When you see a coworker in pajamas, it might be time to check the employee handbook.
Unless you’re at Portland, Oregon-based Hanna Andersson.
“In December, we definitely go all in and [at] our holiday parties, you’re required to wear your pajamas to the office,” Kara Carter, chief product officer of the clothing brand, told Retail Brew. “We take a big picture every year; we’re all in our pajamas.”
Pajamas are business attire at the company because it’s in the pajamas-making business. In 1993, Hanna Andersson, which began 10 years earlier as a children’s clothing brand, introduced matching family pajamas in its catalog.
The company was not the first to sell family pajamas, which fashion historian Debbie Sessions dates back to the 1950s, although matching PJs for mom and the kids (sans dad) had appeared years before. But many consider Hanna Andersson to be the company that popularized them, with CNN calling it the “OG brand to launch matching pajamas for the entire family.”
Now family pajamas are woven—with some weaves better than others—into the retail landscape, with heavyweights including Amazon, Walmart, ShopDisney, Target, Kohl’s, and Macy’s all doing a brisk business in the sleepwear.
Let’s slip into something a little more comfortable, because here are some milestones that mark how family PJs became a sleeper hit:
1950s
Matching family pajamas first appear in department store advertising, but the trend won’t catch on for decades.
1993
Hanna Andersson introduces family pajamas with four designs.
1997
Hanna Andersson adds holiday patterns—green and white stripes, as well as red and white stripes—which are still offered today.
2005
Welcome, quadrupeds. Hanna Andersson adds Pet Johns to its offering.
2009
Sleepyheads.com introduces a line of family pajamas.
2011
The Company Store, as part of a cause-marketing effort, declares November 19 as National Family Pajama Night. The tradition seems to have waned, but—see 2019 below—we still have a national matching PJ-related holiday.
2012
Hanna Andersson scores its first licensing deal with Star Wars. (“I am your…father’s pajamas?”)
2013
“Merry Christmas from the Holderness Family!”—a music video where family vloggers the Holdernesses sing their holiday letter (to the tune of Will Smith’s “Miami”) while dressed in (what else?) matching pajamas, garners more than 18.7 million views on YouTube. Sings daughter Lola, “My jammies fit me just right. But my daddy’s are a little tight.”
2014
Hanna Andersson
Hanna Andersson introduces Dear Deer, the most popular and, allegedly, most imitated of the brand’s prints. “Dear Deer is knocked off every single year and we fiercely go after that,” said Carter, evoking a setup for the best Hallmark Christmas movie ever.
2016
Old Navy
Old Navy enters the fray with Jingle Jammies, launching with a buffalo check print and dog print.
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Oprah includes Burt’s Bees family pajamas on her Oprah’s Favorite Things list—and wears them on the cover.
2017
The Company Store tells the Washington Post that sales of family pajamas have been growing by double digits for five consecutive years. “In the retail world, it’s what we call a home run,” the retailer’s then-president and general merchandise manager Justin Solfield, tells the Post.
2019
Taylor Swift and her co-stars in her “Lover” music video wear Hanna Andersson’s Dear Deer pajamas. The video is viewed 264 million times.
FOCO launches a line of NFL-licensed family pajamas.
First National Family PJ Day is celebrated on November 14.
2020
Kylie Jenner posts a photo in which she and daughter Stormi wear matching Hanna Andersson Grinch pajamas to Instagram, where it receives more than 9.3 million likes.
Old Navy reports that between Halloween and New Year’s Eve, it sells almost 20 million pairs of Jingle Jammies.
2021
WWD headline: “EXCLUSIVE: Reese Witherspoon’s Draper James x Lands’ End get in bed together.” The collaboration includes a line of family pajamas.
Launch of PJs for the Culture, a line of family pajamas with what it calls “representation for minority families” including Kwanzaa PJs.
2022
Olive Garden
Olive Garden introduces matching family pajamas, a multicourse pattern that includes salad, breadsticks, spaghetti and meatballs, and Andes mints.
Build-A-Bear wades in. “Build-A-Bear’s expansion into the sleepwear category is a natural next step for the brand, as teddy bears and pajamas are a recognizable part of bedtime routines for many,” explains a press release. (Following that logic, watch for the brand to expand into pimple patches and night guards.)
2023
The Children's Place
The Children’s Place promotes its family pajamas line with a campaign featuring celebrities and their families, including Snoop Dogg with his wife, children, and grandchildren; and Mariah Carey with her twins.
With so many consumers already featuring matching PJ photos in their holiday cards, Hanna Andersson forms a promotional partnership with Artifact Uprising, the printed card and gift company, which incorporated some of the pajama patterns into card design templates.
Olympian and The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Sanya Richards-Ross introduces her brand of matching family pajamas, Coordinates.