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20 essential safety tips for the holidays

Expert tips to ensure your family stays safe this holiday season

By
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Originally published in Today's Parent January 2011

1. Keep doors and windows closed and locked even if you’re away from your home for just a few moments.

2. When you’re out for the evening at a holiday party, leave a light and a TV on in your home.

3. If you’re going away on vacation, stop newspaper delivery services, have someone collect your mail, hire a snow-shoveling service and set up indoor lights with automatic timers.

4. Make sure the Christmas tree doesn’t obstruct doors, windows and hallways.

5. Keep the Christmas tree away from heat sources such as the fireplace, space heaters, radiators and all electrical devices.

6. Holiday decorations should be fire-resistant, noncombustible and nonconductive. For example, the combination of glass-wool and spray-on snowflakes creates an extremely combustible decoration (see more safety tips here).

7. Keep smaller decorations away from pets and young children to prevent choking.

8. Test the sturdiness of your Christmas tree so it doesn’t topple over onto children or pets.

9. Choose an artificial Christmas tree that is labeled “fire resistant.”

10. Real Christmas trees should be trimmed two inches at the trunk, and placed in water or moist sand so they don’t dry out and cause a fire hazard.

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