Let's talk about how to decorate your fireplace for the holiday season with this simple farmhouse Christmas mantel. With these easy steps, your chimney will be decked out for all your entertaining and your living room will sparkle with Christmas joy.
One spot in my home that never gets overlooked at Christmas is our mantel. It is the heart of our home, the center stage, the place where my family sits on Christmas day. So when I decorate I always begin at the chimney and create a farmhouse Christmas mantel.
For many years now I have decorated in the farmhouse style but I love to change it up. One year it may be more cottage farmhouse style and other years it will be a simple modern farmhouse Christmas mantel. But this year we are leaning more towards a Cottagecore old-fashioned vintage vibe.
Since our farmhouse Christmas porch was decorated as if this house is the home of Santa Claus, then we thought it would be fun to bring this story inside, so welcome to Father Christmas's living room.
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How to Decorate a Farmhouse Christmas Mantel
With all projects, it is good to begin with collecting supplies and planning a design. A great place to start is with these Christmas mantel ideas or hop over to my Pinterest Christmas board. If you already have an idea of which farmhouse style you want then let's begin gathering supplies to decorate your beautiful mantel for Christmas.
This mantel design is a combination of old and new with a traditional Christmas color scheme. I love to bring out some old pieces from our attic that have many memories, I also love to search for vintage pieces over the year, and last I always add something new. You can also use this idea for a faux mantel too.
This year with the help of Home Depot I am adding several new pieces. They have many holiday decorations on their website. I think I barely brushed the surface when shopping.
But the part I loved the most about shopping online was how quickly I received all the Christmas supplies. I had everything within four days with some items arriving two days after ordering. I plan to do some Christmas gift shopping next on their website. But enough about my shopping let's start gathering supplies.
DIY Christmas Mantel Supplies
Here is a list of options to decorate your mantel for the Christmas season.
- Christmas wreath with lights (we used battery powered lite wreath with natural elements like pinecones, berries, and dried oranges)
- Hammer, nails or command hooks
- Christmas art depicting farm life in the winter
- Mirror
- Candlesticks and white candles
- Christmas garland with lights (battery powered lite wreath with pinecones, berries and dried oranges)
- Old books
- Rocking horse
- Crock (My crock is old but here is another crock on Home Depot's website)
- Small tree (we used our old small tree but here is another tree I liked very much)
- Christmas tree
- Cable knit blanket
- White ball ornaments and other ornaments
Our Santa Claus lives on a farm and loves nature. We incorporated dried oranges, red berries, and pine cones to bring nature inside and of course toys and gifts for the children. Because he has been around for a very long time he has lots of vintage goodies in his living room.
Let's get started decorating your farmhouse style Christmas mantel just like Mr. Claus.
Country Christmas Mantel Decorating Ideas
Start by clearing everything off of your mantel. It always helps to start with a clean slate. And if you have any DIY projects you want to do to your fireplace this is a great time to do it.
This year I decided to add a board and batten look over my mantel. I think the white mantel wall above will make my Christmas decorations, as well as other favorite holidays, stand out even more and I love how mantels in old homes run the woodwork above the mantel shelf. I have all the details on how to make this easy DIY board and batten fireplace in my other post.
Now that your mantel is cleared of all decorations and you have any DIY projects completed let's start decorating this white Christmas mantel with the wreath.
Fireplace Mantel Christmas Wreath
An easy way to add holiday decor to your mantel is with a Christmas wreath. I found this amazing wreath on Home Depot's website. It is a great size for a mantel because it is a little larger than the standard wreath size. I also loved that it incorporated pinecones and berries.
When the holiday wreath arrived in the mail the bow was perfect. I didn't have to fluff and try to make it pretty. But the best part about this wreath is its lights are battery-powered. So no unsightly cords.
For our mantel, we decided to hang the wreath on one side and layer art on the other side. So let's talk about how to hang a wreath over your fireplace mantel. If you already know how to do this simply skip this next part.
How to Hang a Wreath over your Fireplace
There are several different ways you can hang a wreath on a wall or over a fireplace mantel. If you have sheetrock or wood you can use a nail or command hook. I use nails because they are more secure and I can easily spackle the hole when I am done and touch up with white paint.
If you don't want holes in your walls then I would look for a command hook that holds enough weight for your wreath.
Begin by holding the wreath up over the fireplace and position it where you want it. It helps to have another person hold it while you direct them right or left and up and down. Once you have it in the right spot mark the wall with a pencil where the nail or command hook will go.
Next, simply hammer a nail into the wall using a 1 1/2″ or 2″ nail. I like to use thin nails so they don't make big holes.
If you are using a wreath command hook make sure you place the hook part on the bottom where your mark is on the wall so your wreath hangs from the right spot.
Now that your holiday wreath is hung let's work on layering the art and mirror to the sides or one side like ours.
Layering Art over Fireplace Mantel
I love layering art over a chimney mantel. I also like to reuse pieces in my decor when I do holiday decorating. So I kept the mirror that has been up on the mantel all year and brought in this new shepherd winter scene.
Because the idea was Santa's farmhouse Christmas mantel I thought a snowy image of a farmer working would fit right in. I also liked how this painting from the Home Depot online depicted a shepherd since the main story about Christmas included shepherds and it gives a vintage farmhouse vibe. A warm cozy Cottagecore aesthetic.
Begin by placing a larger mirror in the back and then layer a piece of winter art in front. Place the layered pieces of Christmas art in from the edge so as to leave room for some decorations to the right. Do the same on the other side with the wreath leaving a little room to its left for decorations.
Now you may notice an empty spot between the wreath and mirror. That little spot was too big to leave unfinished so I grabbed an idea from my Halloween mantel.
I love this vintage wall candlelight. It is so easy to make and I have all the details in my silhouette Halloween mantel idea post.
Farmhouse Christmas Mantel Decor for Shelf
Now for the fun part and that is adding the Christmas mantel decorations. Grab any candle holders you have around the house or shop for some if you don't have any.
Place candlesticks with white candles on the shelf and if you have any old books prop them up on one side of the wreath. This is easy decor because all you need is a mantel decoration here and another there. And the old books add a white rustic Christmas mantel detail.
I love mixing styles! We have a little rustic, classic, traditional, vintage and I think you get the picture.
Christmas Garland for Fireplace Mantel
Next, you will need to hang your holiday garland on the mantel. Just like the wreath I use nails because it is so simple to patch the holes with a little spackle when done. Simply tap small nails on each end on the top edge of the fireplace mantel and some in the middle too.
Now grab your Christmas garland and hook the end on one end. This is much easier if someone helps. Then place the garland behind the nail on the other end. Once you have the end nails holding up the mantel place the middle part of the garland behind the middle nail.
With this Home Depot garland, it comes with a battery-powered light source. The box is as big as a small book so I unstrapped it from the garland and placed it on the shelf hidden behind the garland.
Once the garland is secure on the mantel play with the long end and swag on the floor. I had to fluff and turn the faux greenery until it sat beautifully on the floor and the pinecones and berries faced forward.
Now that the garland is in place let's garnish it with dried oranges. I love repeating designs like the Christmas wreath and the dried oranges. We used dried oranges on the wreath and garland on the porch too.
Here is a tutorial on how to dry orange slices the easy way. I show you how to make dried citrus fruit in the oven and dehydrator so you can choose which one is best for you.
If you love fresh greenery a great way to incorporate it is to add it to the garland and wreath. I didn't do it to my faux garland but I have seen it before and it looks amazing.
Christmas Stockings
Next, add Christmas stockings to your fireplace mantle. I decided to go with an a-symmetrical design this year so the stocking will sit on one side. If you need more than two or three stockings you can easily place some on the other side too.
To hang the stocking simply hook the one on the end with the garland nail. Then place a few other nails into the mantel for the other stocking.
We went with fur stocking because it went nicely with the nature theme.
Decorating your Fireplace Hearth
Next, we need to decorate the fireplace hearth. This is a great place to add toys for Santa's chimney. I found this rocking horse at a second-hand furniture store in my hometown. He was dark-colored and plain so I gave him a little chalk painting and then distressed him so he would have the velveteen rabbit kind of vibe. You know that he had been loved over many many years.
Behind him is a crock with a tree. If you have the room you can do more little trees but to keep it simple I went with one. I kept it simple so the horse would be the center of attention.
Now guess what? We are all finished decorating a fireplace mantel for Christmas. I feel like this is such a classic Christmas mantel with a country living feel. So let's wrap this living room up with a few more decorations to add more holiday spirit.
Conclusion
Once you have your fireplace decorated don't forget your Christmas tree. This year I wanted something grander for Santa's living room so we went for this Home Depot 7.5 foot tall tree.
We added these red berries and dried oranges to match the holiday wreath and garland.
And these large white Christmas ornaments from the Home Depot to the prelit artificial tree and then our traditional Christmas ornaments.
This tree is amazing! It has a remote and a button you can tap with your foot for the lights. Plus it has multiple settings, you can do white/clear lights, color lights, flashing, and more.
It comes in three parts plus the base. All you do is place the poles together matching the plugs inside and you are finished. The only challenge I had was weight. I needed extra hands because the bottom and middle pieces were just a little too heavy.
At the bottom, we like to change things up each year. This year we decided on a cable knit cozy throw for the base. Here is a post on Christmas tree base ideas to get inspiration from.
Lastly, sprinkle a few more decorative items around the room like adding these mistletoe stems to greenery and this lantern from the Home Depot and you are all finished.
Turn on all the lights and enjoy the Christmas cheer. This is the part I love the most about the holidays. We turn on the tree lights and the ones on the mantel and watch our favorite Christmas movies.
This year's Christmas decorations have a warm and cozy feel. Even the dinner table got a Christmas centerpiece with a vintage toolbox, bells, and garland. It is nice to have a pretty centerpiece when you sit at your table.
Just like on our porch we ended with a little Christmas story about Father Christmas. So once upon a time way up at the north pole lived Santa Claus. His home was warm and cozy, filled with Christmas decorations like trees, wreaths, and garlands. He had sweet ornaments on the tree for animals and other ornament gifts from children.
While he is gone on Christmas night the little rocking horse comes alive and keeps company with the animals while the little creatures enjoy all the treats left in the room. You cannot see them alive in the photos because they are very shy but they have a merry old time with Phillippe the rocking horse.
Before you know it the night will be over and soon Santa will be home where he will cozy up by the fire for a long winter's nap.
Merry Christmas and Happy Decorating!
