Order everyone's true size, not a size up, and place the whole order together in October.
That covers most of it. The rest of this guide is the reasoning, because two parts of it surprise people every year: children's sleepwear in the United States follows a safety rule that adult sleepwear does not, and a matching set runs out one size at a time rather than all at once.
The short answer
Choose the print from whoever is hardest to fit, order the children true to size and the adults however they like, and have everything in hand three weeks before you need it. Almost every Christmas pyjama order that fails, fails because the print was chosen first and one person’s size turned out not to exist in it.
| Decision | Answer |
|---|---|
| Which print? | Whichever ones exist in the narrowest size you need — usually an extended adult size, a newborn size or a pet size |
| What size for the children? | True to size, never up. Snug fit is a compliance condition, not a cut preference |
| What size for the adults? | Whatever they find comfortable. Adult sleepwear is not covered by the same rules |
| When to order? | Early to mid October if a card photo is planned; by the third week of November otherwise |
| One order or several? | One basket, one address. Sizes sell down individually rather than all at once |
| Wash before the day? | Yes, once. Fold creases photograph badly and a wash confirms nothing shrinks |
Pick the print from the sizes, not the sizes from the print
Write down every person you are buying for, including the dog, and the size each one takes. Do that before you look at a single reindeer.
The reason is how a family set is sold. At PatPat every piece is bought individually, so a print does not disappear as a print. The 4T goes, or the 2XL goes, and the print stays on the page looking perfectly available. If the print is chosen first and the sizes checked second, the size that runs short is the one that sends the whole order back to the start.
Doing it the other way takes about the same effort and cannot fail the same way. The matching Christmas pajamas collection has a size finder built into the page that shows only the sets where every size a family needs is in stock right now. Enter the list, and what comes back is already filtered to prints that can dress everyone.
Here is what the range covers, as of September 2026.
| Who | Sizes available |
|---|---|
| Baby | 0-3M through 18-24M |
| Toddler | 2T through 6T |
| Kids | 7Y through 12-13Y |
| Women and men | XS through 3XL, with 4XL on five prints |
| Dogs | Small and large |
Adult sizing reaches 3XL on 60 of the sets in stock, and PatPat's plus-size Christmas pajamas run to 59 styles. About four in five sets include a matching pet size. Two prints carry the widest size runs this season, gingerbread at 16 styles and Christmas tree at 18, which makes either a safe starting point for a household spanning newborn to grandparent.
One more thing worth settling early. Pajamas and holiday outfits are two different purchases that families often confuse. Pajamas are sleep-weight knits with elastic waists, footies and two-piece sets, made for the morning. Christmas outfits are velvet and tulle dresses, plaid rompers, suspender-and-bowtie sets, made for church, family dinners and the tree farm. Plenty of families buy both in the same color story so the whole day photographs as one look.
Adults and children follow different sizing rules
This is the part most guides get wrong, and they get it wrong in the direction that matters.
The standard advice for children's clothing is to buy one size up so it lasts. For sleepwear sold in the United States, that advice is backwards, and the reason is printed on a label at the back of the neck.
The rule, in plain terms
Children's sleepwear in sizes 0 through 14 is regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission under two flammability standards: 16 CFR part 1615 for sizes 0 through 6X, and 16 CFR part 1616 for sizes 7 through 14. CPSC wrote them to protect children from small open flame sources such as matches, lighters, candles and fireplace embers, which describes a December living room fairly precisely.
The category is wider than the word pajamas. CPSC's guidance on children's sleepwear covers nightgowns, pajamas, robes and similar items including loungewear, where the garment is meant to be worn mainly for sleeping or for things around sleeping. Story time and getting ready for bed are both named. A set sold as holiday loungewear is not outside the rule because of the word on the tag.
A garment meets the standard one of two ways.
It passes a flame test. The test measures how far a flame travels up a vertically hung specimen. Fabric that does not pass on its own has to be made to, usually with flame-resistant fibers.
Or it qualifies as a tight-fitting garment. The definition sits at 16 CFR §1615.1(o) and §1616.2(m). The garment has to stay inside maximum measurements set for that size at the chest, waist, seat, upper arm, thigh, wrist and ankle. It also has to carry a specific statement, WEAR SNUG-FITTING, NOT FLAME RESISTANT, on the front of the sizing label at the center back, immediately below the size, in a prescribed font, size, border and color.
There is a separate carve-out for the smallest sizes. Garments meeting the infant garment definition at 16 CFR §1615.1(c), which covers sizes nine months and under, are also excepted from 1615 and 1616 testing. Garments excepted by either route still have to meet the general apparel flammability requirements of 16 CFR part 1610.
Why snug fit is the safer design, not the cheaper one
Parents sometimes read the words NOT FLAME RESISTANT as a warning that something has been skipped. The opposite is closer to the truth.
Close-fitting sleepwear works because there is no loose, billowy fabric sitting away from the skin, so there is less material to catch a spark in the first place. The safety is built into the pattern rather than applied as a chemical finish. PatPat's baby pajamas and sleepers are cut this way deliberately: snug-fitting construction reduces fire risk without harsh chemical flame retardants. Looser sleepwear takes the other route and is made from flame-resistant fabric instead. The label tells you which one you are holding.
Which is exactly why buying the next size up undoes it. The extra room is the thing the design removed.
At Christmas this matters more than the rest of the year, because the two usual reasons to buy a child's pajama large are both seasonal. One is so it still fits next December. The other is so it drapes nicely in the photo.
What to do at checkout
| Who | What to order |
|---|---|
| Baby, nine months and under | True size. Fit still matters for comfort and safe sleep |
| Children in snug-fit styles | True size, never up. The fit is the safety design |
| Children in flame-resistant styles | Follow the brand's chart |
| Adults | Size up if a relaxed fit is what you want |
| Dogs | Follow the pet chart |
PatPat's Christmas sets are pre-shrunk, so a cold wash will not cost you the fit you ordered, and everyone's usual size is the right order. Measurements for women, men, kids, baby and the dog sit on the PatPat size chart in both inches and centimeters, alongside how deeply each size is stocked.
Adults are covered by the general apparel standard, 16 CFR part 1610, rather than by 1615 or 1616. So in the same order, a mother can size up into something loose and comfortable while her four-year-old stays true to the chart, and both choices are correct.
Which fabric suits which house
Family Christmas pajamas get bought in October and worn in December in a house running central heating. Most of the disappointment lives in that gap, and it is avoidable with one decision: pick the fabric for how the bedrooms actually feel at 2am, not for how the photo will look at 8am.
Brushed stretch knit is the default across most of the collection, and it is the low-regret choice. It holds print color and shape through repeat washing, and it is warm enough for a cool room without becoming a problem in a heated one.
Fleece is the warmest fabric PatPat makes. Christmas fleece pajamas are the right call for drafty older houses, cabins, guest rooms, and homes where the heat goes off overnight. Kids' fleece styles are cut to snug fit like the rest of the children's sleepwear range, so the same true-to-size rule applies.
Bamboo viscose is the pick for a child who sleeps hot. It is a smooth knit that moves moisture away from the skin and drapes lightly instead of trapping warmth, and it is thin enough to layer under a sleep sack without bulk. PatPat's bamboo pajamas carry it across baby, toddler and kids sizes, and the baby styles add the details that matter at 4am: two-way zippers that open from the ankle so a diaper change does not mean undressing a sleeping baby, a zipper guard at the chin, fold-over mitten and footie cuffs, and printed tagless labels. Holiday prints appear on the same fabric in the matching Christmas range above.
Cotton is breathable and familiar, and in children's sizes it comes cut snug for the reason above.
Satin photographs with a high sheen and reads as dressy. It shows every crease and has no grip, so it suits adults and older children better than a baby or a new walker on a wooden floor.
Washing
Machine wash cold on a gentle cycle, tumble dry low or hang to dry, and skip bleach and fabric softener.
Two of those are worth the extra sentence. Cold water is what keeps a heavy holiday print from going dull by the third wash. Softener matters because the coating sits on the surface of a brushed knit and flattens the nap that made it soft, and on bamboo and organic cotton it reduces absorbency over time. High dryer heat does the same thing to fleece.
When to order
Early to mid October if there is a holiday card photo. By the third week of November if the pajamas are only for Christmas morning.
Families tend to assume the deadline is December 25 and work back a week. The real deadline is the earliest date the pajamas have to be in hand, and for anyone shooting a card photo that is six to eight weeks earlier. Holiday card sessions happen in October, which is why PatPat's Christmas buying peak runs September through October rather than December.
| Working back from | What should be done |
|---|---|
| Photo day, or the card mailing date | Pajamas in hand, washed once, tried on |
| One week before | Delivered, with room to swap a size |
| Two to three weeks before | Ordered, all pieces in one transaction |
| Four weeks before | Sizes measured and written down, print shortlisted |
Put every piece in the same order. Pieces stay individually stocked, so a late-joining in-law or a new baby can usually be added weeks later, and that flexibility is genuinely useful. It is still better not to need it. Adding one person later means betting on one specific size in one specific print still being there, and the popular prints go deep-size-first.
If a size in the print you wanted has already gone, the substitution that keeps the photo looking intentional is a different silhouette in the same print, a one-piece instead of a two-piece. After that, a second print from the same color story. Give the substitution to an adult rather than a child, since the children are what everyone is looking at in the frame.
There is one swap that is never the answer: moving a child into a larger snug-fit size to make a print work. If the child's size is gone, the print is gone.
Why the sizes run out in that order
The advice to pick the print from the narrowest size is more useful if you know which sizes actually go first, because it tells you who in the family is the constraint before you start looking.
Stock depth is not even across a size range. The middle of the range — women’s S to L, kids 4 to 8 — is made in the largest quantities because that is where most orders sit. The ends are made in smaller quantities and sell down faster relative to how many exist.
| Usually goes first | Why |
|---|---|
| Extended adult sizes | Stocked on fewer prints and in smaller numbers on each one |
| Men’s sizes generally | The thinnest part of most matching ranges, on every print |
| Newborn and 0-3M | Short wear window, small production runs, and heavily gifted |
| Pet sizes | Carried on the smallest share of prints of anything in the set |
| The largest kids sizes | Overlap with adult XS causes them to be bought by two groups |
Read that list against your own family and you have your constraint before opening a single product page. In a household of two adults, a nine-year-old and a baby, the two candidates are the adult who needs an extended size and the baby — and whichever of those has fewer options decides the print for everybody.
The corollary worth acting on: restocks are not reliable in this category. Seasonal prints are produced once for the season rather than replenished, so a size that is gone in November is usually gone rather than coming back. Waiting for a restock is the single worst response to a missing size; choosing a different print while all the sizes still exist is the right one.
A working timeline, counting back from Christmas morning
The ordering advice above becomes easier to act on as dates. Count back from when the clothes have to be in the house, not from the twenty-fifth.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| Late September | Ranges land and every size exists. The only point at which a large set is reliably completable |
| Early to mid October | Order, if a card photograph is planned. Cards are printed and posted well before December |
| Late October | Everything has arrived. Try it on, exchange whatever is wrong while stock still exists |
| Early November | Photograph taken. Wash and put the set away |
| Mid to late November | Last sensible ordering window if no photograph is involved. Expect gaps in extended and infant sizes |
| Early December | Single garments only. A five-person set is very unlikely to be completable |
| Christmas Eve | Set out, washed, creases hung out |
The row that catches people out is the second. A Christmas card photograph has to be taken, printed and posted, which for most families means shooting in early November — and that means the pyjamas have to be in the house in late October, which means ordering while it is still warm outside. Every year, the families who order in December are the ones choosing from whatever print still has all their sizes.
If you are late, the workable fallback is to buy the children in one print and put the adults in plain red, cream or navy. In a photograph nobody notices, and it removes the constraint that causes the problem.
When the set arrives: what to check, and by when
The window to fix a problem is narrower than it looks, because exchanging a size only works while that size still exists.
- Open everything the day it arrives. Not in December. The whole point of ordering early is the time to correct something.
- Try each piece on, with the tags still attached. Retailers accept unworn, unwashed returns and generally not washed ones, so this happens before the wash rather than after.
- Check the children’s pieces against the fit rather than the label. Snug means skimming, not compressing. Marks on the skin mean the size is wrong, not that snug fit is uncomfortable.
- Check the whole set together. Two garments from the same print can read differently in daylight, particularly whites, and that is easier to fix in October than in December.
- Exchange immediately if anything is wrong, because the size you need is on the same stock curve as everyone else’s.
- Then wash everything once, and put it away.
One thing worth knowing about washing before storing rather than after: a set worn on Christmas morning and put away unwashed will have yellowed by the following December, because body oils left in cotton oxidise over a year in storage. The wash happens twice — once before the day to remove creases, and once after the day before it goes in the box.
Grandparents, a second household, and the dog
Most Christmas sets grow beyond the immediate family, and each addition has its own constraint.
Grandparents. Adult sizes, with the same freedom to size up, and the same availability check before the print is agreed. The practical note is that an older adult may want more coverage than the set’s cut offers, and a shared colour rather than a shared print solves that without anyone having to say so.
A second household. Order everything to one address and distribute. Split orders placed on different days are the most common reason a set arrives incomplete, because each order draws down a different size at a different moment.
A baby arriving before Christmas. Order the baby’s piece last, as close to the day as delivery allows. Newborn sizing is guesswork until the baby is here, and the smallest sizes turn over in weeks.
The dog. Pet sizes appear on a smaller share of prints than any human size, so if the dog is in the photograph, the dog frequently decides the print. Pet apparel is not covered by children’s sleepwear standards and should not be left on unsupervised; the measuring detail is in the dog pyjama size guide.
Anyone who does not want to match. A shared colour is enough. A teenager in plain red reads as part of the group in a photograph, and forcing the alternative is how a set ends up worn by four people out of five.
Keeping the set until Christmas morning
A set bought in October has to survive two months in the house without being worn, lost or discovered.
- Wash and hang before storing, so the creases are out and nothing needs doing on the day.
- Store it together, labelled with sizes, in one bag or box. A set stored as five separate garments is a set missing one piece on Christmas Eve.
- Somewhere breathable, and somewhere you will remember. A cotton bag or a box rather than sealed plastic, and not the same place as the presents if the children go looking.
- Put it out on Christmas Eve, which also lets you catch anything that has gone missing while there is still a night to do something about it.
- Check the children’s pieces still fit in mid-December, particularly under about five. Two months is enough for a growth spurt, and finding out on the morning is the wrong time.
That last check is the one nobody does and the one that matters most. A set bought true to size in October for a four-year-old is not guaranteed to fit in December, and knowing in the second week of the month leaves time to replace one garment rather than abandon the set.
Making the photo work
Prints made for a group shot are scaled large on purpose. Large motifs stay readable across five people at photo distance. Small, dense patterns turn to gray at the same distance, and the person they fail hardest on is the baby, who takes up the least of the frame.
A few things that consistently help:
- Give the group one point of contrast. An all-red family in warm indoor light flattens into a single block.
- Shoot on the morning you actually wear them, before the paper is everywhere. Pajamas photograph best lightly creased, not fresh out of the bag.
- Most sets arrive with a pair of matching Christmas socks, which quietly solves the problem of five different pairs of feet in the bottom of the shot.
- Wash once before the photo. The print settles and the fabric softens.
- Separate people by lightness rather than by hue, which is set out in the three-colour method for family photos.
If the pajamas should still earn their place in January, the Fair Isle knits and snowman prints read as winter rather than strictly Christmas. For sets worn all year, the year-round matching family pajamas range carries everyday stripes and neutrals in the same sizing, so the family look survives past the tree coming down.
Frequently asked questions
Should I size up in kids' Christmas pajamas? No, not in snug-fit styles. Ordering a size large removes the close fit the garment was certified on under 16 CFR §1615.1(o), and PatPat's sets are pre-shrunk, so the usual size is the right order — adults are not covered by those rules and can size up freely.
What does “WEAR SNUG-FITTING, NOT FLAME RESISTANT” actually mean? It means the garment complies by fit rather than by flame testing. CPSC requires that wording on the front of the sizing label at the center back, immediately below the size.
Are family Christmas pajamas flame resistant? Children's sizes are either flame resistant or snug fit, and most of the market uses the snug-fit route so that no chemical flame retardants are needed — the label says which. Adult sleepwear is not covered by 16 CFR 1615 or 1616 at all.
When should I order? Early to mid October if a holiday card photo is planned, and by the third week of November otherwise. Matching sets sell down one size at a time rather than all at once.
Do PatPat Christmas pajamas run true to size? Yes. They are cut on the same patterns as the rest of the matching family range and pre-shrunk, so everyone's usual size is the right order rather than a size up.
Do they come in plus sizes? Yes. Adult sizing runs XS through 3XL across 60 of the sets in stock, with 4XL on five prints, and the plus-size Christmas range holds 59 styles — whoever needs the extended size should pick the print first.
Can the dog match too? Yes. About four in five PatPat Christmas sets include a matching pet size in small and large, in the same gingerbread, reindeer and Christmas tree prints as the rest of the family.
Is fleece too warm to sleep in? It depends on the house. Fleece suits drafty rooms, cabins and homes that run cold overnight; for a bedroom at normal indoor temperature, or a child who overheats, a brushed stretch knit or bamboo viscose is more comfortable for a full night.
What is the difference between Christmas pajamas and Christmas outfits? Pajamas are sleep-weight knits worn for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Outfits are dresses, rompers and suspender sets made for leaving the house — church, family dinners and Santa photos.
When do I actually need to order for a Christmas card photo? Early to mid October, so the set is in the house by late October. Cards are shot, printed and posted well before December.
What do I do if I have left it too late? Buy the children in one print and put the adults in plain red, cream or navy. In a photograph nobody notices, and it removes the size constraint entirely.
Should I check the fit again before Christmas? Yes, in mid-December for anyone under about five. Two months is enough for a growth spurt, and the morning is the wrong time to find out.
How should I store the set between ordering and Christmas? Washed, hung, together in one labelled bag somewhere breathable. A set stored as separate garments is a set missing a piece on Christmas Eve.
Can two households order separately and still match? Better not to. Orders placed on different days draw down different sizes at different moments, which is the most common reason a set arrives incomplete.
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.
Size ranges, style counts, fabric options and care instructions are taken from PatPat's own product and collection pages, current as of September 2026. Seasonal availability changes weekly, and this guide is reviewed and updated each year before the holiday season.
US children's sleepwear requirements are cited from the Consumer Product Safety Commission and from the Code of Federal Regulations in the original rather than from secondary summaries.
- CPSC, Children's Sleepwear guidance
- CPSC, Infant and Tight-fitting Garments FAQ
- CPSC, Flammable Fabrics Act business guidance
- 16 CFR part 1615, eCFR
- CPSC fact sheet on 16 CFR 1615 and 1616 (PDF)
This guide explains how US sleepwear rules work and what to look for on a label. Certification details for any individual item are on that item's product page.
Written and fact-checked by the PatPat Editorial Team
Published 15 September 2026 · Last updated 17 September 2026 · Next review September 2027
