Christmas Mantel Decor Ideas: 16 Looks With a TV, Without Garland and On a Budget

Lay one full garland along the mantel and let it hang past both ends. Tie a long velvet ribbon at each corner and leave the tails trailing toward the floor. Brown, rust or deep green velvet looks richer than bright red, and two bows are enough. Finish with taper candles and a few small trees behind the greenery.

Weave berry stems through a green garland, or buy one with berries built in, and drape it lower on one side than the other. Then carry the look down to the floor: black lanterns in two or three sizes on the hearth, with battery candles inside. The lanterns make the fireplace feel decorated from top to bottom without adding anything to the shelf.

Tie baubles to lengths of narrow ribbon and knot them into the garland so they hang in front of the fireplace surround at different heights. Use one metal finish, all gold or all silver, and five to nine ornaments. It fills the empty space under the shelf, which is the part most mantels leave bare.

Symmetry is not required. Push the garland to one side and let it spill off that end, then balance the other side with two wooden candlesticks and a small framed print leaning against a larger painting. A length of linen or velvet fabric draped with the greenery softens it. This is the easiest look to build from things you already own.

A pre-lit garland with red ribbon at the corners, knitted stockings in a row and tall candles on each side is the look most people picture. What makes it work is restraint in the color: cream stockings, deep red ribbon, green, and brass. If you have more stockings than the mantel has room for, hang the extras from a basket or a ladder beside the fireplace.

Stand a row of lit houses and bottle brush trees on the shelf and attach the garland to the front edge so it hangs just under the lip. The village gets the flat surface, the greenery gets the drop, and neither hides the other. Hide the battery packs behind the tallest houses.

A line of white ceramic houses, trees and deer along the whole mantel is the cleanest no-garland look, and the one in the photo at the top of this page. Keep everything in one color and vary only the height. Tuck a string of warm micro lights behind the houses so the windows glow in the evening.

Group bottle brush or paper cone trees in three heights, more at one end than the other, so the line rises and falls. Greens and creams look calm; a mix of pinks and teals looks playful. They cost little, weigh almost nothing and store flat in a shoebox.

Collect every candlestick in the house, add tapers in one color and line them up, tallest toward the middle or tallest at one end. Thrift stores are full of brass and wooden candlesticks for small change; our thrift store decor guide explains what to look for. Use LED tapers if the mantel sits under anything that can burn.

Hang or lean one oversized wreath as the anchor and put a vase of pine, cedar or bare branches at each end. That is the whole mantel. It suits small living rooms where a full garland would feel heavy, and the branches cost nothing if you have a garden or a tree lot nearby that gives away trimmings.

Choose a slim garland and lay it flat rather than piling it up. Add a few small trees or candles at the two ends only, where they sit beside the screen and not in front of it. Leave the center of the mantel low so the bottom edge of the picture and the TV's sensor stay clear.

Two or three small trees at each end of the mantel frame the TV the way lamps frame a sofa. Join them with a thin strand of greenery and warm lights. It is tidy, symmetrical, and takes ten minutes.

Outline the TV, or a frame around it, with warm string lights fixed with removable clips. The lights turn the black rectangle into part of the display when the screen is off. Keep the mantel itself simple: a short garland and a few silver or white cone trees.

When the TV is small or mounted high, there is room for a fuller garland with a wreath-style swag at one end. Match the garland to the tree if both are in view, with the same ribbon or the same ornaments, so the wall and the tree read as one scheme.

A fireplace with no shelf still has a floor. Stand lanterns, a basket of logs and a potted mini tree on the hearth, and fix a garland around the opening with removable hooks if you do not light fires.

No fireplace at all? A console table, a sideboard or the top of a TV stand works the same way: anchor on the wall above, base along the surface, height at the ends. A floating shelf does too. For more ways to add glow to a room without a fireplace, see our lighting ideas for apartments without ceiling lights.