Looking for the best place to make a holiday decorating statement? Mind your mantel

Bringing evergreen boughs indoors has been a tradition at this time of year since the late Middle Ages, when the fresh green of holly and fir branches represented mystical power in the face of winter's killing cold.

Today, "deck the halls" is a decorating imperative in which anything goes. Even the most Zen of pared-down rooms doesn't seem festive without a bit of Christmas excess.

Mantels figure prominently in Christmas trimmings, as key to setting the holiday scene as a decorated tree or a wreath on the front door. But the practice, for many, has gone way beyond a mere swag of unembellished greenery. Mantels are adorned with fresh flowers, ornaments, candles, toys, objets that usually perch in other parts of a house and botanical elements not generally associated with the season. The floral designers whose works are pictured here don't design in a visual vacuum. Each mantel's room setting as well as the client's personality and preferences are interpreted through the designer's artistic eye and nimble fingers.

Traditional treasures

Christmas tradition is the cornerstone of Jamie Huizenga's scheme for a circa-1910 Belgian mantelpiece. She combines the seasonal colors of red and green (albeit a bright yellow-green) with the clear blue ground of a 17th-century Madonna and child painting from Europe.

Rather than mix the abundant flowers in a riot of intense color, Mrs. Huizenga, co-owner of Cebolla Fine Flowers in University Park with her husband Luit, massed them in separate groupings. "I used chartreuse instead of Kelly green because chartreuse has such a fresh look to it," she says. "It ties colors together in an unusual way. It's at the top of my color list right now."

Although her use of cut amaryllis and large-flowered cymbidium orchids seems extravagant, Mrs. Huizenga says the blossoms last two weeks, as do the blue-berried juniper branches. The rounded heads of blue hydrangea (stems cut short) have been frosted with glitter to make them sparkle.

Mrs. Huizenga is a fan of artisanship, and in her shop handmade shares billing with nature-made. The organic pottery holding flowers is from the Czech Republic; the Nativity figures, carved and painted by hand, are from Ecuador. Swagging the top of the mantel is a string of handmade ornaments from California; the wool stockings stuffed with felt animals are from Germany.