Creating a Christmas Mantlescape on a Budget

With a 2 year old and a 5 month old at home, this year I've decided to take it easy on Christmas decorations.  With less energy and free time to hang garland from my stairs, mantle, tops of furniture, light fixtures, and outdoors I decided to keep my decorating simple and minimal. So I will be showing you how a I created a mantlescape on a budget. I reused every item from previous years, and I'm sure you can find some of these items in your home too.  (If you will be hanging garland this year check out this post on how to style and hang it.)

 I have been loving black and white and green Christmas decor, however a lot of what I already have is red so I went with a black, white, and red theme. I keep an old window above my mantle most of the year, so this is usually the backdrop of my mantle.  Then I started with some Christmas Village houses.  I spray painted them white to give them a cohesive look and keep with my neutral look.  

  To then fill in some of the spaces, I made these paper cone Christmas Trees using scrapbook paper that matched my look.  If you don't have scrapbook paper in the colors you would like you could also create these in 2 layers, using plain cardstock with a layer of wrapping paper on top to give some pattern.  

Next I added some texture with pinecones, you can wander your backyard and pick some or at any craft or big box store. In the Christmas section they will have bags of pinecones, and most smell like cinnamon, YUM!  I used a grapevine wreath that I change out for each season and adorned it with some red berries, pine cones and a black and white striped ribbon and hung it as my centerpiece on my window.  If you don't have or can't find an old window, the wreath can simply hang from a command hook above the rest of the mantle. 

Since I love to have my mantle lit up at night I added in some simple white votive and pillar candles, two of which sit on my grandmothers pewter candlesticks. These add some varying height to the mantle and remind me of going to her house and staring at her hutch filled with all pewter trinkets and her lit up Christmas Village. 

Grapevine Wreath $4.74
Pinecones $5.32
Scrapbook paper $14.18
LED Pillar Candles $12.00
Votive Candles $11.99
Christmas Village Houses $24.95
Black & White Ribbon $6.00
Pinecone Berry spray $3.99

For a Grand Total of $83.17 if you have to purchase every item including the candles, (but I'm sure you have some of these things already lying around the house) you can create this simple modern mantlescape.  I was able to make this mantle without purchasing one item this year, #Momwin.  And it may be my favorite Christmas Mantle I have done to date, Until next year I'm sure.