Raleigh’s Holderness family celebrates 10 years of viral ‘Xmas Jammies’ in new video

It’s been 10 years since Raleigh’s Holderness family released their viral “#XMAS Jammies” video and launched a new career for themselves making music and videos on social media. And now, the family has updated the holiday tune with a look back on their journey since 2013.

“Xmas Jammies: Ten Years Later,” released on the family’s social media accounts Tuesday, features the same song — and jammies — as the original video from 2013. But this time, the tune features new lyrics recounting the family’s lives since then.

“Almost old enough to join AARP, but I’m rapping and singing with my family,” husband and dad Penn Holderness sings.

“And to be completely honest, had I realized we were going to be wearing these in 10 years, I would have sized up a little bit,” wife and mom Kim Holderness adds in the next lyric, referring to her Christmas pajamas from the original video.

The couple’s two kids also appear in the video, with lyrics highlighting “how much they’ve changed” and some things that “have stayed exactly the same,” though their 2013 pajamas are now much too small to wear.

The family’s original “Jammies” video was born when Penn decided in 2013 to send a “Christmas video greeting” instead of mailing out traditional family Christmas cards.

The duo thought that only their family and friends would watch it, but the video went viral — with more than 18.7 million views on YouTube to-date. The video was even spoofed in a 2014 episode of “Saturday Night Live,” in a sketch called “Christmas Sweatpants,” which gets a nod and cameo in the new, 10-year anniversary video.

Eventually, the video launched a new career for the duo. They now chronicle “their marriage and their family with funny music videos, vlogs, skits” on their popular social media accounts, which have more than 4.5 million followers across all platforms.

“It’s a concept my parents never grasped: How this is a job just doing this crap,” Penn sings in the new video.

Not everything has been a success for the family over the past 10 years, with the family’s reality show that aired on UPTV in 2015 being canceled after four episodes, Penn sings. But the husband-and-wife duo went on to win “The Amazing Race” — and $1 million — in 2022, which “was pretty cool,” he adds in the next lyric.

After the song concludes, daughter Lola reflects on the impact the original “Jammies” video has had on the family, noting that it allowed Penn to forge a new path out of the journalism industry. He worked as a TV news reporter and anchor, including anchoring the evening news for WNCN/CBS 17 in Raleigh, for more than 15 years before pursuing the family’s new venture in 2013.

“I’m very grateful for what ‘Christmas Jammies’ has brought,” she said, adding that the success of the original 2013 video allowed Penn to “be at home and spend more time us.”

The family then brings it in for a group hug before Penn and Kim address the audience once more, expressing their gratitude “for watching all these years.”