Halloween Mantle Ideas, Tips and Tricks

This is my fall/autumn/Halloween mantle.  I leave the garland up from the end of summer through Thanksgiving.  Even the faux gourds in the glass containers stay until the Christmas decorations go up.  It saves a lot of juggling and it goes with all of the different things I put on there for fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving.

To "fill" the vase with Candy Corn, I learned a new trick this year.  I think it was on "The Chew", but it could have been on Pinterest.  You invert a plastic container from Chinese food (a quart size or so) in the middle of it and pour the Candy Corn down over it.  That way you don't need a dozen bags of Candy Corn to fill the vase.  It also gives a nice solid base for my battery operated tea lights.  I used three here.

I have 3 Halloween themed nutcrackers (in need of another one to balance out the mantle) that I have collected over the years.  So keep your eyes open after Halloween for some bargains on whatever strikes your fancy!  Kohl's has some cute stuff.

These shimmery metallic gourds are from Michael's and it took one bag for each of the containers.  They were a bit pricey, but you can usually get a coupon online and print it to take with you.