Christmas Bathroom Decor Ideas: 14 Small Touches That Survive Steam

Drape a faux garland along the top of the mirror frame and let the ends fall a third of the way down each side. A few sprigs of red berries and a short strand of battery micro lights are enough. On a framed mirror the garland rests on the frame and needs only two removable hooks behind the top corners. On the counter below, a small tree in a wrapped pot and a group of LED candles repeat the green and the glow.

A plain white bathroom suits a lighter garland: eucalyptus or bay-style leaves with a strand of warm lights, draped unevenly over the top of a frameless mirror. Add a glass vase of eucalyptus and red berries and three pillar candles on a small dish. A red berry wreath on the wall beside the mirror is the only color.

For the most festive version, run a thick garland around three sides of the mirror and wire in red baubles. Use shatterproof ones: a bauble that drops into a ceramic basin will break if it is glass. Keep the garland a hand's width above the tap so it stays dry, and fix it with removable hooks on the tiles, which hold better on glazed tile than on paint.

A round mirror can sit inside a ring of garland, like a wreath with a mirror in the middle, with a plaid bow at the top. With a plaid hand towel on the vanity, a small tree on the windowsill and a red patterned mat, the whole bathroom is done. This is the idea for a larger bathroom where the vanity wall is the first thing you see.

Stand a shallow wooden box or tray on the tank and fill it: three bottle-brush trees of different heights at the back, two pillar candles and the soap or lotion pump in front, a few gold baubles in the gaps. The box keeps everything together when the lid has to come off for a repair. Hang a plain wreath with red berries on the wall above, or around the mirror if it is on that wall.

Add a strand of warm lights down the wall beside the toilet, a lit wreath above and a lantern on the floor, and the corner glows. It suits a powder room used in the evening during a party. Battery strands only, and LED candles in the box if the room will be left unattended.

The cheapest idea on the list. Tie a wide green or red ribbon around the spare toilet roll and tuck a sprig of faux greenery and berries into the tube. It takes one minute, costs a length of ribbon, and guests notice it. When the roll is needed, the ribbon moves to the next one.

Towels are the largest block of color in a bathroom, so changing them does the most for the least. Red plaid on the ring and the rail, with a small tree and a candle on the tank and a green mat, is a whole scheme. Buy towels you would be happy to use: decorative ones that nobody may touch are a nuisance in a working bathroom.

Hang a plain red towel on the ring and a smaller cream one with an embroidered tree over it. The layered pair looks considered, and only the small one is seasonal, so the cost is low. A stone-colored soap pump and one votive on the counter are all the vanity needs beside it.

A mat in deep green or red, or a plain shower curtain in one of those colors, changes the room more than any ornament, and both go in the wash. If the towels are patterned, keep the mat plain.

On a single shelf beside the mirror: a small potted tree with a star, a candle in amber glass and a stack of two green hand towels tied with twine and a pine cone. Three things, three heights. If the bathroom has no shelf, the same group fits on a windowsill.

A bathroom with a free corner can take a tabletop tree in a basket or wrapped pot, raised on a wooden stool so it clears the skirting and the mop. Baskets of rolled towels beside it make the corner look planned. A garland with candles on a shelf above the basin ties the two sides of the room together.

On a vanity with counter space, one tray holds a vase of pine and berries with micro lights, a candle and a small brass tree, as in the photo at the top of the page. At the other end, a glass jar of baubles. Keep the tray on the side away from the tap, and wipe under it now and then.

A hand soap in a seasonal scent, such as pine, orange or cinnamon, in a plain pump, with a matching hand cream beside it. It is the detail guests use, and it takes no space that was not already taken.