How to Put It Together

Stack sheets, ultra-soft throws, and your nicest towels to make visitors feel at home.

Help lull guests to sleep with lavender-scented candles and eye masks.

Incorporate bedside extras, such as an alarm clock and a water carafe.

Ensure that folks have visions of sugarplums come nighttime by providing vintage holiday stories, such as “A Christmas Carol,” by Charles Dickens, and “A Christmas Memory,” by Truman Capote.

Don’t forget items for the bathroom: luxurious hand cream, moisturizer, and guest soaps and decorative hand towels.

Bonus Party-Prep Idea

Parting can be such sweet sorrow. (Unless Uncle Eddie has overstayed his welcome—again.) As guests walk out the door, give each one a small keepsake, like a personalized matchbox or a scented travel candle.
Or send them off with a miniature version of something you served the night before (one cookie wrapped in a pretty plastic bag, say, or a tiny jar of fruit preserves or chutney).

Shown, top shelf:
1. Restoration Hardware Microfiber Spa robe in flax, $119, www.restorationhardware.com.
2. Chesapeake Bay Candle travel tins, $10 for five, www.target.com for locations.
3. No-Iron Supima cotton sheet set in Persian Blue Vines and Leaf Toile cotton sheet set in Rich Red Print, $50 to $110 a set, www.landsend.com.
4. Nancy Koltes at Home glass bedside carafe, $58, www.nancykoltesathome.com for locations.
5. Tea Forté silken tea infusers, $5 for a tin of two, www.teaforte.com.
6. Perry Street clock by Kate Spade, $40, www.katespade.com.

Shown, bottom shelf:
7. Holiday books, various prices, www.alibris.com.
8. Fireworks frankincense-scented candle, $19, Global Views Boutique, 949-722-1164.
9. L’Occitane Almond Apple Velvet Concentrate moisturizer, $42 for two ounces, www.loccitane.com.
10. Cotton & Clover tall perfumed soy-blend luminary by Lollia Life, $56, www.lollialife.com.
11. Banho and Condessa mini guest soaps by Claus Porto, $19 each, www.lafcony.com.
12. Eileen Fisher by Garnet Hill textured cashmere throw, $428, and alpaca blanket in bay leaf, $398 for double/queen: www.garnethill.com.
13. Lauren Home wool throw in Skating Party plaid, $200, www.ralphlauren.com.
14. Personalized matchboxes, $41 for 50, www.partyinnovations.com.
15. CB2 Marta glass, $2, www.cb2.com.
16. L’Occitane shea-butter mini hand cream, $10 for one ounce, www.loccitane.com.
17. Wonderland silk sleep mask by Cris Notti, $20, www.crisnotti.com.
18. Scallop Dot Tip linen hand towel by Haute Home, $30, www.hautehome.net for stores.
19. DK Essentials City Stripe towels in wasabi and ocean, $35 each, Bloomingdale’s, 800-555-7467 for locations.