How to decorate a mantel with garland

Christmas is coming and it is time to decorate my mantel. Decorating my mantel is one of my favorite projects for Christmas. You can do something as simple as buying a garland and setting it on the top of the mantel, but I would like to share a way to display beautiful garlands for the holiday season.

Preparing your mantel for attaching garlands:

The first thing you will want to do is to attach Command hooks to the top of the mantel to hold your garlands. Prepare your surface before you attach your Command hooks by wiping down the area where you will be attaching them with a rubbing alcohol wipe. Leave the hooks attached for 24 hours before you begin hanging the garland from them. I have found this is the best way to support a Christmas mantel garland. I attached four of the large hood to the center of the mantel.

This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience.  Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

Depending on how you want to display your garland or other Christmas décor, you may also want to attach hooks to the front of the mantel or also at the end of the mantel.

Adding the garlands to your mantel:

For the ends of the mantel I want draping garland hanging down so I wrapped one full garland with a more inexpensive garland that was not as full. If you cannot get the one garland to hold around the second one, you can use some pieces of floral wire to attach it in a couple of spots.

Attach the two garlands wrapped around one another down the end of the mantel. The end of the garland will likely have a loop to hang it from the Command hooks. If there is not a loop, you can easily make one from a pipe cleaner or floral wire. I like mine to drape down on the floor, but that is a personal choice .

The next thing I did was to add strings of bells down the side of the fireplace.

A second Command hook was attached to the front of the mantel to spread out the bells and hang them at different lengths. I will adjust them, pulling them out around the garland when I am finished.

Next, it will be time to add the draped garland across the front of the mantel.

Instead of wrapping garlands around one another, I hung three garlands, draping one one top of another. Begin with a beautiful Christmas garland and then add two more different types of garlands to add an elevated look to your mantel.

If you end up with any bare spots in your draped garlands, you can fill those with some artificial evergreen picks.

I decorated one side of the mantel before moving over to the other half. I hope you can see that the extra cost of multiplying the garlands you hang on your mantel will elevate your Christmas mantel decor.

The focal point in the middle of the mantel is where I allowed the extra garland lengths to hang down and added more gold bells. You can use pine cones or any Christmas decorations, holly berries or ornaments that you would like to add a festive touch to your mantel decor.

If you would like to add Christmas stockings to your mantel, you can hang them on the ends of the mantel. Next it was time to add ribbon to coordinate with the color scheme of my Christmas tree. Take the ribbon off of the spool that it comes on and work it into your garland. If you need to, you can use a green pipe cleaner or floral wire to secure the ribbon where you want it to stay. I was able to tuck the ribbon deep into my garlands without securing it.

There is no roaring fire in my non-working fireplace, but I will fill it with coordinating Christmas decor. If you will have a fire, make sure you keep your garland out of the heat, particularly if you are using a fresh garland instead of artificial like mine.

I was almost finished, but it was time for a second ribbon. I used a metallic gold ribbon and wrapped it around and in and out of my garlands.

For final touches I added a pair of very tall candle holders with large Luminara pillar candles and added the same tartan ribbon and some greenery to them. Inside my firebox I added a reindeer sporting a wreath and a gold bow. A pair of Pottery Barn lanterns flank the fire box also with candles that come on with a timer every evening.

I hope you liked this Christmas mantel idea and you are inspired to really embellish your fireplace with oversized garland this year.