Holiday Hazards: A Christmas List to Avoid this Year

In Victorian England, games were a central aspect of Christmas celebration, and one of the most beloved of these was a game called “snapdragon”. Snapdragon was played by placing raisins or almonds in a wide, shallow dish full of brandy, which they would then light on fire for children and adults alike to reach in quickly to try to grab the treats out.

That is to say, playing with fire is practically a Christmas tradition.

The tradition of placing Christmas trees within the home, lit with candles and bedecked with paper garlands and ornaments, was also popularized in the fire-loving Victorian era: which means that this Christmas, the hazards involved with our favorite traditions should stay in the forefront of our minds.

Nearly half of the home fires that happen in a year happen during the holidays, specifically during the months of December, January, and February when most people still have their Christmas decorations up. In the United States alone, 860 home fires are caused by holiday decorations each year, excluding the 210 fires caused by Christmas trees. And these are only a handful of the hazards that come with the holidays, excluding the statistics of kitchen fires (peaking on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years) or children swallowing things they shouldn’t, from batteries to deceptively candy-cane-shaped ornaments.

Here’s a more comprehensive Christmas list of hazards you can protect yourself from this year:

• Real Christmas Trees: If you have a real/live Christmas tree, make sure to buy a fresh one that isn’t losing a lot of needles, and water it daily. Otherwise, you may be decorating your home with a giant bundle of kindling covered in electrical wires.

• Damaged Decorations: Check your decorations for exposed wires, broken bulbs, and any other damages that could expose your home to an electrical fire.

• Overloaded Outlets: Be careful not to overload outlets! Less is more with electrical decor. Spread lights out throughout your home or use battery operated candles/lights to keep outlets mostly clear.

• Open Flames: Keep paper or fabric decor away from open flames such as fireplaces or candles. Don’t put up stockings that are so long a stray flame could light them up!

• Leaving Lights Running: Turn off lights before you go to sleep or leave the house. Letting lights run for hours unsupervised isn’t just a bad idea for your power bill, it’s a fire hazard for your home.

• Outdoor Decor: Do not use indoor decorations outdoors! They are not made to handle moisture or extreme temperatures, and thus can short circuit or spark if exposed. This is a serious fire hazard. Keep indoor and outdoor decorations clearly labeled and differentiated.

• In the Kitchen: Between simmer pots, baking, and big holiday meals, the kitchen is running near constantly in the wintertime. Protect your home from kitchen fires by turning off your oven or stove when you’re done using them, putting timers on for everything you cook, and not leaving anything running when you’re not paying attention.

• Reachable Batteries: Keep batteries in their packaging or in the device they belong in. Holidays are a prime time for pets or young children to get ahold of and consume the batteries intended to go into Christmas gifts.

• Fireplace Safety: The Christmas season is a wonderful time to curl up beside the fire with a good book, but using a fireplace comes with a number of dangers. Before you use your fireplace, you should have it inspected to see if your chimney needs cleaned, and keep a screen on the fireplace to prevent embers from popping out and landing on the floor or carpet. Also, don’t burn anything but seasoned wood inside your home, as burning other materials can cause flash fires.

• Ladder Disasters:Thousands of people are injured falling off of ladders while hanging Christmas lights every year. Remember ladder safety and don’t hang Christmas lights without another person to hold the bottom of the ladder. Keep three points of contact when you are high up, and don’t use metal ladders, as they can conduct electricity while you are holding electrical wires and at the same height as power lines.

• Fragile Ornaments: Fragile ornaments should be hung higher on a tree if you live in a household with children or pets, as they could knock them off lower branches and injure themselves on the broken shards. Many glass or ceramic ornaments look like candy canes or sweets as well, and those should also be kept out of the reach of children or pets that might recognize and try to eat them.

• Blocked Exits: Be careful not to block your exits with your decorations by placing a tree in front of a door or a garland over a window latch. With the heightened chances of home fires in the Christmas season, having easy access to exits is important.

All of this excludes the hazards involved with travel, which I’ve written another article about that you can read here.

Overall, it is important to keep the same awareness and care that we put into our work into our home life. The holidays bring the people we love most close to us, and by keeping our eye on the hazards that come with the season, we can protect them.

TapRooT® RCA works to do the same with your workplace, helping you recognize where hazards really begin.

If you would like to learn more about how the TapRooT® System helps you create a safer workplace, contact us for a free briefing here.

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