When it comes to decorating for the holidays, Washington A-list designer Barry Dixon says the later the better.

“If you start too early, (arrangements) look dried and fossilized when parties come,” he says. “If I’m not having a party, I don’t decorate until the week before Christmas Eve. It’s definitely not too late.”

That’s reassuring for those of us who are running a bit behind. And here’s even more heartening advice: Focus on the fireplace. “If you’re going to spend time, money and energy on your house for the holidays,” Dixon says, “you might as well exert that effort on the natural focal point of the room.”

Dressing a mantel can be easy and economical, relying on elements that might well already be inside and outside your home. (Dixon speaks from experience: His grand Warrenton, Va., house boasts an astonishing 17 fireplaces, all of them working and decorated.)

Floral designers Barbara Hamilton and Jay Watkins, owners of the Ociana Group in Washington, help Dixon with his holiday decor each year and offer this simple recipe:

Jeff West, from the Kellogg Collection in Washington, D.C., dressed his home's mantel with antique Chinese jars, pine boughs, candles and more than 200 clementines and kumquats dusted with powdered sugar.

¢ Start with fresh garlands – magnolia, cedar, pine, Douglas fir, boxwood, spruce or a mixture, store-bought or harvested outside your home.

¢ Add fruit – pomegranates, limes, apples, kumquats, clementines or oranges studded with cloves. Choose one or two and use liberally.

¢ Include seasonal items (berry branches, pine cones, ornaments, nuts, cherished collectibles), either in containers or arranged. Add candles, if you like.

“It’s fruits and it’s nuts and it’s candles, with a little green tucked in,” says Watkins. “How easy is that?”