In December most of the hours spent in a bedroom are dark ones. You go to bed by lamplight and, in much of the US and Britain, get up before the sun, so whatever Christmas the room has is seen in the half hour before sleep and the first minutes of the morning, and mostly from the pillow.
That changes what is worth putting there. Something across the room from the bed, along its headboard, or at its foot is in view at both ends of the day, and anything that lights up on its own, a small tree on a timer or a paper star in the window, shows when nothing else in the room can be seen. It also rules a few things out. Nothing in a bedroom should need watching once the lamp goes off, and anything hung above a sleeping head has to be light and well fixed.
A Garland Along the Headboard
A garland laid along the top of the headboard frames the bed the way a garland on a mantel frames a fireplace, and it is the first thing the eye follows from the doorway. On a wooden headboard it can rest on the top edge and be tied at each end with ribbon around a post or leg, with no hooks or tape. On an upholstered one, a ribbon run behind the headboard and tied at both ends holds it in place.
Fresh cedar and fir dry out quickly in a heated bedroom and drop needles onto the pillows, so a good faux garland suits this spot, and fresh greens can go on a dresser where the needles are easy to sweep up. Thread battery lights through it instead of a string with a plug, so no cord runs down behind the bed, and switch them off at night.
Tartan Wool Across the Foot of the Bed
One red-and-green tartan blanket folded across the foot of the bed is enough to make it look like December, with everything else on the bed left as it is. The crossing stripes carry both Christmas colors without a printed motif, so tartan sits easily with white linen, plain oak, or painted iron, and it comes off in January without anything else needing to change.
Wool makes it useful as well as seasonal, one more layer to pull up on the coldest nights. A tartan with a dark ground, deep green or navy crossed with a red line, sits more quietly in a pale room than one on a bright red ground.
A Small Tree You Can See From the Bed
A tabletop tree two to three feet tall, on a dresser or chest of drawers across from the bed, puts the season in view from the pillow, which a full tree in the living room can’t do. A small potted spruce or fir, or a tabletop artificial tree, needs only a short string of warm white lights and a few ornaments.
Put the lights on a plug-in timer, or use a battery string with one built in, set to come on before you wake and go off after you fall asleep. On a dark December morning, the tree is lit before anyone has reached for a switch.
Stockings on the Footboard
In many British homes the stocking has hung at the foot of the bed rather than by the fireplace. It goes up on Christmas Eve, and children wake to find it filled and open it in bed before anyone goes downstairs. A footboard, or a bench at the end of the bed, gives a stocking a place to hang in a house with no mantel at all.
Tie it to the footboard rail or post with ribbon instead of screwing a hook into the frame, and keep it short enough to clear the floor. On a bed without a footboard, the stocking can lie across the blanket at the foot.
A Wreath on the Inside of the Door
A front-door wreath faces the street. One on the inside of the bedroom door faces the bed, and it is what you see when you look up from a book at night. Interior doors are narrower than most front doors, often 30 or 32 inches wide, so a wreath of around 20 inches across suits them better than a front-door size.
Over-the-door hangers are the usual way to hang one, but the metal hook sits in the gap at the top of the door and can stop a closely fitted door from shutting. A small adhesive hook on the face of the door, with the wreath hung from a ribbon, avoids that. A wreath of dried eucalyptus or faux cedar is light enough for one.
A Paper Star in the Window
In Sweden and across much of northern Europe, a paper star lantern with a bulb inside hangs in the window through Advent, switched on as the afternoon gets dark. In a bedroom window it shows from the street after dusk, and from the bed it is a soft point of light once the lamps are off.
Hang it on a cord from a hook in the top of the window frame, with an LED bulb, which stays cool against the paper. A plug-in timer turns it on at dusk and off at bedtime. Most paper stars fold flat, so it goes back in an envelope with the ornaments in January.
An Amaryllis on the Nightstand
An amaryllis in flower, with two or three trumpet blooms on a tall stem, brings a deep red into the room that lasts for weeks. On a nightstand it sits at about the height of the pillow. Most amaryllis have little or no scent, which suits a small closed bedroom better than paperwhites, whose smell many people find too strong at close range.
Buy one already in bud in early December, since a dry bulb takes six to eight weeks to flower. A cool room keeps the flowers open longer, and turning the pot every few days stops the stem leaning toward the window. Amaryllis is toxic to cats and dogs, so in a house with pets it belongs where they can’t reach it, or a faux stem takes its place.
Candlelight Without a Flame
Candles are the hardest Christmas habit to bring into a bedroom. More home candle fires start in bedrooms than in any other room, and a bedroom is where someone is most likely to fall asleep with one still burning. Battery pillar candles in real wax, with a warm LED inside, give the same low glow on a dresser or a windowsill and can stay on all evening without anyone keeping an eye on them.
Three of different heights on one tray sit together as a single group. Many come with a timer that switches them on at the same hour each evening and off again a few hours later. If a real candle is lit in a bedroom, it needs a foot of clear space around it, and it goes out before the lamp does.
Glass Ornaments in the Window
Glass baubles hung on thin ribbons across a window catch the daylight in a way they can’t when they are tucked into a tree’s branches. Clear, gold, and pale silver glass look lightest against a winter sky, and a handful at different lengths is enough for one window.
Tie them at staggered heights so they don’t line up in a row. If the curtains close at night, hang the ribbons from a slim tension rod inside the window frame, or from small cup hooks in its top, so the curtain rings can still slide along their own rod. In a child’s room, or where a cat can reach the sill, shatterproof baubles are the safer choice.
A Winter Picture Above the Bed
Taking down the picture above the bed for December and hanging a winter one in its place changes the room without adding anything to it. A snowy landscape, a still life with oranges and greenery, or a large print of an old Christmas card gives the season a place on the wall with nothing extra on a surface.
Over a bed, the frame should be light and hung from two hooks or a picture cleat, so it can’t swing loose or fall onto a sleeper. If the usual piece is heavy and hard to move, a smaller winter print hung in its place for the month is easier to put up and take down.
An Advent Calendar in a Child’s Room
For a child, December is counted in mornings, and an advent calendar on the bedroom wall gives them one thing to open each day before breakfast. A fabric or wooden one with 24 pockets or small drawers can be filled ahead with a note, a sticker, or a small chocolate.
Hang it low enough for the child to reach without climbing, around the height of their shoulder, and away from the bed if it holds chocolate. One that can be refilled goes back in its box with the ornaments in January and comes out again the next year, part of the room as much as the tree is part of the living room.
