christmas centerpiece

How to Make a Christmas Centerpiece in 15 minutes

Do you want to impress friends and family with a beautiful Christmas Centerpiece this Christmas? With so much to do this Holiday season, who has time to make a centerpiece from scratch? If you have 15 minutes to spare in your day, I’m going to show you the shortcuts I take to make beautiful Christmas centerpieces. It’s so easy to make. It’s the perfect DIY project for beginners, lazy crafters and even kids! Below is my step by step guide on how to make a Christmas Centerpiece in 15 minutes or less.

Step By Step: How to Make a Christmas Centerpiece

Materials for your Centerpiece

For your Christmas centerpiece, you will need 4 main materials- a variety of evergreen cuttings, pruning shears, a base (plate or table runner) and candle(s) for your centerpiece. The other items on the list below are optional.

The base of your Christmas centerpiece is dependent on the shape of your table. If you have a round table, then a round centerpiece is best. If you have a long rectangular table, then you will want a centerpiece that runs the length of your table. If you are making a round centerpiece, I found it best to lay the evergreens on a round plate or charger. I love these gold rim chargers. Otherwise gold chargers or silver chargers are good too. If you are making a long centerpiece then a table runner is a good choice as a base. I like reversible table runners, this reversible red buffalo plaid and burlap table runner makes a nice base.

If you are planning to secure your evergreens together by tying them together, then you will need floral wire or twist ties. As for the accessories and ribbons for your centerpiece, it will depend on the theme of your Christmas centerpiece.

  1. Fresh evergreen cuttings
  2. Pruning shears
  3. Floral Wire or Green Twist ties (optional)
  4. Candle(s)
  5. Base for round centerpieces: 13 inch+ Plate or Charger
  6. Base for long centerpieces: table runner
  7. Wired ribbons (optional)
  8. Accessories (optional)
how to make a christmas centerpiece

Step 1: Gather fresh evergreen cuttings for your Christmas centerpiece

Start by gathering fresh evergreen cuttings for your Christmas centerpiece. If you live in the New York suburbs like me, you can probably gather all the evergreen cuttings from your backyard. Gather up evergreen leaves and branches from the spruce trees, pine trees and holly bushes in the backyard. Also pick up a few pine cones. Make sure you get a good assortment of evergreen cuttings. The key to robust Christmas centerpieces is to layer on a variety of leaves and textures. Make sure to protect your hands with gloves (pine needles and holly leaves are prickly) and get a good quality pruning shears to make it easy to cut the small branches. You will find that some of the evergreen branches are tough. And if you are like me, with kids nearby, it’s handy to have pruning shears that locks to protect the sharp blades from little fingers. If you don’t have evergreens in your backyard, you can stop by your local nursery or store that sells Christmas trees. There are usually evergreen clippings on the ground that have fallen from the Christmas trees, I’m sure they will happily give you the evergreen clippings for your Christmas centerpiece.

how to make a christmas centerpiece

Step 2: Put It All Together

Making a Christmas centerpiece is so easy. I think it’s even easier than making a Holiday wreath. If you have time, you can tie your evergreens together with floral wire or green twist ties.

how to make a christmas centerpiece

If you are feeling lazy or you just don’t have time to tie evergreens together, you can can simply lay the evergreens on your base and call it a day. They key to making your Christmas centerpiece look robust is to layer a variety of evergreen leaves. Then use holly berries to add reds and use pine cones to add browns to your centerpiece. Below I used a round charger as the base for my round Christmas centerpiece.

round christmas centerpiece

As you can see below, I simply arranged the evergreens on the charger plate to create my Christmas centerpiece. Make sure to layer a good variety of evergreen leaves, holly and pine cones. Then top it off with a candle. Since the evergreens sit on the plate, I did not secure it anymore with floral wire.

how to make a christmas centerpiece

You can make your Christmas centerpiece look more robust by adding a tray and ribbons. As you can see below, I added a gold rectangular tray and gold wired ribbons to make a more impressive Christmas centerpiece. You can use guest towel trays or candle trays. You can get candle sets that comes with votive candle holders and matching tray.

how to make a christmas centerpiece

You can also add Christmas accessories like mini nutcrakers and christmas ornaments. Below is an example of a Christmas Centerpiece with mini nutcrackers. For a Holiday Candy land look, I love these mini gingerbread houses.

how to make a christmas centerpiece
mini nutcrackers

You can also change up the look of your Christmas centerpiece by using different types of candles. Below I used the same Christmas centerpiece but I switched out the candle to my Nest candle. If you want your home to smell like Christmas, you should try the Nest Holiday scented candles. It’s my go-to Holiday home scent (I use both the candles and stick diffuser to make my home smell like Christmas).

how to make a christmas centerpiece

Below I changed the look of my Christmas centerpiece by using a silver bowl instead of a gold tray.

how to make a christmas centerpiece

Below I switched the Nest Holiday candle to the Juliska Holiday candle. I love the winter scenery on the candle and the scent is Holiday perfect.

how to make a christmas centerpiece

Below I changed the look of my Christmas centerpiece by using a Christmas plate instead of a gold tray or silver bowl. I like the Christmas-themed espresso saucers from Villeroy and Boch.

how to make a christmas centerpiece

Below I changed the look of my Christmas centerpiece by changing to a taper candle. If you don’t want to deal with the wax build-up of taper candles, try the dripless taper candles.

how to make a christmas centerpiece

Final Thoughts on Christmas Centerpiece Making

As you can see, it is so easy to making stunning Christmas centerpieces. And there are so many ways to make it. You can change the look by using different candles, bowls, trays, ribbons and small Christmas accessories. The best part about these Christmas centerpieces is that if you change your mind or come across new Christmas accessories that you want to incorporate into your centerpiece, you can simply rearrange your centerpiece to accommodate the new Christmas accessory. Remember, have fun with your centerpiece! Merry Christmas!

how to make a christmas centerpiece

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