Mantel & Hearth Decorating Ideas for Christmas
In many homes, the fireplace is the centerpiece of the main room. Your fireplace and hearth area may look wonderful most of the year, but on Christmas, you might want to add some flair! Decorating the fireplace mantel and the space around it could be the perfect and simple way to add a real Christmas feel to your entire room.
American Chimney & Fireplace of Louisville, KY, would like to share a few starting points for hearth-area decorating this Christmas season.
If you don’t have a mantel . . .
If your fireplace has no mantel, consider getting one. Hearth stores and specialty shops are full of all kinds of attractive mantels in many sizes, colors, textures, and design styles that could give your fireplace just the accent it needs.
If you do have a mantel . . .
The mantel is a good place to start when decorating your fireplace area for Christmas. It’s like your fireplace’s hat, affecting the look of everything around it.
Here are three broad theme ideas you could use to get the creative juices flowing.
- Artsy
Mantels are perfect places to put holiday decorations, antiques, kids’ drawings, festive photographs, and avant-garde art pieces that reflect your holiday spirit.
- Nature
Traditional Christmas themes of rolling, snow-covered hills, holly, mistletoe, pine cones, wreaths, and silver, icy finishes can come to life on your mantel. Visit craft stores and shop online for amenities. Or go out and find your own real branches, flowers, garland, and other natural pieces to decorate your mantel.
- Colorful
The colors red, green, and silver are predictable and traditional at Christmas, but most people love them. If you love them too, consider using these colors strongly within whatever type of mantel decorations you choose. A bright, eye-catching, and colorful hearth area is both pleasing and comforting during the holidays.
Christmas lighting around the fireplace
Your fireplace will provide some beautiful light, but it won’t be in use all day, every day, during the holiday season. Custom lighting, however, can glow around the fireplace and set the stage all day and night for parties, family times, and maybe even a visit from Santa.
You can string smaller twinkle lights around the fireplace and over the mantel. You can install track lighting above the fireplace. You can put in recessed ceiling lights over the hearth area. During Christmas, you can use colored bulbs and then replace them with standard bulbs to enjoy the rest of the year.
Stockings on the mantel
In the traditional poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, there’s a line that says, “The stockings were hung by the chimney with care . . .” The key in that line is “with care.” If you hang stockings on your mantel, make sure they don’t extend too close to an open flame. Many a Christmas has been marred by a fire that started with hanging stockings.
A safer idea is to affix them to the wall around the fireplace. They’ll look fantastic as part of your hearth’s Christmas theme, and they’ll still be able to hold all the goodies that you . . . or you-know-who . . . might place in them.
Christmas chimney and fireplace safety
Decorate your mantel and hearth area this Christmas season, but don’t forget about chimney and fireplace safety. American Chimney & Fireplace serves the greater Louisville, KY, area with chimney sweeping, fireplace repair, chimney repair, and complete chimney and fireplace inspections.
Learn more by giving us a call or getting in touch through our contact form.
