• The mantel is a lovely place to display Christmas stockings and treasured decor.Christmas Stockings by Fireplace image by Mary Beth Granger from Fotolia.com
  
  Your mantel is the perfect place for holiday decorations. The ledge provides a secure place for lit candles, large vintage Christmas ornaments and Christmas decor that has been in your family for generations. Lining the mantel with boughs of greenery or garland interspersed with twinkle strands of lights or brightly colored ribbons is a beautiful way to draw attention to your Christmas stockings or other holiday accessories.
  
  

Snow Globe Display

• The mantel is a wise choice for snow globes with wintry holiday scenes. It is out of reach of small children and animals, keeping the fragile snow globes safe from accidents and curious little hands. If you have a collection of different sizes, place your largest snow globe in the center and the smaller sizes on either end, then fill the space in between with other sizes or holiday decorations like toy trains. A layer of cotton batting will give the appearance that your snow globes are sitting on top of a snow-filled landscape.
  
  

Thanksgiving Mantel

• Decorate your mantel with the rich colors of autumn to celebrate Thanksgiving. You can use magnolia leaves, faux pears and copper colored ornaments to give it the rich colors of the harvest season. Alternately, you can place raffia, pine cones, miniature pumpkins, Indian corn and colorful gourds on your mantel for a fall theme that brings the outdoors inside.
  
  

Easter Mantel

• Line up decorative Easter knickknacks along your mantel to create the look of an Easter parade. Displaying a wreath with pastel silk flowers above the mantel will further bring the promise of springtime to your home. This is a wise place to display ceramic eggs so that they will not be broken. Miniature straw baskets filled with pastel flowers or plastic eggs will enhance the look of an Easter celebration.
  
  

Christmas Village

• Many people have decorative and collectible Christmas villages that they display beneath their Christmas tree, but the mantel top is a beautiful place to display them as well. Lining the mantel with cotton batting or greenery gives your collection the look of a tiny village on a snowy slope or near the edge of a forest.