How to Wash Bamboo and Fleece Christmas Pajamas (Plus Hot Cocoa and Cookie Stains)

The short answer

Almost every set of christmas pj sets we sell carries the same basic care line on its product page: machine wash cold, no bleach. What changes from fabric to fabric is the drying step and the extras to avoid. Fleece and bamboo viscose listings say tumble dry low with no dryer sheets; satin says line dry with no fabric softener. For the holiday stains, the rule from every extension guide we read is the same: treat it before it dries, blot rather than rub, and never put a stained piece in the dryer.

Fabric on the listing	Wash	Dry	Skip
Fleece and coral fleece (polyester)	Cold, inside out, zips closed	Tumble low	Bleach, dryer sheets, a hot iron
Bamboo viscose with spandex	Cold, gentle cycle where the listing says so	Tumble low, or flat	Bleach, dryer sheets, wringing
Satin (100% polyester)	Cold	Line dry, per the fabric notes	Bleach, fabric softener
Cotton with spandex	Cold	Tumble low	Bleach, dryer sheets
Glow-in-the-dark prints	As for the base fabric, inside out	As for the base fabric	Ironing over the print (our caution)

The sewn-in care label outranks anything written here, including our own product pages, and the section on satin explains why that matters.

Before the First Wash: Check the Fit While the Tags Are Still On

Most laundry advice starts with "wash new clothes before wearing them." For Christmas pajamas, one step comes first: try every piece on, with the tags attached, before anything goes near the machine.

The reason is the return policy, not the fabric. Under our refund policy, a return has to be requested within 30 days of delivery, and the item must be unworn and unused, with its tags and original packaging. A washed set fails that test even if nobody slept in it. Two more lines in the policy shape the timing:

• There is no direct exchange. The policy says the fastest way to get a different size is to return the item you have and, once the return is accepted, make a separate purchase. By then, in a busy December, the size you need may have sold out.
• Sale items cannot be returned. If you bought on promotion, the try-on is your only safety net.

So the order is: open the parcel, lay every set out by person, try each one on that evening, and only then wash. Today is Monday, November 9. Christmas falls on a Friday this year and Thanksgiving is on November 26, so a set that arrives this month still has time for one replacement order if a size is wrong. A set that arrives on December 18 does not.

A practical try-on checklist:

1. Children's snug-fit pieces (the bamboo and cotton sets) should sit close to the body without pulling at the shoulders. Do not size these up "to grow into"; the reasons are in how to wash baby clothes and our sizing guides.
2. Adults: sit down, raise your arms, and check the pant rise. Relaxed-fit fleece hides a lot; satin shows every tight spot.
3. Onesies: run the zip all the way up and down on the person who will wear it.
4. Check that the socks that come with many of the sets are in the bag. Pet sizes do not include socks.

Once everything fits, wash it. A first wash before wear is still worth doing for anything that will sit against skin, and the reasons, including residues from finishing, are covered in our baby laundry guide linked above.

How to Wash Fleece Christmas Pajamas and Hooded Onesies

Fleece is the warmest fabric in our Christmas range and the one that changes most visibly with careless washing. The fleece listings we read describe either "premium fleece" or "plush coral fleece," polyester in both cases, brushed on both sides. Their care line is "Machine wash cold, tumble dry low. No bleach, no dryer sheets." Several product descriptions add "do not dry clean."

Step by step

1. Close every zip and turn the set inside out. The hooded coral fleece onesies have a full-length front zip. An open zip tumbling in the drum catches on the pile of the fleece around it.
2. Wash fleece with fleece. Towels shed lint, and brushed fleece holds lint the way a lint roller does. Denim and anything with hook-and-loop tape rub the surface. A load of family fleece pajamas on its own is the cleanest option.
3. Cold water, normal or gentle cycle, and do not overload. Pile fabrics need room to move for the detergent to rinse out.
4. Measure detergent rather than pouring. Texas A&M's extension guide notes that soil can build up on polyester over time, and that a pretreated spot can end up cleaner than the fabric around it, looking almost bleached. Even dosing and a full wash of the whole garment avoid that patchy look.
5. Tumble low and take the pieces out promptly. High heat flattens pile. If a set feels damp at the seams, finish it on a rack rather than running another hot cycle.
6. Skip dryer sheets. The listings say so directly. Dryer sheets coat fibers in the same way liquid softener does, and children's flame-resistant sleepwear is the wrong place for a coating. Our baby laundry guide, linked above, explains the softener problem in detail; here, follow the label.

Ironing fleece

Do not. Some fleece descriptions say "iron at low temperature" and at least one gingerbread coral fleece onesie says "do not iron." Fleece does not crease in the way a woven fabric does, so there is nothing to gain. A hot iron on brushed polyester can flatten or glaze the surface permanently. If you need a set to look smooth for photos, hang it overnight.

Pilling on fleece

Pills show first where the fabric rubs: the seat, the inner thighs and the underarms. They come from friction in wear and in the drum, and the most useful habits are the ones above: inside out, low heat, no rough company in the load. The mechanism, including why blends hold on to pills, is explained in why baby clothes pill and fade. We do not claim any of our fleece sets is pill-free; no fleece is.

Both of these list polyester fleece and the cold-wash, low-tumble care line. The onesie zips up the front and has a hood, so zip it and turn it inside out before washing. The two-piece set has pockets on the adult pants; empty them first, because a forgotten candy cane wrapper in a fleece pocket shreds into the pile.

How to Wash Bamboo Christmas Pajamas Without Wearing Them Out

Bamboo sets need the gentlest handling of anything in this guide, for a physical reason. The fiber in bamboo christmas pajamas is a regenerated cellulose, bamboo viscose or rayon made from bamboo, and viscose is noticeably weaker when it is wet. Most surface damage happens in the drum, not on the child.

Our bamboo family listings describe 93% viscose from bamboo and 7% spandex, and the care line is the same as for fleece: machine wash cold, tumble dry low, no bleach, no dryer sheets. The red gingerbread bamboo set goes further in its description and asks for a gentle cycle. Treat that as the rule for all of them.

Step by step

1. Inside out, gentle cycle, cold water. The smooth face of a viscose knit shows abrasion as a dull, slightly fuzzy patch.
2. Use a mesh laundry bag for children's pieces. Small snug-fit sets get tangled with adult pieces and stretched.
3. Low spin if your machine lets you choose. A soaked, weakened knit thrown against the drum at high speed is how a soft set turns rough.
4. Do not wring. Press water out in a towel instead.
5. Tumble low, or dry flat. The listings allow a low tumble. We would dry the snug-fit children's pieces flat on a rack, because heat and tumbling both act on fit, and a snug-fit garment that grows or shrinks stops fitting the way it should. That is our judgment, not a label instruction.

Stains on bamboo: blot, never scrub

Rubbing a wet stain on viscose roughens the surface permanently, and the rough patch can show more than the stain did. Every extension guide we used repeats the same instruction: blot, and work from the back of the fabric. On bamboo it matters more than on any other fabric here.

A note on names

One of our listings is titled "Bamboo" but its description gives the fabric as 95% cotton and 5% spandex. When a title and a description disagree, read the sewn-in label and wash for the fiber it names. We have left that set out of this section for that reason.

The two family sets are snug-fit two-piece sets in the children's sizes. The kids' 3-piece set has a short-sleeve top, long pants and shorts, and is labeled snug-fitting, not flame resistant. Its care line adds "iron low, no dry clean," so the gentle routine above covers it.

Satin, Cotton and Glow-in-the-Dark Christmas Pajamas: What Changes

Satin: line dry, and read the label

Our satin sets are 100% polyester with a smooth, silky finish, collared button-front tops and full-length pants. The fabric notes on these pages say "Machine wash cold, line dry. No bleach, no fabric softener." The product description of the navy gingerbread satin set says "tumble dry low."

That is the kind of disagreement worth knowing about. Product pages are written and edited in several places; the label sewn into the garment is the instruction the manufacturer attached to that piece. When two instructions differ, follow the label, and where you cannot tell, take the gentler option. For satin that means line drying. It also has a practical benefit: satin creases in a tumble dryer and the creases catch the light in photos. Hang the tops on a padded hanger, buttons done up, and the pants by the waistband.

If a satin set must be ironed, low heat only, inside out, with a cloth between iron and fabric. Several satin descriptions say "low-temperature iron only."

Cotton: the easiest of the four

The cotton family sets list 95% cotton with 5% spandex (one tree print lists 91% cotton and 9% spandex), cut snug in the children's sizes. Care is machine wash cold and tumble dry low, no bleach. Cotton tolerates washing well, but the spandex does not like heat, which is one more reason to keep the dryer on low.

Glow-in-the-dark prints

The glow sets are ordinary stretch knit or fleece with a printed design that charges under light. The listings say to "charge it under a light, then turn the lights off," and one suggests letting the clothes absorb natural light before wearing them in the dark. They give no separate washing instruction for the print, so wash for the base fabric. Our own cautions, which are judgment rather than tested fact: turn the piece inside out so the print faces in, keep the dryer low, and never put an iron on the printed area.

Children's sleepwear labels

Many of the children's and baby pieces in our family sets are described as flame resistant, made with a flame-resistant fiber blend. In the US, the CPSC requires children's sleepwear to carry a permanent label with precautionary instructions that protect the item from agents or treatments known to degrade its flame resistance. That label is the one to follow for a child's piece, even if the adult piece in the same print is treated differently.

How to Get Hot Cocoa, Cookie and Candle Wax Stains Out of Christmas Pajamas

Holiday stains are mostly combinations: hot cocoa is milk protein, cocoa fat and pigment at once; frosting is fat, sugar and food dye. That is why one treatment rarely clears them. The Texas A&M extension guide lists chocolate under both oily stains and protein stains for exactly this reason.

Four rules apply to all of them:

1. Act before it dries. Iowa State University's AnswerLine notes that fresh stains are much easier to remove than those over 24 hours old.
2. Blot, and work from the back. Push the stain out the way it came in, not further through the fabric.
3. Test any pretreatment on a hidden spot first. A hem or the inside of a waistband will do. Fabrics look darker wet, so let the test patch dry before you judge it.
4. Never machine dry a stained piece. Texas A&M warns that a stain put through the dryer may become impossible to remove, and New Mexico State says not to press or machine dry a stained fabric. Air dry, check in daylight, and treat again if needed.

One adjustment for our sets: the extension guides often end with "wash in the warmest water safe for the fabric," and for every set in this guide the care line says cold. Cold is the warmest temperature these labels allow, so the pretreatment step has to do more of the work. The guides also suggest bleach products for some stains; our listings say no bleach, so we have left bleach out of the steps below.

Stain	What it is	Steps
Hot cocoa	Milk protein, fat, pigment	Soak in cold water, then treat with a prewash stain remover or liquid laundry detergent, then launder. If it remains, soak again for 30 minutes and repeat (Utah State University Extension). Never start with hot water, which sets the milk protein.
Chocolate from cookies or candy	Fat and protein	Scrape off what you can with a dull knife. Work liquid detergent into the stain from the back, rinse, repeat, then wash.
Butter, cookie grease, gravy	Oil	Scrape off excess, gently rub in liquid dish soap and leave it for 10 minutes, then launder (Iowa State AnswerLine). On polyester fleece and satin, oil clings, so expect to repeat.
Frosting, sprinkles, candy cane red	Fat, sugar, food dye	Rinse the sugar out with cool water from the back, pretreat with liquid detergent, rinse, and repeat before washing. Iowa State groups food coloring with dye stains, which may need several rounds.
Sticky candy or gum	Sugar or gum base	Harden it with an ice cube in a bag, crack or scrape it off, then pretreat and wash (Texas A&M; Utah State).
Cranberry sauce, cider, punch	Fruit pigment	Remove excess, run cold water through the back of the stain, treat with detergent and wash promptly (Iowa State; Utah State).
Candle wax	Wax, sometimes dyed	Scrape off surface wax, or put the piece in the freezer first so it cracks off. Where the label allows a low iron, sandwich the spot between paper towels and press with a warm iron to lift the wax, changing towels until no more transfers. Then pretreat and wash (Iowa State).

Two cautions specific to pajamas

Candle wax on fleece and satin. The iron method in the table involves heat on the fabric. Fleece listings in our range say either "low iron" or "do not iron," and polyester pile can glaze under heat. On fleece and on satin we would stop at freezing and scraping, then pretreat and wash, and accept a second round. Keep candles well away from children in loose sleeves in the first place.

The bleached-looking patch. A pretreatment can clean one spot so thoroughly that it looks lighter than the rest of a polyester garment that has picked up soil over time. Texas A&M's fix is to pretreat or presoak the whole garment and rewash with a little extra detergent. It works on matching sets, where a pale patch on one child's top stands out in the family photo.

For the everyday stains of the rest of the year, such as grass, mud and marker, see stain-resistant fabrics for kids. And if you are hosting a pajama night with cocoa and cookies, put the drinks in lidded cups; the game plan is in our Christmas pajama party games.

How to Store Christmas Pajamas Until Next December

Most family pajamas spend eleven months in a box, and the box is where good sets get ruined. FabricLink's guide to seasonal storage puts it plainly: garments should be cleaned before storage, because many foods and beverages leave yellow stains behind as they age. A drop of cocoa you cannot see in January can be a brown mark next November.

The packing-away routine

1. Wash everything once more after the last wear, even pieces that look clean. Use the same cold-wash routine for each fabric.
2. Dry completely. Fleece and bamboo hold moisture at the seams longer than you expect. Leave them on a rack overnight after the dryer.
3. Use a breathable container. FabricLink advises against plastic bags because they block air circulation, let moisture collect and allow mildew. A cotton pillowcase or a fabric storage box works well.
4. Choose the location. The same guide warns against the heat of an attic, the damp of a basement and the fumes of a garage, and against light, which can fade some dyes. A closet shelf indoors is best.
5. Fold satin loosely and fleece flat. Do not compress fleece under heavy boxes; crushed pile takes a long time to recover.
6. Keep sets together. Put each person's top, pants and socks in one bundle, plus the pet bandana if you have one, so next year starts with complete sets.

Label the box for next year

Write each person's name and the size on a slip of paper inside the bundle. Next November, the children's sizes will be the first question. A snug-fit piece that fit a 6-year-old this year will probably be too small for a 7-year-old, and snug-fit pieces should not be worn loose or tight beyond their size. Anything outgrown can be handed down, and the adults' sets usually go another season.

If you are choosing next year's fabric while you pack, the trade-offs between fleece, bamboo and cotton for different climates are in our fabric-by-climate guide.

Why a Second Set of Christmas Pajamas Is Worth It

A second set sounds like an extra purchase. In practice it solves three problems that come with Christmas Eve:

• The stain-and-dry timing. Hot cocoa goes over at 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve. The stain needs pretreatment and a cold wash, and then the set needs to air dry, because a stained piece should not go in the dryer. That leaves nothing dry for the morning photos unless there is a second set.
• Travel. If you are spending Christmas with family, one set can be worn on the road or the first night and the other kept clean in the bag for Christmas morning.
• Toilet-training accidents and spilled milk. Families with toddlers already know this one.

The second set does not have to be the same print. Two approaches work. If the first set is fleece, choose a lighter stretch knit as the second so you have one set for a cold night and one for a warm house. If the family photo depends on everyone matching, buy the second set in the same print for the youngest children only, since they are the most likely to spill.

Order both at once. There is no direct exchange and children's sizes sell out first, so a second order placed in mid-December may not find the size. When you shop family pajamas christmas listings for a house with toddlers, this matters more than the print choice.

Shop the look

A family in fleece for Christmas Eve switches to a stretch-knit second set for the morning photos: parents in the adult sizes, children in the kids' sizes, a baby in the baby size, all from one listing, choose each member and size.

The navy reindeer set has a short-sleeve top with full-length pants, which suits a warm house. The Fair Isle set has long sleeves and reads as winter rather than strictly Christmas, so it gets worn into January. Both include women's, men's, kids' and baby sizes plus a pet size.

If you are still deciding on the first set, the full range of xmas pjs can be filtered by size, which is the quickest way to see which prints still cover everyone.

Frequently asked questions

Should I wash new Christmas pajamas before wearing them? Yes, but only after everyone has tried them on with the tags attached. Washed items cannot be returned under our policy, and the only route to a different size is to return and repurchase.

Can I put fleece Christmas pajamas in the dryer? Yes, on low. The fleece listings say tumble dry low and no dryer sheets. Take the pieces out promptly and never use high heat.

How do I get hot chocolate out of pajamas? Soak in cold water, treat with a prewash stain remover or liquid detergent, then wash; repeat with a 30-minute soak if needed. Do not use hot water first and do not machine dry until the stain is gone.

Can I use fabric softener on Christmas pajamas? No. The satin listings say no fabric softener, the fleece, cotton and bamboo listings say no dryer sheets, and children's flame-resistant pieces should not be coated.

How do I get candle wax off fleece pajamas? Freeze the piece, crack and scrape off the wax, then pretreat and wash in cold water. We would avoid the hot-iron method on fleece because heat can flatten or glaze the pile.

Will bamboo Christmas pajamas shrink? We cannot promise any fabric will not shrink. Cold water, a gentle cycle and a low or flat dry are what the listings and our guidance point to.

How should I store Christmas pajamas until next year? Wash, dry completely, and store in a breathable bag or box indoors, away from heat, damp and light. Avoid plastic bags.

Children's sizes in the most popular prints sell out one at a time through December, so if a second set is part of the plan, order it with the first.

About this article

Written and fact-checked by the PatPat Editorial Team. How we research, source and review what we publish is set out on our editorial standards page.

Method. Fabric compositions and care instructions were read from PatPat product pages in November 2026. Where a product page's fabric notes and its description disagree, we say so in the text and recommend following the sewn-in care label. PatPat is the seller of these pajamas, and we did not wash-test or wear-test any garment. Stain steps come from the university extension guides listed below, adjusted to the cold-wash, no-bleach care lines on our listings; advice marked as our judgment, such as not ironing fleece or glow prints, is editorial opinion.

Sources. Holiday stains: Iowa State University Extension AnswerLine, Common Holiday Stain Removal Guide and Holiday Stains. Hot chocolate and candy: Utah State University Extension, Tricks for Removing Halloween Treat Stains. Stain types and pretreatment: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Quick Stain Removal Guide; New Mexico State University, Removing Clothing Stains. Sleepwear labels: CPSC, Children's Sleepwear. Storage: FabricLink, Storing Seasonal Garments. Returns: PatPat refund policy.

Last updated 9 November 2026 · Next review November 2027