The bathroom is the last room anyone decorates for the holidays, and in a small apartment it is easy to skip entirely. Mine is barely big enough to turn around in, so for years I did skip it. Then one December I swapped the hand towels for a Christmas pair on my way to do the rest of the place, and the whole room changed. It took about four minutes.
Since then, my rule for christmas bathroom decor is a few small, deliberate touches instead of a theme. Here are the five that earn their counter space.
Hand towels that do the decorating for you
In a small bathroom the towels are always visible, so they might as well carry the season. I hang a pair of SKL Home’s fir hand towels on the ring by the sink and that corner is done. The set comes with two 16 x 25 inch towels in a soft wheat cotton, with a pinecone jacquard weave and an embroidered fir tree with tiny red cardinals on each one. They read as winter, not novelty, which matters in a room you use every day.
They are 100% cotton and OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 certified, and at $20.99 for the pair they also make an easy host gift if yours never make it onto the ring.
SKL Home Christmas/Winter Seasonal Fir Hand Towel Set-2pc, Wheat | 100% Cotton. Soft & absorbent pinecone jacquard with embroidery. Great for the bathroom,…
A hand wash that smells like the tree lot
Scent is half of christmas bathroom decor and nobody talks about it. The Thymes Frasier Fir hand wash sits by my faucet from the week before Thanksgiving until January. The 15 fl oz green glass bottle with the bronze pump looks at home on the counter, and every hand wash smells like walking past the tree lot.
If your bathroom has no room for anything else on this list, do this one. It replaces something you already keep by the sink, so it takes zero extra space.
Thymes Hand Wash – 15 Fl Oz – Frasier Fir
One candle, lit while you get ready
A candle in the bathroom sounds like a spa cliche until it is a dark December morning and you are getting ready by candlelight. Mine is the LA JOLIE MUSE pomegranate pine candle, a natural soy candle in a ribbed green glass jar with its own lid, so it looks like decor even when it is not lit. The scent is balsam and cedarwood with pomegranate, closer to a winter forest than to potpourri.
At 7 oz it is small enough for the corner of a vanity or a shelf. I keep it on a little wooden tray with a pinecone next to it and that is the whole vignette.
LA JOLIE MUSE Pomegranate Pine Scented Candles For Home, Natural Soy 7 oz | Luxury Green Festive Jar Candle, Clean Non Toxic, Christmas Winter Holiday…
A mini wreath on the mirror
This is my favorite trick because it uses vertical space, which is all a small bathroom really has. A 12 inch mini wreath hung on the mirror changes the room the way a wreath on the front door changes a porch. I use one from a set of four ENVEN mini cabinet wreaths, greenery with red berries, tiny pinecones and a red velvet bow, hanging from a red ribbon over the mirror frame.
The set of four is $20.99, so the other three ended up on my kitchen cabinet doors, right above the hot cocoa bar I set up this year. If your mirror is frameless or you are renting, follow the package instructions for hanging, and the same trick works on a cabinet door or the back of the bathroom door.
ENVEN 4Pcs 12" Mini Christmas Wreath Mini Cabinet Wreaths for Kitchen Christmas Red Bow Eucalyptus with Red Berry Farmhouse Wreath for Holiday Xmas Party…
The shower curtain is the biggest canvas you have
In a small bathroom the shower curtain takes up more visual space than any wall. Swapping it is the single biggest change on this list, and it is the one guests actually comment on. Mine this year is the VHC Brands Millsboro curtain, a 72 x 72 inch fabric curtain in a rustic patchwork of deep red plaid, tan and navy. It has a 3 inch rod pocket plus buttonholes, and it hangs like a quilt.
It is $59.95, the priciest thing here, and the hooks are not included, so use the ones you already have. Machine stitched and fabric, it feels like a real textile rather than a printed plastic sheet, and in January it folds away into one drawer.
VHC Brands Millsboro, Rustic, Bath Decor, Shower Curtain, Red, 72×72
Where to start
You do not need all five. Pick the two that replace something already in the room, like the towels and the hand wash, and add from there. And if the holiday bug spreads past the bathroom, I have ideas for hanging stockings without a fireplace, fitting a Christmas tree in a small apartment, and even where to hide the gifts once all of this is up.
