How to Decorate Your Mantel for Christmas
Gather your supplies., Place your hurricane lamps on either side of your mantel., Drape your garland over the mantel., Hang your stockings and enjoy your mantel.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Gather your supplies.
Most of these supplies can be found at craft stores or general retailers, with the exception of the hurricane lamps.
Any heavy and suitably themed decorative mantle piece can be used in place of the hurricane lamps, which are intended to hold your garland in place.
You'll need:
Christmas garland (long enough to drape across your mantel) Christmas stockings Evergreen cuttings (optional) Hurricane lamps (or large, sturdy candles) Paperweights (equal in number to stockings) Safety pins -
Step 2: Place your hurricane lamps on either side of your mantel.
If you don't intend to light the candles in your hurricane lamps, you may want to add a pop of color to the lamps.
Do this by bending and coiling evergreen cuttings around the bottom of the inside of the lamp.
To prevent potential fires but to add a soft ambiance to your mantel decorations, you might want to put some LED candles in your hurricane lamps.
Remember that you can use similarly heavy Christmas themed decorations, like large Christmas figurines, trains, nutcrackers, and snow globes, in place of hurricane lamps. , Drape your garland across the mantel so it runs behind your hurricane lamps.
Arrange the garland so that its excess length hangs equally on both sides of the mantle.
Avoid pulling on the garland after it has been strung behind the lamps.
Doing so could knock your lamps on the floor.Some garlands come decorated with red berries and leaves to add color.
If yours did not, you can add plastic berries and leaves to your garland with small safety pins. , Distribute your paperweights equally across the space between your two lamps.
Place the paperweights so each is hidden behind the garland.
Then, take your Christmas stockings and loop their string around the paperweights to hang the stockings in place.
Be careful not to add too much weight to these stockings.
Since they are only held in place by paperweights, they could fall and cause other decorations to fall as well.
If you want to hold your stockings in place more firmly, you could use an adhesive hook hidden behind the garland to hold them.
If your stockings do not have a string to hang from, or if the string is not long enough, attach a safety pin to the back of the stocking and tie a piece of string or twine to the pin. -
Step 3: Drape your garland over the mantel.
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Step 4: Hang your stockings and enjoy your mantel.
Detailed Guide
Most of these supplies can be found at craft stores or general retailers, with the exception of the hurricane lamps.
Any heavy and suitably themed decorative mantle piece can be used in place of the hurricane lamps, which are intended to hold your garland in place.
You'll need:
Christmas garland (long enough to drape across your mantel) Christmas stockings Evergreen cuttings (optional) Hurricane lamps (or large, sturdy candles) Paperweights (equal in number to stockings) Safety pins
If you don't intend to light the candles in your hurricane lamps, you may want to add a pop of color to the lamps.
Do this by bending and coiling evergreen cuttings around the bottom of the inside of the lamp.
To prevent potential fires but to add a soft ambiance to your mantel decorations, you might want to put some LED candles in your hurricane lamps.
Remember that you can use similarly heavy Christmas themed decorations, like large Christmas figurines, trains, nutcrackers, and snow globes, in place of hurricane lamps. , Drape your garland across the mantel so it runs behind your hurricane lamps.
Arrange the garland so that its excess length hangs equally on both sides of the mantle.
Avoid pulling on the garland after it has been strung behind the lamps.
Doing so could knock your lamps on the floor.Some garlands come decorated with red berries and leaves to add color.
If yours did not, you can add plastic berries and leaves to your garland with small safety pins. , Distribute your paperweights equally across the space between your two lamps.
Place the paperweights so each is hidden behind the garland.
Then, take your Christmas stockings and loop their string around the paperweights to hang the stockings in place.
Be careful not to add too much weight to these stockings.
Since they are only held in place by paperweights, they could fall and cause other decorations to fall as well.
If you want to hold your stockings in place more firmly, you could use an adhesive hook hidden behind the garland to hold them.
If your stockings do not have a string to hang from, or if the string is not long enough, attach a safety pin to the back of the stocking and tie a piece of string or twine to the pin.
About the Author
Betty Howard
Writer and educator with a focus on practical lifestyle knowledge.
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