Easy Ways to Style a Christmas Mantel with Vintage Decor Ideas
Ready to style your fireplace mantel for the holiday season? Let these easy tips to style a Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas help you combine the old and the new for a vintage-style mantel that is a festive and welcoming focal point for your living space!
Do you have a focal point in your living space? For many people, a fireplace mantel is the main focal point for the entire room, whether it is a modern living room with an open concept for a smaller sitting room in an older home. Regardless of the different styles of design, styling a Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas is a great way to add a festive and inviting focal point for the holiday season!
Even though we don’t have a fireplace in our South Florida home, I love decorating this chippy old mantel with white paint with seasonal decor. It makes the perfect backdrop for our cozy family room. I especially love styling our Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas, mixing some of my favorite vintage decor with newer pieces.
In addition to adding decor to the top of the mantel, the vintage mantel makes a great foundation for my seasonal gallery wall. I love decorating both on and around the mantel with seasonal decor. Christmas decorations give an especially cozy feel to this space and it is always a favorite time of year to decorate!
Today, we are going to chat about some easy ways you can style a Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas!
For several years, I’ve been collecting vintage French horns to use with my Christmas decorations. I love incorporating them each year into my Christmas mantel and gallery wall decor.
Collections, like these French horns, are a fun idea for styling a Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas. Even though I hang them in a little different ways each year, they have become a fun tradition and a staple vintage decorative item for our Christmas home!
You probably think my main reason for getting all these vintage brass French horns hung was because I’m super excited for Christmas. After all, I’ve been collecting them for six years, scouring thrift stores, flea markets, and corners of antique malls. I set a price limit that I wouldn’t go over…I only broke it once for one of the larger ones!
But no, the most urgent reason to hang these horns before Thanksgiving is because I have a ten-year-old son. And he takes GREAT delight in blowing them loudly. Ever since I started going through my Christmas bins, organizing for my holiday decorating, and laid these horns out on the table, well…let’s just say we’ve had some startling moments!
One of our favorite Christmas memories is when he was about 2 ½. At the time, I only had a couple of the small horns. Our fun-loving toddler got one from the tree and marched into his sisters’ room. At 6:45 a.m. “Dirls! Time to get up!” (And that’s not a typo. That’s how he said it!!) I am pretty sure “Comfort and Joy” was not what the “dirls” were thinking about. Haha!
So back to the gallery wall, mantel, and all things Christmas…
How to decorate fireplace mantels for Christmas?
If you are reading this post, chances are you are at least a little like me and have gathered ideas from your favorite holiday mantels to create a focal point in your family room.
Pinterest is an easy way to find different styles of Christmas mantel ideas. Once you have pinned your favorites, look for the commonalities among them. The color palette, pattern, or overall decor aesthetic are a great place to start when planning out your own Christmas fireplace decor.
Here are some easy steps to create the perfect Christmas mantel:
- Gather Christmas mantel ideas
- Look for commonalities among these ideas as a starting place to plan your own perfect Christmas mantel
- Clear the fireplace mantel for a clean slate and fresh start for the season
- Gather Christmas decorations and decorative items with a cohesive look
- Decide the focal point for your simple Christmas mantel decor
- Hang any garlands you want to use on your mantel this Christmas season (See THIS post for easy tips on how to hang festive Christmas garlands on a mantel.)
- Place largest decorative objects at different heights
- Add complementary accessories, such as ornaments.
- Add natural elements, such as pine cones
- Edit as you go!
How do I decorate my mantel for Christmas?
Here are some simple and easy accessories to gather as you get your Christmas mantel decor ideas together! Depending on your overall decor style and color scheme, you can use any of these decorative accents to create festive Christmas mantels around your home.
- Christmas garland: faux garland, real garland, real cedar garland (or faux cedar), eucalyptus garland, evergreen garland, Norfolk pine garland, or any other type of holiday garland. I use a combination of a few of these!
- Other faux greenery stems
- Holiday garland: bell garland, dried orange slice garland, white ribbon garland (or other colors), mercury glass ornament garland
- Christmas stockings (these chunky knit stockings are what I use!)
- Brass candle holders
- Flameless candles (better than real candles for safety on a mantel)
- String lights or fairy lights
- Bottle brush trees
- Nutcrackers, brass deer, or other Christmas holiday season figures
- Natural elements like pine cones, branches, or live garlands
Easy Ways to Style a Christmas Mantel with Vintage Decor Ideas
Now that you know why the vintage French horns are in every Christmas mantel styling picture of this blog post (Haha!), let’s chat about what goes on top of the mantel and how you can style a Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas. First of all, vintage pieces are a great idea to bring a more “curated over time” look to your home at Christmas time.
Secondly, you can use non-seasonal vintage pieces to bring character, patina, texture, and interest to your holiday decorations.
Vintage vessels with small trees, vintage bowls to hold pretty ornaments or pine cones, or even smaller accessories like vintage brass candle holders are a simple way to add vintage style without having all actual vintage Christmas decorations.
1. Add Faux Greenery to Style a Christmas Mantel with Vintage Decor Ideas
What does faux greenery have to do with vintage decor? In my opinion, greenery and lights are the two things that make any space feel the most cozy for Christmas!
In times past, people who loved to decorate their home for Christmas may have gone foraging for winter greens and formed their own wreaths, garlands, and swags. These were the original Christmas DIYer’s!
While I do love bringing in touches of fresh greenery for the holidays, I am super thankful for how far artificial greenery has come over the years.
Today, I enjoy faux winter greenery around our home that looks SO realistic! I love that I’m able to decorate early and enjoy the faux greenery throughout the whole season and even through the winter months too without any extra cost or time.
Side note: THIS Norfolk pine garland is the main type of garland I use around our entire home. It looks incredibly realistic and is super low maintenance to fluff, hang, and style. I also love my faux Norfolk pine stems, holiday wreath, table top trees, and tall trees.
When I get ready to style my Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas, one of the first things I do is to hang my winter garlands. To get the most natural look, I like to layer different types of faux garlands together, including cedar, eucalyptus, and pine.
Over on THIS blog post, I share a detailed guide to hang Christmas garlands on the living room fireplace mantel. There are a lot of different ways to hang your garlands, but I have found this simple process to be super easy without a lot of extra time and fuss!
Command hooks, floral wire, push pins, and small nails are all good supplies to have on hand for hanging garlands on a Christmas mantel!
You can shop a curated list of my favorite Christmas greenery and trees HERE on my storefront!
2. Mix Old and New Items to Style a Christmas Mantel with Vintage Decor Ideas
To style my Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas, I used a combination of old and new decorations. Some are specific holiday decorations while other pieces are just favorite items that are easy to mix with my Christmas decor in different ways.
New Decor:
- Ribbon
- Mercury glass ornament garland
- Tinsel and ornament garland
- Norfolk pine faux garlands
- Faux cedar garland and stems
- Flameless battery-operated taper candles with a real wax finish and realistic flickering glow
*Note: when I say “new decor”, I simply mean that these items are not vintage. However, the only thing I added here that I’ve not had in my Christmas decor collection in past years is the tinsel and ornament garland. Otherwise, I already had everything else on hand!
Vintage Decor:
- Wooden horse from a vintage market
- Brass candle holders, all thrifted
- Old books, also all thrifted
Over on Part 1 of THIS Holiday Home Tour, I shared all of my favorite tips and ideas to mix old and new decorations for Christmas decorating. You may find THIS post helpful if you want to reuse Christmas decorations from the past and even incorporate some vintage items too.
3. Hang Stockings to Add Texture When Styling a Christmas Mantel with Vintage Decor Ideas
Using old items to decorate a Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas can help bring a sense of nostalgia and lots of character to a living space. However, stockings are a fun way to add a soft texture to the overall aesthetic.
Besides, is there anything that gives a cozy feel more than stockings hanging on a fireplace mantel during the most wonderful time of the year?!
You may choose to hang your family’s stockings on your Christmas mantel for a timeless Christmas decor style! I chose to hang decorative stockings to help style our Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas and then hang the stockings we use (which are larger) in a space where they could be stuffed with goodies before Christmas Day. Also, since our mantel is behind the sofa, we needed to hang smaller stockings and secure them.
I love THESE chunky knit stockings. Of course, to go with my neutral Christmas decorations, I love the white stockings. However, you can get knit stockings in different colors, like traditional red or green. Really, these chunky knit stockings are just an opportunity to add texture to help you style your Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas, no matter the color.
You can hang your stockings on the mantel in a lot of different ways. To offset my asymmetrical winter greenery, I styled our white stockings to the right of the mantel. However, there are different ways to hang stockings that also look beautiful.
Play around with these Christmas stocking combinations or come up with your own!
- Space stockings evenly across the mantel.
- Center stockings in the middle of the mantel.
- Offset stockings to the right or left to balance other Christmas decorations.
- If you have an even number of stockings, hang half of them at one end and the other half at the other end of your Christmas mantel.
4. Use Old Books to Give Different Heights When Styling a Christmas Mantel with Vintage Decor Ideas
As you start to arrange your decorative accents, you’ll want to be sure that you have varied heights rather than all of your pretty decor feeling like its lined up . However, if you are using multiples of an object, such as brass candle holders, you may need help to get different heights.
Old books are perfect to create little risers and vary the height of your decorative accents when you style the Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas. Plus, using old books adds to the vintage style.
Old books can also add a lot of interesting texture as well as color. For example, if you are decorating with the traditional red and green colors, hit up thrift stores and antique malls to find vintage books with red or green book covers.
Now, your functional decor that is giving varied heights on top of your mantel is also adding a fun touch of your Christmas colors!
5. Add Candlelight When Styling a Christmas Mantel with Vintage Decor Ideas
If you want to bring a cozy feel into your living space, adding candlelight on top of the mantel is the perfect way to do so. However, to me, it feels scary to leave real candles lit on the mantel, especially if they are taper candles.
Thankfully, I have THESE super realistic taper candles that are battery-operated. They even have a wax finish and realistic flickering flame, making them a great substitute for real candles. I especially love that they run on a timer. Every evening, my candles just start flickering on around our home and it makes me so happy!
Here are some other great options for flameless candles that I also have and love using around our home:
- Gold glass containers with pillar candles
- Votive candles
- Tea light candles
- Chunky extra large pillar candle
- Spiral taper candles
- Christmas tree shape taper candles (love the frosted look)
6. Include Touches of Antiqued Brass When Styling a Christmas Mantel with Vintage Decor Ideas
Another easy way to add a touch of sparkle as well as a timeless style is to incorporate some touches of antiqued brass when you’re styling a Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas.
Brass candlesticks, for example, are perfect for Christmas mantel ideas that are both full and lush to a simple mantel with minimal decorations.
During the Christmas season, I love pulling out my vintage French horn candle holders. I have thrifted for these along with the French horns that I hang on the wall and I love how they work together so well for a cohesive look to style my Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas.
However, a more traditional brass candlestick may go better with your holiday decorations as you style your Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas. The addition of the antiqued brass adds a subtle sparkle without being too “shiny and new.”
Pro Tip: Watch for brass candle holders at thrift stores and flea markets! They are not as common as they used to be and have gotten more expensive. However, you can still find some fun deals on them out there!
Add my favorite flameless taper candles that work with a remote and run on a timer to bring a cozy feel to your winter mantel decor during the cold winter months!
7. Incorporate Natural Elements When Styling a Christmas Mantel with Vintage Decor Ideas
One of the best ways to style a Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas is to make sure and incorporate at least a couple of natural elements.
Winter greenery is a really great option and as we discussed in idea number one, winter garlands are an obvious choice for a white Christmas mantel (or wood mantel too!). If this is the first time you are hanging greenery on your Christmas mantel, make sure to check out THIS post for easy ways to hang garlands!
In addition to greenery, such as garlands and wreaths, don’t miss the chance to bring in some pretty winter trees. Table top trees, smaller four to six foot Christmas trees (with or without tree decorations), and even natural colored bottlebrush trees can bring in the winter greens that add so much cozy holiday cheer!
For more ideas of natural elements you can use to style a Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas, take a walk outside! You may be surprised at all of the things in nature that offer you inspiration.
For example, I brought in some branches from the hurricane debris pile, stripped what was left of the leaves, and used them to create a fun arch over the dining room buffet table!
I added some fairy Christmas lights, greenery, and simple vintage-style ornaments and now it is one of my favorite views in our home this holiday season with no extra cost at all!
You could easily create a similar look to style a Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas:
- Find two branches that have a bit of a natural curve.
- Secure them in some kind of pretty vessel (consider two matching vessels for each side)
- Work them around until they create a bit of an arch shape. You don’t have to be too particular, just the illusion of an arch works great!
- Add small fairy Christmas lights on a slow glow or slow fade setting.
- Hang light-weight vintage-style ornaments from the little stems on the branches.
- Enjoy a magical view for the holidays!
As I said at the beginning of this post, there are countless ways to style a Christmas mantel with vintage decor ideas and even more ways to decorate a farmhouse Christmas mantel or other decor style.
What makes YOUR Christmas mantel special is that it is what you and your family love and what is the most inviting to YOU.
After all, Christmas decorating isn’t supposed to be about perfect new styles. Instead, decorating in the Christmas season should feel like a gift we give ourselves and our families, creating cozy spaces, ready for making memories together!
I hope this post, along with some fun throwbacks of a few of my mantels from years past, offers you some ideas and creative inspiration as you prepare your own home for the season with joyful holiday spirit!
You may also enjoy these Christmas home decor related blog posts:
- How to Mix Old and New Christmas Decor: 2024 Home Tour
- 25 Best Christmas Pillow Ideas for Every Budget (2024)
- How to Hang Christmas Garland on a Mantel: 6 Easy Steps
- 40+ Beautiful Christmas Tree Collar Ideas (and Tree Skirts)
- 21 Favorite Christmas Decor Ideas for Your Home (2024)
- Simple Tips for Christmas Coffee Table Decor Ideas
- Simple & Natural French Country Christmas Decor Ideas
- Easy Ways to Choose a Christmas Theme for Holiday Decorating
- 9 Festive and Easy Christmas Candle Centerpiece Ideas
Blessings,
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