Safety Preparations for an Enjoyable Holiday

The holidays are a busy time, where traveling, cooking, decorating, and entertaining are happening more than any other time of the year. With the hectic season approaching, now is a great time for you to prepare your home, vehicle, and life, ensuring you get the most out of the season with your loved ones, having peace of mind by knowing you’re prepared for safe fun.   

Home Safety

The holidays offer a great opportunity for family and friends to gather in your home for festive fun. These tips can help you keep your home cozy and safe to ensure a successful holiday celebration.

Before turning your central heat on when it is really cold, turn it on now and go to your attic to check how it is operating and if there are any odd smells. You don’t want to be in a bind, needing to have your central heat serviced when the cold weather is already here.

It is recommended to clean your chimney once a year before frequent use. If there are soot stains around your fire, smoke coming back in the room instead of outside, and/or debris regularly falling from the chimney, your chimney is at risk of catching fire and should be cleaned. 

Vehicle and Travel Safety

During the holidays, roads are busier than ever with families traveling to meet their loved ones, often very long distances. These tips can help ensure a safe trip for you and others on the road so that many can enjoy meeting their distant friends and families this season without unprepared drivers jeopardizing the safety of the road.

During winter months, roadways can be slippery with ice and slush. Avoid traveling when roads are hazardous.  

You should do the proper maintenance on your vehicle before the winter weather comes, especially looking at your tires. Check the tread of the tires on your vehicle. The penny trick is an easy way to see if your tread is good or if you should replace your tire. Checking multiple grooves on all your tires, put a penny in a groove with Lincoln’s head down. If you can see the top of his head through the grooves, your tires are going bald and should be replaced. 

When traveling to see your family and friends in the winter, give yourself plenty of time to reach your destination in case of hazardous conditions on the road.

Decorating Safety

One of the most enjoyable holiday traditions is decorating your home. Nothing raises your spirits for the season like glistening lights, a mantle full of play spider webs, decorative cornucopias, or Christmas stockings. Whatever season: Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, decorations all have the potential for being unsafe with fire hazards because of heating and lighting elements with lights and wires, as well as the safety problems of the decorations with small children and pets. These tips can help you enjoy that beautifully decorated Christmas tree worry-free.

When pulling out decorations from storage, check for frayed wires and broken pieces to discard before you let your children start reaching into boxes to decorate.

Use decorations that are fire-resistant. Choose less heat-radiating options for lights, like LED instead of incandescent.

Securely anchor heavy decorations that can fall on young ones who help you decorate or that may visit your home.

Make sure cords and wires are well maintained and out of view, so curious pets and children are not tempted to play with these electrical hazards.

Some holiday plants may be poisonous to our four-legged housemates. Keep those holiday plants away from being reached by your pets or find some fake plants to decorate your home with for their safety.

When hanging outdoor lights be sure that they are well secured without damaging the roof or wires to prevent further damage by rain.

Do not overload circuits in your home. Distribute the amount of energy coming to your Christmas tree, lights, inflatables, and other electrical decorations by using various electrical circuits. 

Entertaining Safety

Food brings all your loved ones together for the holiday season! Cooking and hosting are bound to happen in your home, and these helpful tips will let you enjoy hosting with the peace of mind that everyone will be safe.

Use food-safe thermometers to make sure your dishes are up to safety standards.

Throw away food that should be cool or warm and has been out for longer than 2 hours. You can make smaller portions to serve while keeping extra cold food in the refrigerator and extra warm food in the oven at 140 degrees Fahrenheit to replenish. 

Make sure there is a manageable size of people invited to your home. You want to have a comfortable space for people to attend to their needs, ensuring needs like restrooms and first-aid kits, for possible injuries, are available.

Store away sharp items, valuables, and breakables. Curious children may go into rooms and other places that have not been child-proofed. Keep their safety in mind when setting up your home for hosting.

With these safety tips, you and your loved ones can enjoy the holiday season without worry as you have prepared yourself, your home, and your vehicle by minimizing the potentiality of danger. 

We’re Here to Help

Our firm loves our community and wishes everyone’s holiday season to be safe and joyful! We know the holidays can put extra pressure on people, and if an accident happens and you need seasoned lawyers to help with your personal injury case, ATE provides empathetic and experienced counsel to get you the help you need for your case. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.