🕯️ Staying Safe While Decorating Your Home for the Holidays

While Christmas lights can look stunningly beautiful, it takes many hours of preparation to make sure everything is festive and in working order. It’s important to keep safety in mind when adding lights and other decorations to your home. Staying safe while decorating your home for the holidays should be a top priority!

During the excitement of holiday preparations, it’s easy to forget about small details that can cause safety issues. Take into consideration that most people are extremely busy this time of year. The pressure that comes from trying to get everything done in time for celebrations can create situations that increase the chance for a careless mistake.

Many people opt for artificial trees that are fire-resistant, which is a good idea if you are set on providing this element of safety to your home. Even though an artificial tree doesn’t have the freshness of a real tree, there are options that look realistic. Make sure the tree is certified to be fire-resistant.

Benefits of Focusing on Safety

• Lessen the chance of personal harm.
• Keep your household safe throughout the season.
• Protect one of your biggest investments!

If you opt for a fresh tree, you want to choose one that is recently harvested for holiday use and has branches that are not easily removed. The needles on the tree should be hard to break and should not fall easily from the tree if you bounce the trunk off the ground quickly.

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If you don’t have a lot of space to work with when placing your tree, you’ll want to guard against putting it in an area that gets a lot of foot traffic. You don’t want people accidentally knocking the tree over and getting injured. Consider securing the tree to the wall or ceiling to increase stability.

Consider your household and people who will be visiting your home during the holidays when choosing ornaments and other tree trimming elements. If small children are going to be around, you may want to avoid ornaments that look like candy or food. Avoid glass ornaments if there’s a concern that pets or children could knock something off the tree while playing.

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Staying safe while decorating is extremely important when choosing and putting up holiday lights inside or outside of your home. Choose Christmas lights that are properly rated for the intended use. You can use outside lights inside or outside, but you can only use indoor lights inside your home.

Lights can be costly, but this is one area where it pays to spend a little extra to ensure safety. A premium or higher grade light set has higher safety standards and often comes with additional features that help when a light goes out in the strand. Remember that LED lights last longer and are less of a fire risk than traditional incandescent bulbs.

Whether you decide to use last year’s lights or buy brand new sets for this year, check every single strand for broken or cracked sockets, frayed wires, and loose connections. If you plan to use a high number of lights for your holiday decorating project, make sure you secure them properly and take care not to overload electrical outlets.

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⭐ Always use a fiberglass or wooden ladder. 

🎄 Use outdoor extension cords that are heavy duty.

⭐ Do not attach electrical wires with staples or nails. Use cable ties. You can find them in a variety of colors.

🎄 Use a timer or turn outdoor lights off when going to bed.

⭐ Use GFCI protected outlets when connecting multiple light sets.

🎄 Do not leave electrical connections laying on the ground. Use a brick or cement block to elevate them.