Christmas Mantel 2021: A Christmas Village

I’ve taken FOREVER to get myself decorated for Christmas this year but the kitchen and living room are finally done. (I think). To finish the room, I created a Christmas Village mantel. It’s a simple concept and one you can replicate and personalise on a budget.

Here’s how I created our Christmas Village on the mantel.

WARNING: After creating these cute little houses, it’s easy to become addicted to them. I got so excited by the look I bought two more large cloches and made more houses!

To Recreate this Christmas Village Mantel

You will need:

• Faux garland the length of you mantel
• Twinkle lights. I used 3 sets. One for the back, and one for the garland of each section
• Cloches, large glass jars or glass hurricane lamps
• white saucers, cake plates etc
• battery operated tea lights
• christmas village houses. I made mine using a variety of templates from Cricut design space but you could cut them freehand, use ceramic houses or even make little air dry clay houses.
• white sugar to make snow. You could also use fibre fill from inside a cushion, a much less messy option
• white cardstock, a glue stick, scissors and a stanley knife if you are making your houses
• bottle brush trees. Mine are green, gold and copper/caramel
• I also added my gingerbread garland

Assembling the Christmas Village Mantel

• Start with the base: the greenery garland. I have tiny tacks on the corners and middle of my mantel that are there all year round but you could use command hooks to secure it. String it tightly to hug the underside of the mantel.
• Add copper wire lights to the garland and along the back of the mantel. Try to keep them wound, they look better this way. Tuck them in between the stems of the garland and hide the battery pack.
• make your houses if this is what you are doing. You can make three sides and bend them to look like 3d houses. A stanley knife would be useful to cut out windows and doors.
• Assemble the cloches/vessels with a base of sugar on the saucer, a tealight candle. (Mine were purchased from Big W), the little house over the candle and a tree.
• Place the vessels in the designated spot and add extra bottle brush trees

Tips For Assembling

• Put the houses at differing levels to add interest to the arrangement
• If you can get remote-operated tea lights do it! These ones are a pain. I have to take the cloches apart to turn them off
• Don’t be afraid to move the elements around until you get a look you love. I could not put my finger on the missing piece until I put my white birdcage in the space below the mantel. Now it looks complete.
• DO NOT put real tea light candles inside your houses unless they are ceramic/clay. It sounds obvious, right, but if you do this and you have made them from card, you will burn the house down.