Now that Thanksgiving is over, some people can鈥檛 wait to get their holiday decorations out and put up around the house.
While it might sound silly to say you can get hurt decorating, imagine how the 200 people who get hurt every day while decorating feel when they have to explain their injury. Because that鈥檚 how often it happens this time of year.
Many of those injuries can involve ladders.
鈥淭here are more falls putting up and taking down Christmas decorations each year than there should be,鈥� said Dana Baiocco, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commissioner.
Any time you need a ladder to help decorate, it鈥檚 no longer just a solo project.
鈥淲e see that with older citizens, they get up on the ladder, there鈥檚 nobody there, they lose their balance fall while trying to hang or take down decorations.鈥�
At the same time, you want to make sure that kids and pets aren鈥檛 running around underneath the ladder either.
鈥淒on鈥檛 do it by youself, you want to have someone who helps you climb, helps you get down,鈥� said Baiocco.
Likewise, once you鈥檙e safely on the ladder, Christmas lights can pose their own problems too.
鈥淚f you take them out of storage and you look at them and they have frayed wires, or they have cracked bulbs, or cracked sockets, don鈥檛 use them,鈥� said Baiocco. In addition, 鈥渄on鈥檛 use a stapler, and when you store them, don鈥檛 put them away wet.鈥�
Believe it or not, some people put candles on trees too, which is a big no-no.
But at the same time, you want to be careful about the windowsills too. If a candle slips and nudges a curtain or a breeze sends it into the flame, it doesn鈥檛 take long for disaster to strike.
鈥淭oo many times somebody walks away from a candle that鈥檚 by a curtain or a drape,鈥� said Baiocco.
At a demonstration day last month, it took less than a minute for a curtain that had caught fire to swamp a whole living room wall in flames. On a dried out Christmas tree, a fire that started had the whole room in flames even faster.
鈥淐andles are so important,鈥� she stressed. 鈥淢ake sure you don鈥檛 leave them unattended and put them in a safe place, away from flammable fabrics.鈥�
