My Simple Christmas Mantel Decor

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First off, let’s talk about the spelling of a Christmas Mantel. Who thought it was “mantle?” Who checks before you spell it? I thought I was a fairly good speller, but there are some words like this that I don’t use often enough….. and have to double check myself. So, be assured, if you are talking about a Christmas Mantel, that it is indeed spelled the way I have spelled it!
Secondly, I’m sorry to be sharing Christmas so early, but in blogging world you absolutely must share Christmas this early, in order for your post to start making the rounds and gather up momentum before the actual holiday. For that I apologize. It’s something I’ve never quite gotten used to in all these years of blogging.
Thirdly, I’m pleased to be working with King of Christmas for our fifth year in a row!! So yes, before I show you this year’s Christmas decor, let me review a little bit of the decor the past 4 years.

Ok now all about this year’s Christmas Mantel Decor. I hope it’s not too cliche to say that I didn’t buy anything at all, using things I already had in my “stash.” Or is it better to say my collection?….. I’ve never had a fireplace mantel to decorate before. Well— I had a faux mantel, but that isn’t quite the same. And I did have this fireplace last year– I just didn’t do alot with it.

Where I live you can often find great things sitting out for free on the side of the road for various reasons. Lots of times there’s nothing wrong with it– somebody just decided to redecorate, and instead of throwing whatever-it-is away or donating it– they set it at the end of their driveway to donate it to whoever would like to stop and pick it up. I LOVE that people do this where I live. (I’m currently looking for a freestanding coat tree….) And so that is how I found this Fireplace surround. [It’s also a good incentive for leaving early for wherever you are headed– so you have time to stop if you see something!]

Then I needed an insert, so I found this one I think for around $40, I can’t quite remember. Whoever was selling it didn’t have the remote, so that is a little annoying, but it’s a small price to pay for a pretty fire. It will show just the light, or you can set it to put out heat as well.

So when King of Christmas said they’d like to collaborate again this year, I knew just what to do!– At least, I knew where to start.

If you’d rather watch the video than read, then here it is.

Like I said, I gathered a few things— and after gathering these things and getting started– I knew I needed a little more color. Just silver and white was not going to be enough. So I did end up adding a tad more red.

I thought you’d like to see the difference between a fluffed up tree and unfluffed tree. It didn’t take to long to pull all the little branches out in different directions to fluff them up.

Here is the second tree partially fluffed. This was my first set from King of Christmas that is not flocked. [Flocked meaning the fake snow is permanently stuck/ glued to the tree or wreaths.] Since it wasn’t flocked– it didn’t make a terrible mess when I was unfluffing everything so that was really nice!!

I started looking at the wreath, and saw that the back was very pokey. I didn’t want it scratching up my wall, so…..

T-Rex tape to the rescue! It is thicker than duct tape, and maybe stickier too. I’ve used it for various projects before, so I knew it would work.

Here’s an expert tip for you— be sure to add your batteries before you decorate your wreath– or you will have to carefully take it back off the wall and put the batteries in and re-hang it…. I used these placemats to keep the garland from scratching my fireplace top.

This is the Royal Fir wreath and garland set, and you can buy the wreath, trees, and garland separately. They also have garlands that are already pre-decorated!

I was going to plug it all in– the garland and trees can plug in or use batteries– but I had an electrical outlet problem….. Since our house is old, that outlet hadn’t been wired properly and when I unplugged the floor lamp, the ceiling light went out! Thankfully, the resident electrician was able to fix it the very next day. And then because that outlet still couldn’t probably handle the lamp, fireplace, garland, and 2 trees, …. I put the two trees and garland on an extension cord with a button that makes it easy to turn it on all at once.

For the wreath, I started with this bow.

Then I added the gorgeous glass snowflake ornaments— and this is the point when I realized– I’m going to need more color.

So I grabbed a paper plate and stuck it in the middle! And then I put these cute candy cane stickers on. They are not sticking like stickers– they are just lodged in the pine needles.

Next, I hot-glued silver pipe cleaners to the back of the metal words so that I could attach them to the floor lamp.

And put a double bow at the base.

I do like to use these miniature felt stockings that I made from a kit around 20 years ago. They were supposed to be silverware holders but I’ve rarely used them like that, opting to hang them instead.

And that is a dresser scarf that I crocheted from doily thread a very long time ago— maybe even 30 years ago?!

It is hard for me to resist cute little candles when I see them– and so here are some tealight Christmas tree candles that I do not plan on burning.

And a silver Christmas tree candle– but the other small green trees are salt and pepper shakers!

Lastly, I added a Christmas tree skirt that I got for free somewhere. It just seems to belong.

Isn’t this just a sweet little Christmas corner?! It really is a small space in my house. You don’t need much room to make a room feel like Christmas.

And of course I couldn’t forget to take a picture of it all at night! This one is my favorite.

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