Creative Christmas Holiday Mantels

Fireplace mantels are usually the focal centerpieces in your home's coziest rooms. Why not create a simple, beautiful holiday mantel arrangement for your guests and family to enjoy this year? Here are some ideas for a memorable Christmas holiday fireside setting you can create.

Christmas Holiday Mantels: Greeting Cards

Over the years we receive so many beautiful Christmas holidays cards in the mail- and often they are too pretty to throw away. If you have a collection of meaningful cards you have received from family members or friends over the years, consider showcasing them on your Christmas fireplace mantel this year. Adding fresh evergreens among the cards, and simple candlesticks at either end of the row of cards creates an easy, inexpensive bit of holiday memorabilia that will serve as a conversation piece over the holiday season. If you begin now, you can collect Christmas cards each year to add to your mantel grouping. Or, you can collect vintage holiday cards for an especially creative Christmas mantel arrangement.

Scented Holiday Mantels: Candles

Although it is tempting to create elaborate holiday mantels, simple candlelight is often the most beautiful way to decorate for Christmas. Also, if you choose fragrant votive or pillar candles, your house will smell lovely for your guests. Choose 7-9 votives or pillars in the same color and fragrance, and line them up along your mantel either on top of a long rectangular mirror or in individual matching glass holders (available at any dollar store or craft store). You can add traditional tall taper candles in a matching color at either end of the candle arrangement. One pretty arrangement would be cream-colored candles with different-sized pinecones in between. Simple, yet gorgeous.

Scenic Christmas: Holiday Photos

This is a wonderful, sentimental idea for decorating a holiday mantel that your guests will truly enjoy. Go through old family Christmas photos from over the years. Collect 7-11 favorite holiday photos depending on the size of your mantel. Copy them if desired- you could even make them into all black and white so they match (or even all the same size if you'd like). Go to a dollar store, craft store, or photo supply store and purchase various sized frames to match your pictures in the same color (all silver looks pretty, especially with all black-and-white photos). Add a silver glittery mantel scarf by purchasing inexpensive fabric at the craft store, and line up your holiday photo collection along your mantel.