Christmas Mantel Decorating Ideas from The Everygirl

In our Style Challenge series, we challenge some of our favorite bloggers from around the web to surprise us with their ideas for creating a stylish and functional space using Home Depot products as a starting point.

We recruited Alaina Kaczmarski and Danielle Moss of The Everygirl for the Holiday Edition of our Style Challenge series. They came up with some wonderful Christmas mantel decorating ideas in a classic red, green and gold palette. 

It’s no secret The Everygirl loves decorating and the holidays. So when November rolls around and the time comes to decorate for the holidays, we’re on cloud nine.

We both recently moved into new apartments that have fireplace mantels. Sadly, neither of the fireplaces are in working order. We’d like nothing more than to cozy up to a warm fire as the nights grow chillier and winter settles in. But we’re excited to hang stockings from the mantels and deck the halls nonetheless. For this Style Challenge, we used Alaina’s new home as the setting for incorporating festive, colorful holiday décor.

The entire apartment is very neutral-hued, so our main mission was to add color and life to the white and grey palette. Garland, candlelight, ornaments, ribbon, mini-Santas and stockings did just the trick. We packaged presents in red and green wrapping paper and placed them so they appeared to be spilling out of the fireplace. Santa might not be able to make it down this faux fireplace, but at least the presents arrived safely! We always like to keep a “theme” when it comes to wrapping the gifts. One year it was teal and red. Another it was white, silver, and gold. This year — we’re going the traditional (and colorful!) route of green and red.

When it comes to decorating a fireplace mantel, one key ingredient always springs to mind: the garland. While we absolutely love fresh greenery, we opted for this pre-lit, artificial garland by Martha Stewart since we’ll be able to use it year after year. Smart spending is always on the forefront of our minds.

For extra color and sparkle, we wrapped the garland in a red and gold ribbon and nestled large sparkly ornaments in the snow-covered greenery.

We also mixed red, gold, and striped orb ornaments from the Martha Stewart Living collection and placed them into glass candle hurricanes to add height and even more color.

And finally — since there won’t be a fire in the fireplace — candlelight was a must. There’s nothing cozier than the flickering dim light from burning candles on a cold winter night.

Now the living room is ready for our favorite activity of all: Staying home and snuggling up with our loved ones — family, friends and pets! Whether it’s a game night night with girls, movie night with the boy, or Christmas Eve dinner with family and friends, our neutral homes have been perfectly made over with just a few key, colorful accents: garland, ornaments, candlelight, and of course, presents!

Alaina and Danielle are co-founders of The Everygirl, a lifestyle, career and awesomeness resource for Everygirls everywhere. Thanks so much for the beautiful Christmas mantel decorating ideas, Alaina and Danielle!

Here are the Home Depot products that Alaina and Danielle used on their Christmas mantel project: 

• Martha Stewart Living Christmas Collectables 100-pack of ornaments
• Meilo Creations LED Red Ribbon
• Pre-lit Garland 

Take a look at the other great Christmas decorating ideas in our Holiday Edition of the Style Challenge series here on the Apron blog.

Style Challenge is a series of posts from guest contributors who aim to bring you fresh inspiration and ideas for your home and garden using a single Home Depot product as a starting point. Alaina and Danielle received a selection of Christmas decorations  from The Home Depot, but The Home Depot provided no other compensation. The opinions and ideas Alaina and Danielle expressed are their own.