When planning your Christmas decorating, fireplace decorations aren't always the first thing you think of, are they?

But they can actually be the most important-- because this is the area of your home that people will gather around all a season long. You want to make the best use of it!

Looking for some mantle decorating ideas for Christmas? This is the place to find them. This page is full of photos of decorated Christmas mantles and fireplaces, and lots of tips on how to use your current Christmas decorations to create a beautiful Christmas fireplace.

When you're done here, check Christmas Decorating Tips Central for more decorating ideas and help... including some cheap homemade decorations and themes that you can also use to decorate a mantle for Christmas!

8 Themes for Christmas Decorating: Fireplace Tips and Ideas

1. Celebrate your Family

Of course, the whole reason Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year is... your family. And while you want to make things beautiful, I always like to do them in a way that celebrates the most important thing in life: family. One of my favorite Christmas decorating fireplace ideas is the one in the photo here. Here, every member of the family is represented with a stocking, with a personal photo of each member on the mantle right on top. So fun and festive.

Add to it. A nice addition to this xmas fireplace decoration? The family-made, framed photo over the fire. Do a Christmas themed one on butcher paper or poster board, frame it, and bring it out every Christmas to celebrate your family.

2. Create Interest with Lighting

The coziest time of the day to sit around the fireplace is, of course, the evening. So when you're planning on your lights for Christmas decorating, fireplace lighting should definitely be a consideration.

Think about buying pre-lit decorations, like the cheerfully lit Christmas village pictured here, or stringing old-fashioned large-bulbed lights for a vintage Christmas decoration look.

3. Keep it Simple

While I do have a tendency to want to cover everything in tinsel and glitter for Christmas (I can't be the only one, right?), some of the most elegant Christmas decorating fireplace displays are more subtle and simple, like the one pictured here.

Especially if you don't plan to go all-out with the rest of your Christmas decorations, simple mantle decorations like this are probably best. From a framed Christmas photo to a simple homemade wreath decoration, simple really can be beautiful.

4. Go Natural

Another really beautiful and elegant mantle decorating idea for Christmas is to use natural products.

What to Use: Especially if you live in a green area (if you're from Phoenix, like me, you might be out of luck), you can collect things like holly, pine cones, fresh pine branches, fresh Christmas-y fruit like red apples and pomegranates, and even herbs like rosemary and thyme and use them to decorate your mantle. Or string kumquats or cranberries and make a garland to drape across your Christmas fireplace. The sky's the limit.

Why it's a Favorite: Not only are these sorts of items cheap (or free) to use for Christmas decorating, fireplace displays actually look more elegant and expensive rather than cheaper-- greenery just looks gorgeous. It's better for the environment, too... and with all that plastic and metal tinsel being sold by the barrel-full every year, green Christmas decorations are definitely a good thing.

5. Back-light It

Twinkle lights look really beautiful for Christmas. They're cheerful and warm and very happy-looking. But in most holiday homes, the main area where you focus your Christmas decorations is... your Christmas tree, of course! If you don't want your Christmas decorating fireplace display to overshadow your Christmas tree, place your lights behind your decorations rather than on top or in front of. This will give your Xmas mantle display a warm and beautiful glow that's also classic and understated. Really pretty!

7. Pick a Color Scheme

If you're going for more of a cool look for your Christmas decorating fireplace display, I love the look of a monochromatic xmas display or a dual-color display.

You can always do red and green, of course, as pictured here. But I've also seen mantle decorating ideas for Christmas all in blue or white or silver. Or even fun and unusual colors, like pink and lime green. Have fun with it!

You can also steal ideas for Christmas decorating the fireplace from your Christmas tree! Check here for some fun Christmas tree decorating themes-- many of them will work beautifully for your fireplace!

8. Use What You've Got

This is another good money-saving Christmas decorating tip. You don't need to go out and buy fancy runners and cloths to decorate a fireplace mantle for Christmas.

A better ideaa? You can pick up items like napkins or placemats, or use ones you've already got lying around, to create something beautiful, elegant, and inexpensive. The display pictured here was made from pretty gilt-edged cloth napkins... cheap, readily available, and they look great.

You can also find some more great ideas for cheap or free homemade decorations for Christmas right here!

6. Display your Collections

One of my favorite Christmas traditions to keep going with my family is a Christmas collection. Buying a Christmas ornament every year, or an antique Nutcracker, or a Christmas village. AFFLINK? What better way to display your collection that as part of your fireplace decorating for Christmas? Since the fireplace is going to be one of the main gathering places in chilly December, it's the perfect place to display that collection you've spent years putting together.

Lighting for a Christmas Fireplace: 3 Creative Ideas

If you have a working fireplace and plan on keeping a fire going all winter long, then your best lighting option is obvious: a fire, of course! But if you have a block-over or non-working fireplace (or you simply can't or don't want to like a fire), there are other ways to give your fireplace a warm and welcoming glow, and to tie it in with your Christmas decorating fireplace mantle display.

1. Use Candles

This is sort of an obvious option but one I really love the way it looks. Almost any home decor store you walk into will sell these simple wrought-iron candle holders that are specially designed to tuck right into your fireplace. You get the cheer and warm light (if not the heat) of a fire, all contained and easy to put out. A perfect option for a cheerful Christmas fireplace.

While wrought-iron candle holders for the fireplace are pretty, I also love the option of a log-shaped candleholder. Especially when lighted with soft tea-lights, it looks totally authentic. And unlike with a real fire, you can (carefully) surround it with boughs of pine or holly for Christmas.

2. Make a Christmas Light Display

Another great idea for artificial fireplace lighting is an all-in-one Christmas light display, like the one pictured below.

You can use anything you like, from a string of these holographic snowflakes suspended from the top of the fireplace, to a large Bethlehem star, to a little lighted tree.

Have fun with this idea, and play around with different ways to decorate your fireplace space. Large outdoor lighting shapes, for instance, can look bold and festive when placed in a fake or unused fireplace. So get creative and use your cold fireplace in new ways this Christmas!

3.Pine and Twinkle Lights

This is one that I haven't seen many places, but I think it's a wonderful way to decorate a fireplace for Christmas.

How to do it: Fill the cavity of your fireplace with fresh pine boughs. Add a couple of strings of white twinkle lights (they look most cheerful), and watch the warm and pretty glow it creates.