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Matalan is the value answer for a whole family at once, and that is a more specific achievement than it sounds. Dressing four or five people in festive knitwear for one evening gets expensive very quickly, and this is one of the few places where the sums work out.
The range is built around exactly that: adults, children, babies and often the dog in the same print, at prices that make a full matching set a reasonable idea rather than an extravagance. Pyjamas sit alongside the jumpers, which is where a lot of the real value is – a matching family pyjama set gets worn across the whole fortnight rather than once to a party.
Expect the fabrics to match the price, which is to say acrylic and polyester knits designed for a season. That is a perfectly sensible thing to buy for a child who will outgrow it by next Christmas, and nobody looking at the photograph will know the difference. The familiar supermarket-and-value-retailer pattern applies: stock arrives early, sells through in size order, and is not replenished, so shop in November rather than December if the whole family is involved.
