How to Decorate Shelves for Christmas

Let There Be Light

• Fill a shelf with vintage lanterns that have glass sides and room for a cluster of beeswax pillar candles of different heights and circumferences. Add holiday ribbon bows to the hooks and handles of the lanterns, and arrange some greenery around the bases. Hook a shiny red ornament here and there to the pine or evergreen branches. Extra points if one or more of the old lantern frames is painted red. At night, light the candles and turn off the rest of the lights in the room. Use electric candles to keep things cool.

Rustic Cupboard

• Turn out all the shelves in a wall-hung kitchen crate or open cupboard to make room for Christmas decorations. Fill the top inside shelf with standing pine cones, end-to-end. Pile evergreen branches along the top of the crate or cupboard, and add more to the bottom inside shelf, tucking them among the pottery, dishes, pitchers and other kitchen necessities stored there. Poke strands of red berries, bright red pomegranates or apples, and more pine cones in among the greens on the lower shelf. Finally, hang a wreath of dried crimson cockscomb, finished off with a red plaid wired bow, to fall at the center of the open shelves and declare Christmas officially on the menu in your kitchen.

Feathered Folly

• Clear glass cylinders and bits of bling create an exotic and elegant shelf or mantel for the holidays. Large glass cylinders in different sizes hold a jumble of silver and gold ornaments: gold and silver Christmas tree balls; silver finials; gold- and silver-painted pine cones; gold-sprayed walnuts; silver-sprayed hollow eggs. More cylinders -- filled one-quarter full with clear, silver or gold glass pebbles -- support bunches of peacock feathers, clumped together and fanned out. Line up the cylinders, alternating baubles and feathers, along the shelf in front of a string of blue or white fairy lights for a magical display.

Candlestick Kissing Balls

• Silver and crystal candlesticks are useful for more than holding wax tapers during the holidays. Create small kissing balls or pomanders by sticking all-red or all-green carnations or other fluffy flowers in damp green florists' foam balls, completely covering the balls except for a small undecorated section on the bottom. Set candlesticks equidistant from each other on the shelf, and place a pomander on each one -- the bare spot will sit flat on the top of the candlestick. If you don't have candlesticks, use upside-down wine glasses. Weave strands of red, green and white fairy lights into a loose braid to drape across the front of the shelf like a garland. Perch several feathered red cardinals on the braid of lights.