Christmas

Anything in a child’s room will be touched, moved and, with toddlers, possibly tasted. So the rules here are simple: nothing glass at any height (kids climb), no real flames, things on the wall hang from damage-free strips, and anything on the dresser sits well back from the edge. Within that, let it be their room. If your four-year-old wants everything red plus dinosaurs, that’s the color scheme. A tree of their own A felt tree. A 3-foot felt tree (on Amazon) with stick-on felt ornaments is probably the best thing you can buy for a kid’s room in December. They’ll rearrange it every day, which is the point. Hang it at their eye level, not yours. It folds into a drawer afterward. ...

Smell does more for a Christmas mood than almost any decoration, and the best Christmas smells are cheap. Most of them come from the kitchen. Three simmer pots Put everything in a saucepan, cover with water and keep it on the lowest heat so it steams without boiling. Check the water every 45 minutes or so and top it up. Turn it off when you go out or go to bed. You can keep the same pot going for two or three days: refrigerate it overnight and add fresh water in the morning. In an apartment, half of each recipe is plenty. ...

By mid-December, wrapping supplies are usually everywhere. A roll of paper under the couch, the tape gone again, scissors somehow in the bathroom. You don’t need a craft room to fix that. You need one place where it all lives, whether that’s a cart, a door, a shelf or a bin, and the habit of putting the tape back. Pick one setup A three-tier rolling cart (on Amazon). About 18 by 12 inches and 30 inches tall. Tools on top (scissors, tape, ribbon on a dowel, pens, tags), tissue and bags in the middle, rolls standing up on the bottom. A tension rod or a piece of PVC pipe across one side turns it into a paper dispenser. It rolls to wherever you’re wrapping and into a closet afterward. ...

Homemade decorations look best when you make a lot of one thing in a limited set of colors. One dried orange slice looks like a craft project; a bowl of twenty looks like something from a catalog. Volume is the trick, and most of these materials are cheap enough to make in bulk. Each idea below costs under $10 in materials, most under $5. Paper 1. Paper bag stars. Nine paper lunch bags, a glue stick and string. Fold each bag in half lengthwise, glue the folded edges together in a stack, cut a point or a curve into the open end, then fan it out and tie it open. It opens into a star about 24 inches across. Use 6 bags for a smaller one, 12 for a big one. About 20 minutes, under $2, and it folds back flat. ...

At a holiday party, the bar cart is where people end up standing. Most carts look the same in December as they do in July, which is a missed chance, because it doesn’t take much to change that. Three things do most of the work: something tall, some warm light, and a limited set of colors. You don’t need a new cart. First, clear it off 1. Empty it completely. Take everything off and wipe it down. Carts collect half-finished bottles of bitters and odd glasses, and decorations on top of clutter just look like more clutter. Put back four to six bottles you’ll actually pour, the glasses you need, and one set of tools. The rest can sit in a cabinet until January. ...

Thrift stores in October and November have a lot of old Christmas decorations, and plenty of the good ones get passed over as dusty boxes. Old pieces have something new decorations can’t quite copy: real wear, real weight, a slightly imperfect hand-painted face. What’s worth looking for Shiny Brite ornaments. American glass ornaments made from the 1940s to the 1960s, with silvered insides, painted designs and cardboard caps stamped “Shiny Brite.” Look for silvering without dark patches inside, original paint and caps that aren’t bent. A box of 12 in good shape for under $15 is a real find. Partial boxes are worth it too; mix them with plain new balls in matching colors, or new vintage-style ones (on Amazon). ...

A tree with every ornament you own on it can be charming. It can also look like you couldn’t decide. Picking a theme mostly just narrows the choices, and it doesn’t mean starting over. For each theme below there are three things that carry the look, and the ornaments you already have can fill in around them. Classic Red and green. The one everyone pictures, and it works in any house. Get: about 24 shatterproof red balls (on Amazon) in mixed finishes, a roll of wired red ribbon (on Amazon) to loop through the branches, warm white lights (on Amazon). ...

Nutcrackers now come in every size from stocking stuffer to taller than a child, and most of the trouble with them comes from buying the wrong size for the spot. Get the height right and place them in pairs or deliberate groups, and even an inexpensive one looks good. Sizes 12 to 15 inches. About the height of a wine bottle. (Slightly smaller 10-inch pairs (on Amazon) work on tables and shelves too.) Fits on bookshelves, side tables, consoles and windowsills. This is the size most people need. Buy them in pairs or threes; one on its own looks like it lost its partner. Three in descending heights (say 15, 12 and 10 inches) makes a nice step pattern. ...

If there’s no mantel and not much floor space, a bookshelf can carry a lot of Christmas on its own. There’s no tree to water and you can change it in an afternoon. The difficulty is that a full bookshelf already looks busy. Add ornaments to every shelf and it just looks crowded. Most of what follows is about making room and being choosy. Make room first Take 20 to 30 percent of the books off each shelf before you add anything. Paperbacks, duplicates, the ones you keep meaning to donate: put them in a box in the closet until January. The gaps are where the decorations go, and the shelves look better with some space even before you start. ...

An advent calendar sits out for almost the whole of December, which is longer than some people keep their tree up. So it’s worth getting one you actually like looking at, rather than a cardboard box that sags by the 10th. Most of the ones below are refillable. You buy them once and they come back every year. Wooden ones 1. A tower of 24 drawers. About the size of a shoebox standing on end, 12 to 16 inches tall, with small numbered drawers. It fits on a mantel, a bookshelf or a console without taking over. If you only get one refillable calendar, this is the safe choice. Check that every drawer slides smoothly before December 1; on cheap versions they stick. ...