Kids

Whoville-style decor takes its cue from storybook Christmas: curvy, crooked shapes, candy colors, everything a bit too big or a bit off-balance. It’s popular every year around the holidays, especially with families with kids, and it’s an extreme version of the whimsical trend. It’s not a look for a minimalist. It’s for people who want their apartment to feel like a cartoon in December. Curves and lean The defining feature is shape. Nothing is straight. ...

Decorating cookies is more fun than baking them, and it’s much more fun if the baking’s already done. The secret to a decorating afternoon that doesn’t end in frustration is doing nearly everything ahead of time, so the table is just cookies, icing and sprinkles. The day before Bake the cookies. A basic sugar cookie dough, rolled about a quarter inch thick and cut with simple shapes (on Amazon): trees, stars, stockings, round ornaments. Big simple shapes are easier for kids to decorate than fiddly ones. Let them cool completely on racks (on Amazon) and store them flat in a container overnight. ...

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. ...

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. ...