How do I test drive UI changes?

I’m not familiar with Discourse admin and I’m learning on the job. There are things that I’d like to do, such as create christmas banners. How can I do this in a non-intrusive way?

I don’t want all the users to see the mistaken attempts that I make as I iterate through the code. I’d like some way to be able to experiment privately until I’m satisfied and then push the code live.

Here are some resources which might help you navigate the process.

Beginner's guide to using Discourse Themes
Get started with Theme Creator and the Theme CLI
Installing a theme or theme component

In addition to what Hawk shared, you have the theme preview which is detailed in the first post Hawk shared:

Thanks for the feedback and links. I’m glad that there are some safe sandboxes for me to play in.