Gorgeous Holiday Mantel Decorating Ideas

These mini DIY Christmas trees (no more than 12 inches tall!) elevate any tabletop or mantel. Use evergreen cuttings, floral foam, and colorful cups and bowls to create festive arrangements that last for weeks and make fun holiday gifts.

Your holiday mantel becomes an Advent calendar with these adorable paper cone trees. See how to make this using our cone templates and hide a sweet surprise under each if you like. 

Related: DIY Holiday Crafts Projects with Rocks, Paper and Scissors

A Minnesota homeowner created this mantel centerpiece by filling a vintage lantern with pinecones, candles, greens and a drawing of Santa.

Sprigs of evergreens fill a collection of plain glass vases for clearly inspired decor.

Related: Quick and Easy Holiday Decorating Ideas

With a roll of Kraft paper (and a lesson in DIY gold-leaf), you can make rustic-meets-glam holiday decorations such as the paper flowers tucked into our fresh wreath or holly ornaments hung on the tree. See how to make DIY gold-leaf Kraft paper flowers and ornaments.

Lime-green lemon cypress trees stand in for a traditional swag or layers of greenery on the mantel. Wrap containers in inexpensive blue burlap, securing with pale green bows.

Turn a store-bought pinecone wreath into a showstopping mantel display. Spray-paint the wreath gray, then add spray snow and silver glitter. Glue on cardinals and shiny red ornaments for accent color. Keep the rest of the mantel simple with faux snow and a gift.

Related: Clever Pinecone Crafts and Decorations

Repurpose an old window as a Christmas mantel masterpiece. Hang trinkets and ornaments in each pane of the window frame. We love the green-and-white color scheme for this display. Line several handkerchiefs along the mantel to create a chic DIY mantel scarf.

To create this look, "plant" larger cones in clay pots and use tiny pinecones as "mulch" over the soil of a dwarf arborvitae. Scatter more pinecones and juniper sprigs across the mantel to continue the nature theme.

Related: Decorate With Tiny Christmas Trees

Coordinated colors of vases, glasses and candleholders create a simple but elegant mantel display. Use a red ribbon for a garland, and complete the color palette with sprigs of greenery.

Related: Easy Holiday Decorating With Glass

Kansas decorator Courtney Browning created this holiday mantel. For a touch of glitz, she spray-painted real magnolia leaves gold; shiny and matte gold balls continue the gilded theme. Instead of a traditional evergreen wreath, she hung a black-and-gold convex mirror for an unexpected element in the scene.

Vintage mercury glass trees and balls shine on this mantel.

Red carnation wreaths look elegant over this Christmas mantel. To make fresh wreaths, soak a florist's foam shape in water. Trim carnation stems to about 3 inches and insert into forms; you'll need about 50 carnations for a 12-inch diameter wreath. You can also craft pretty—and long-lasting—wreaths with artificial flowers.

Accent with containers of shiny red and green ornaments along your mantel.

Celebrate the season's simple joys by creating a free-flowing look with just three natural materials: green apples, pinecones and long-needle evergreen branches.

Related: Nature-Inspired Christmas Decorating

Turn surplus ornaments into an easy—and dazzling—holiday display. Decorate a mantel by coordinating colors of ornaments in urns, vases, goblets and bowls of different sizes. Finish with bright green pine branches for a woodsy touch.

Kansas decorator Courtney Browning created this holiday mantel using natural elements such as pinecones, topiaries and a boxwood wreath. 

Turn your mantel into countdown to Christmas by hanging an advent calendar on the front and adding a pretty paper wreath above.

Chicago-based Paper Source makes holiday crafting easy with a variety of holiday ideas. 

For a DIY Advent calendar, pop pieces of candy, small toys or clues (to find larger gifts hidden in the house) in 24 tiny envelopes or muslin bags. Rubber-stamp numbers on circular labels to seal envelope flaps, or write numbers on bags with a marker. Hang envelopes or bags along the mantel with mini clothespins. 

Related: Easy Christmas Crafts

Fabric doilies shaped into trees and spray-painted red stand next to a lime green homemade wreath on this cheery holiday mantel. The petals and flowers of the wreath are cut-up newspapers spray-painted green.

A simple mantel arrangement complements whimsical Christmas stockings. Draw some colors from your stockings into the mantel for a cohesive look. Here, colorful ornaments, white candles and evergreen garland complete the display.

A touch of winter white stands out against the sparkly wall. Display an assortment of white items, such as frames, candlesticks, vases, ornaments and holiday figurines.

Cover your mantel with fresh evergreen branches and hang two types of ornaments on sheer white ribbon: clear plastic ornaments that you fill with strips of metallic gold foil and large circular chalkboard ornaments. If you can't find any chalkboard ornaments, you can always make your own by applying green chalkboard paint to wood or cardboard. Remove ornaments before using the fireplace and rehang them when you're finished.

Hang your wreath on an unusual item, such as this old garden gate, for an eye-catching display. Other holders that can easily lean on a mantel: vintage shutters, fencing sections, trellises, window frames or a wooden sled. Frame the arrangement with candles, topiaries or vases.

Related: Beautiful Holiday Wreaths

Accent mostly-white decorating with pops of bright red and green. Run white tinsel along your mantel and put red and green ornaments on top. Hang a red and a green stocking from the mantel to complete the look.

A rosy wreath makes the perfect backdrop to this elegant winter vignette. Create a faux forest by wrapping festive paper and cloth over foam cones; hot-glue to secure. Use varying sizes of felt balls for "snow."

Fill clear glass containers with candy that coordinates with your color scheme for an easy mantel or tabletop decoration.

Fabric leaves glued to a velvet ribbon make a simple garland for a mantel—or a buffet table.

Red and red-tip amaryllis blooms pop out of a rustic collection of birch-bark vases.

Related: Easy and Elegant Amaryllis Displays

Create a rustic Christmas feel by making plaid stockings the centerpiece of your mantel. Accent them with pinecones, carved wooden statues and simple candles.

Wow guests with a mantel of green flower "presents" and fresh red flowers. Use pearl-top straight pins to attach green-tinted mini mums to foam squares, then tie on red velvet ribbon bows. Accent the scene with glass vases filled with red tulips, amaryllis heads and berry branches.

To jazz up a boxwood wreath, we tucked in hypericum berries then wired on a magnolia branch, feathers, pinecones and an antique bugle. Finally, we wrapped burlap ribbon around the wreath. A blanket tops the mantel, and we made a small tree by covering a floral foam cone in boxwood clippings.

The combination of old and new ornaments layers on the charm in this wreath, made from glass ball ornaments hot-glued to a foam wreath form. For a sparkling mantel to match the wreath, coat foam cones with spray-on glue then tinsel glitter. When dry, seal with an acrylic clear-coat spray.