Oh the Holiday Crazies are among us. Family everywhere, frantic shopping, constant traffic, perfectly wrapping, decorating the house, cooking food, cooking desserts, cooking cooking cooking, party planning and need I go on? What aren’t we doing this time of year, oh I know, we’re not getting sleep. As a mom, you know life can get extremely busy while preparing for the holidays. However, sometimes the focus on celebrating can turn fun festivities into injuries and accidents if safety is not a priority for families. Studies show that nearly 230 people will visit the emergency room each day in November and December to be treated for holiday-related injuries.
Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a leading independent safety organization, is calling all parents, specifically moms, to set aside time in their schedule to commit at least one minute to safety each day this holiday season. You know who UL is right, they have their label on almost every single cable you can find that goes into an electrical socket, but they do more than that, they are on appliances, always thinking about safety in everything we do.
We’re committing to Holiday Safety as a family and I invite you to as well.
My husband decorated the house last weekend, he let the kids help in ways that were age appropriate.
He checked all of the cords, extension cords, and made sure they were safe to use and the indoor cords were used indoors and the outdoor cords were all outdoors. He carefully checked voltage, and organized the cords where they are not tangled in any way. And we placed one of the cables at our front door under our welcome mat so no one will trip on the cord on their way into our house. (we have smart neighbors, Thanks Robin!)
Here are a few more tips from UL:
Focus on the Fireplace
Move stockings and holiday decorations off the mantle before starting a fire in your fireplace and always use the fireplace screen. Recycle wrapping paper instead of burning it in your fireplace. Burning wrapping paper could produce dangerous sparks or flares of intense heat.
Read moreStay Warm Safely
Look for the UL Mark on your space heater and read the instructions before using it. Move space heaters at least three feet away from anything that can burn (e.g., curtains, blankets) and never leave a space heater on when you leave the room or go to sleep. Be sure to teach children (and practice it yourself) to never place anything on top of a space heater to dry.
Read moreKeep Watch in the Kitchen
The kitchen is a busy place from Thanksgiving through the holiday season. Never leave anything cooking unattended, not even for a minute. Turn pot handles inward so that little hands can’t grab them. And keep your kitchen and your cooking area free of clutter to avoid unnecessary accidents.
Read moreUse Candles with Care
Walk around your home and move candles away from anything that can burn. Store matches and lighters away from children and be sure to blow out candles before you leave the room or go to sleep. Never leave a burning candle unattended.Easy Electrical Safety
Check electrical outlets and make sure they are not overloaded. Look for the UL Mark on all your electrical cords and holiday lights. When decorating, inspect cords for damage and fraying and always keep extension cords away from where children play. Never run an extension cord under a rug or tack it up to a wall with a nail or staple.
Read more
I have to say one other thing that happened today, make sure you watch your children when they are playing. I wasn’t paying attention to my son this morning and he pulled one of our stocking right off the mantle today and I’m lucky that the letter P, the stocking holder, didn’t hit him in the head and knock him off of the fire place. It would have left a nasty bruise. Kids and Christmas do go together but keep it safe!!
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100.00 Visa Gift Card
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Just leave a comment on this post telling me how you plan to commit to safety this Holiday Season!
The Gift Card provided for the giveaway is my compensation for this post and I wanted to share it with my readers. By posting this and all of you leaving comments, I will be entered into a contest to win a 250.00 Gift Card from UL. The blogger with the most comments wins! Thank you for your participation!
This giveaway ends December 31st.
We plan to keep the holidays safe by keeping our fresh tree watered everyday and to make sure we turn off all decoration lights when we go out or go to bed.
We’ve thrown away worn out extension cords and strings of lights. We also keep lighted candles out of children’s reach. Have a safe holiday!
I am very careful with candles and they go out if we are leaving the room (even to go to the bathroom, heehee).
I am planning to be more careful with the electrical this year. I do tend to overload.
Safety is one of my biggest concerns… no mistletoe in our house with small children, no poinsettias because of the pets, and flameless candles on the mantel look just as nice.
Thanks for the tips!
I am constantly checking near my warm morning stoves to make sure that the kids are not laying clothes near them. We talk about the importance of this daily!
We’ll continue to stay safe by just hanging ornaments and cards instead of putting up a tree that our cats could mess with and potentially set a fire by chewing on wires.
Our girl cat is quite a little rascal when it comes to trees, or ANYTHING she can climb that she shouldn’t!
I plan on mapping out our fire escape route.
I plan on setting timers so I don’t forget to blow out candles. It’s so easy to forget them.
We bought the warmers to melt holiday scents to keep away from using candles.
We turn off all of our Christmas lights at bed time or when we are not home, we use warmers for our candles and do not use extenion cords.
mamabunny13 at gmail dot com
I don’t plan on using candles.
oooh I think I better skip the pointsettia this xmas ?? !!
http://www.icoulduseadeal.com
jtrophy at gmail dot com
good news Poinsettia are not really poisonous. You will get sick but not dead unless you eat the entire plant.
http://twitter.com/jtrophy/status/10757311769346048
tweeted
jtrophy at gmail dot com
http://www.icoulduseadeal.com
I plan to be extra careful when using my space heater& I don’t plan on using candles at all.
I plan to commit my family to saftey by buying new safer energy efficient light bulbs and making sure our extent ion cords are safe.
I’m putting candles in only a couple safe places, and making sure theyre put out if we leave the room. We’re also unplugging Christmas tree lights when we go to sleep or leave the house.
I plan to keep kids and pets away from the decorations and turn them off at night.
we added circuit breakers to all our lights
Great post! This year all of my Christmas candles are of the flameless variety – all of the flicker and glow, none of the fire danger!
to keep safe this holiday season we dont use candles, have timers on all lights, and we also use a fake christmas tree for further safety. We also make sure all cords are out of our little ones sight
We keep our tree watered daily, and use Scentsy Plug Ins instead of burning candles inside.
I am allowing myself more commute time to work. I noticed that holiday traffic has been picking up already. Also, I work with the developmentally disabled population, and I have started having a lot of holiday safety talks with all of them.
I’m super parnoid about boo-boos so we don’t use stocking hangers, we actually use those commmand stick on things that come right off after the holidays! We also don’t leave the tree plugged in all the time!
We water the tree at least once a day & never, ever leave the lights plugged in unsupervised
On Christmas my parent’s used to leave the tree lit all night (just on Christmas night) but this year, in my own house the lights will go off when I go to bed. I can wake up early and turn them back on before the kids get out of bed; they’ll never know.
We also use an extension cord with a foot switch so we aren’t tempted to just yank the plug from out of the wall.
we have decided when we go too bed to not keep the lights on the on
tree is unplugged at night and candles aren’t left burning if no one is in the room.
tattgiff at centurytel dot net
We bought flameless candles this year. We almost had a fire last year from a real candle, so I threw all of those out! I also plan to unplug my tree at night (If I ever get it put up!) and talk to my little ones (again) about where to go if there is a fire!
We’ll be sure to turn off everything electrical whenever we leave the house and we’ll check the batteries in our smoke/carbon monoxide detectors.
To be safe this year, I’m not putting any tinsel on the tree because I’ve read it can be harmful to cats if eaten (and my cats eat everything they aren’t supposed to).
by making sure nothing is left on unattended, especially before we go to sleep
keeping all unused outlets covered with numerous extension cords.
cgdarnell67@hotmail.com
I add a note by the front door as a reminder to unplug lights and turn off the heater before we leave the house and go to bed.
we never leave the lights on the tree unattended… and check the wires often to make sure they are not hot
I’m only going to keep candles burning when I am in the same room and keeping a close eye on them.
Biggest thing this year is switching to plastic ornaments. Once my kids are older we’ll go back to real ones:)
My light sets were really old and not energy efficient. So I replaced them all.
We put our tree up high, out of reach of our kids, and have it attached to the wall so it won’t fall over on anyone. We also go through the house every night to unplug the lights and blow out any lit candles.
The most important thing is to not overload your circuits with too any plug-ins. Always use an outlet mutliplier with a on/off switch and never use multiple outlet multipliers on one outlet!
The most important thing is to not overload your circuits with too any plug-ins. Always use an outlet mutliplier with a on/off switch and never use multiple outlet multipliers on one outlet!
by making sure all lights are unplugged and off when everyone is not home or asleep
The one thing that I go crazy with every year is making sure the tree has enough water.
The one thing that I go crazy with every year is making sure the tree has enough water.
we use an artificials christmas tree and we just bought new lights
We keep the holidays safe by safe guarding the house that has pets. We keep plants, cords and the fire place covered.
We are buying LED lights for our christmas tree so they wont be excessively hot
I will commit to safety by making sure all appliances are shut off before we leave for the holidays.
I will take care not to overload our electrical outlets.
We use flameless candles in our house, that way we don’t worry about accidents happening or anyone burning themselves!
We turn off all of our Christmas lights at bed time or when we are not home, we use warmers for our candles and do not use extenion cords.