How to Decorate an Elegant White and Gold Christmas Tree

Inside: Reflect the peace, light, and hope of the holidays with these white and gold color scheme ideas for a beautiful Christmas tree, plus gold and white decor ideas for the living room, mantel, dining table, entryway, and staircase!

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Never say never.

I said I’d never decorate for Christmas without my favorite classic red.

But for the very first time, I stepped out of my Christmas comfort zone this holiday season in one area of the house. I’m dreaming of a gold and white Christmas. And it doesn’t have a drop of red (but it does have lots of winter white snowflakes)!

This gold and white color scheme is neutral, elegant, and even a little glam. And it might just be one of my favorite looks I’ve ever done for Christmas. The soft glow and sparkle of white and gold in these rooms feel peaceful. Full of the hope and promise of what the holiday is actually about.

Let’s take a little tour around the living room, dining room, and foyer, and I’ll show you all the white and gold holiday decor I came up with this season!

I’m excited to be part of the Bloggers Best Christmas tour, hosted by Kelly at The Tattered Pew. This group of talented bloggers are all opening their homes to you to share how they’ve decorated for the holidays. If you’re visiting me from my good friend Suzy at Worthing Court‘s beautiful living room decked out for Christmas, welcome! Make sure to visit the rest for more Christmas inspiration at the bottom of this post.

How to Decorate a Tree with a White and Gold Theme.

The inspiration behind the whole gold and white look was the Christmas tree. My artificial tree in the living room is usually filled with red ornaments, sentimental ornaments, and kind of a hodge podge of everything. I didn’t forgo them altogether this year just to make a matchy-matchy, pretty tree—you can see them in the family room tour.

Yes, a white tree or flocked tree would look dreamy with white and gold Christmas decorations. But I have a green tree in here, so I set out to bring as much light and white to it as I could.

My first order of business after assembling, fluffing, and testing lights, is always to put on the ribbon. It’s the easiest way to instantly change the color palette of the whole tree.

I tucked in white ribbons and two different gold ribbons from previous Christmas seasons. I love how much visual interest ribbon immediately adds to the Christmas tree!

Want to know the best way to put ribbon on the tree? See it in the post, “How to Put Ribbon on a Christmas Tree the Easy Way!“

Next, I followed with some tree picks in sparkly gold, white, and silver.

I stored my Christmas tree ornaments last year by color (thank you last year self). So I pulled a variety of Christmas ornaments from the white, gold, and silver ornaments bins.

I’ve collected lots of white ornaments because they bring lightness to the green Christmas tree and go with any color scheme. I had a lot less gold, but I tried to evenly disperse the mercury glass classic gold ball ornaments amongst all of the white ones.

And for big impact, these oversized snowflake ornaments from Walmart were the perfect white touch!

A gold star would be a no brainer on the top of the tree, but instead of buying one, I made a tree topper one of my favorite ways—by making several easy bows. And one more large snowflake perched up top made a beautiful tree topper detail.

I wanted to add a little more lightness to the tree and since I had the snowflake motif going, I added little faux snow patches peeking out here and there.

See this no-mess fake snow hack in the post, “The Mess-Free Secret Hack for Adding Snow to Your Christmas Tree“.

I filled in around the base of the tree with a few “model” gifts in coordinating wrapping paper. I used an antique brass tree collar to bring in the gold, but a white faux fur blanket used as a tree skirt would also look lovely.

The best time is at night —the white Christmas lights shimmer and glimmer off of all the decor on this white and gold tree!

The Gold and White Holiday Living Room Decor.

The tree takes center stage, but I added in a few gold and white Christmas decorations to go with it throughout the room.

Across the fireplace mantel, I swagged plain winter greenery and decorated the ends with gold ribbon and oversized gold, silver, and white ornament balls.

Luckily my angel orchestra is gold so they were the perfect decor for the top of the mantel.

White and Gold Christmas Coffee Table and Side Table.

I added more faux snow to the coffee table tray, and topped it with a few shimmery snowflake ornaments.

I kept the olive green pillows in place. Velvet is always a beautiful fabric texture for the holidays.

And I echoed a little more green velvet with an oversized gold ornament tied off with some green velvet ribbon on the end table.

White and Gold Christmas Table Decor in the Dining Room.

The elegant Christmas tree called for an elegant table full of white and gold on the other side of this open area.

The gold and white Christmas centerpiece is full of sparkle with mercury glass finials, votive holders, and a glittery ball garland. It’s full of shine from candles and fairy lights.

And a blanket of faux snow over the table runner mirror brings in white and softness.

You can see all the details of how I put together this table’s elegant look in the post, “How to Create an Elegant White and Gold Holiday Table“.

I brought in more of the snowflake theme here too, by adding snowflake ornaments to the place card holder napkin rings.

Gold and White Christmas Decor for the Entryway.

And the final stop is the foyer. This year I hung boughs of plain garland on the staircase and inserted floral picks of pine and winter greens.

I tied gold bows at the top of each swag. And finished off the front with two more gold ornaments.

On the entryway table, I kept the usual urn and also the branch from my fall tree. I just gave it a little makeover with some paint and more snowflake ornaments!

See how I made this big statement holiday decor for little money in the post, “DIY Snowflake Tree Branch: Simple Stunning Christmas Decor“.

So that’s my first Christmas without red. And this diehard Christmas red fan is surprised at how much I like it (but I’m still glad I used red in the kitchen and family room). This color combination made it easy to add a refreshing touch of elegance to the formal living room and dining room.

I’d love to know what you think of this color scheme for Christmas in the comments!

See the tour of this same area last year in the post, “Green: The Perfect Popular Color to Refresh Red and White Christmas Decor“.

Merry Christmas friend!

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Continue the Bloggers Best Holiday Home Tour.

Now continue on the tour for more holiday decor ideas. Your next stop is Michelle’s home with the cutest red and white Christmas decor at Our Crafty Mom!

Monday’s Tours