up with like It’s a Wonderful Life, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Miracle on 34th Street.
And now with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, your favorite holiday movies are right at your fingertips. So pick one and gather the whole family (in their cozy jammies, of course), and snuggle on the couch with a blanket.
Finally, enjoy some hot cocoa and Christmas cookies.
This is very important. Cookies are always important. And what goes better with Christmas cookies than hot cocoa? Well, maybe eggnog, but it’s your choice. I feel like if you eat a really sugary cookie, eggnog might be too sweet, but if your cookie is a little less sweet, eggnog is perfect. But I digress…
So here is your Christmas Eve pajama tradition checklist:
- Pajamas
- Christmas movie
- Hot cocoa (or eggnog) and cookies
- A warm, cozy, snuggly, happy family.
When the Christmas Eve pajama tradition goes wrong
Oo, that sounds ominous, doesn’t it? Well, don’t worry; this story has a happy ending. The year Little Man was born, things were pretty hectic. He was born on December 10, nine days early. Needless to say, I wasn’t ready for Christmas, and hence, incredibly stressed out. We had family coming into town, and a bunch of things left to do. If you can imagine brand-new mama stress plus Christmas stress combined…that was me.
So about two days before Christmas, my postpartum hormones kicked in high gear and I had a meltdown in front of my husband. This is how it went: “It’s our baby’s very first Christmas, [sob] and we don’t even [sob] have any new pajamas [wail]!” My poor husband.
It seemed like all hope was lost, but my amazing hubby went out, braved the frantic last-minute shoppers, and bought new pajamas for all three of us. And they were perfect. I love that man so much.
Anyways, all that to say, creating a Christmas Eve pajama tradition isn’t really all that hard (or expensive!). Just pick out some cute jammies, warm that hot cocoa, pop in a Christmas movie, and snuggle with your family on the couch. Enjoy this low-stress, low-cost Christmas tradition this year, and I promise it will become a fan favorite, just like it has in our family!
Have you tried this Christmas Eve pajama tradition? Let us know how your family does it in the comments!
