Holiday Safety Tips 🌲🎅🤶
Holiday Safety Tips: The Gift of Prevention
âTis the season to trim the tree, wrap presents in pretty packages, light up the house with colourful light displays, and feast with your family. We love the magic of the holidays, especially here on the Island, where treasured traditions – new and old – bring friends, neighbours and communities together.
From community craft fairs to Santa parades, impressive light displays (weâre looking at you, North Rustico), meat pie competitions, holiday music shows, the Hot Chocolate Trail, and all sorts of other festive fun, itâs truly a season for making memories that will last a lifetime.
As an insurance company, however, we also know that the holidays are a prime time for accidents that can end in tragedy. Swept up in the hullabaloo of the season, we may forget to take normal safety precautions, or we may simply not realize that our festive set-up is a fire hazard.
Bottom line: statistics show that fires and other accidents tend to peak during holidays, and most of these tragedies are wholly preventable. With that in mind, keep reading for our top tips on having a safe (and magical!) holiday season.
Christmas Tree Fires
The smell of a freshly cut Christmas tree is sure to enhance the festive ambience in your home. If not properly cared for, however, you may end up smelling smoke instead of that lovely pine scent.
Your Christmas tree becomes a real fire hazard if it dries out. Keep your tree watered daily and dispose of it within 4 weeks of cutting to reduce the chances of a fire. A significant number of tree fires occur in January, suggesting homeowners may be unaware of the risks of keeping their tree indoors for more than a month.
Notably, according to the National Fire Protection Association, a whopping 44% of all Christmas tree fires are caused by electrical distribution and lighting equipment.
Be sure to check the wiring on your stringed lights, donât overload the extension cord, and donât leave the lights on when you are out of the home or going to bed.
Holiday Decorating Hazards
Decorative lights bring a sparkle to the season, but are also the source of many fires due to being left on too long, improperly used, or faulty in design.
Ensure that your lights are certified by a legitimate testing body. Even better, use LED lights, which produce less heat and are less likely to cause a fire. Most modern Christmas lights are LED nowadays!
Improper use of indoor/outdoor lighting is also a common source of fires. Make sure youâre using the correct lighting for the space youâre jazzing up and that your outdoor lighting is properly secured.
Overloading electrical outlets can also be hazardous. Make sure you practice safe use of outlets and extension cords. This is not the time to embrace your inner Clark Griswald!
Lighting isnât the only decorating hazard. Ornaments, garlands, boughs, and wreaths can also cause fires. To reduce this risk, make sure all your holiday adornments are flame-retardant or non-combustible. Or if you must have that real wreath, keep it away from any fire hazards/risks!
While it may seem obvious to keep wrapping paper, tissue paper and other gifting decor away from flames and lighting, itâs easy to forget to take ordinary precautions when wrapped up in the holiday busy-ness.
A few extra minutes of prevention, however, could be the difference between an idyllic Christmas and a tragic one.
Psssst – extension cords can also be a major tripping hazard. Make sure yours are tucked away from typical walking paths and that exposed cords are easily visible.
Psssst pssst – many people end up in the hospital during the holiday season due to falling from ladders, roofs or other high places while putting up decorations. Take precautions to avoid ending up in the ER, such as buddying up to install outdoor lights and using a safety harness on the roof.
Candle Fires
Real candles bring a nostalgic holiday ambience to cozy spaces in your home, but they can also be a serious fire risk. In fact, statistics indicate that candle fires are four times more likely to occur in December than in any other month.
The most common causes are leaving candles unattended, falling asleep, and children/pets accidentally knocking candles over.
To reduce the risk, use candles with a sturdy base and keep them on higher tables or shelves, out of the reach of kids and wagging tails. And, of course, never leave burning candles unattended.
If you want to be 100% candle-safe, consider removing the risk completely by switching from real candles to flameless LED candles.
Holiday Cooking
Hosting a holiday feast is plenty of fun AND a lot of hard work, with the home cook juggling multiple side dishes, dessert, and the main attraction, which is often a giant turkey.
Sprinkle in hosting duties, kids running underfoot, and guests that canât seem to keep themselves out of the kitchen, and you have a recipe for something to go wrong. While a slightly dry turkey or watery cranberry sauce wouldnât be the end of the world, a kitchen fire is a whole other story.
Cooking is the leading cause of fire incidents (32%) in Canada, according to the latest report from Statistics Canada, yet itâs often overlooked as a hazard because itâs such a common task.
There are many measures you can take to reduce the chances of a kitchen fire, but the most important (and easiest) is to make sure you never leave cooking food unattended.
If youâre the head cook in the house, designate another adult in your household to take on hosting duties and a responsible teenager or adult to be the âkid and pet wranglerâ, so you can give the cooking your full attention.
Use timers to stay on top of the various dishes youâre preparing. And, of course, make sure you have a fire extinguisher and/or fire blanket nearby.
Hot Tip: If you use Siri, or have a smart pod in your home you can say something like âHey Siri – start a timer for 15 minutesâ.
Bon Appétit
Have a Holly Jolly and Safe Festive Season
There you have it, friends. We hope our holiday safety tips help ensure you have a magical holiday season with peace of mind that youâve done everything you can to prevent an accident.
For more tips on how to prevent house fires during the holiday season and all year-round check out our guide on How to Fireproof Your Home.
And please, in the spirit of prevention, share this guide with your loved ones, so everyone can do their part to reduce the chance of an accident happening during the holidays.