This year is different than most of the years that you can remember. It can make it much more difficult to figure out the right steps to take to have a safe Christmas. Ordinarily, you have to worry about the danger that various decorations may pose on your loved ones, such as an increased risk of a fire within your home. There are also certain winter safety steps that have to be implemented in order to protect your children and prevent them from sustaining injuries. Now, you also have to worry about how gatherings can increase the risk of spreading coronavirus. It is important to take the steps to keep your children safe over Christmas. Here are a few of our top tips for a safe Christmas.
Replace Old Lights
Old lights substantially increase the risk of a fire within your home. It is important to regularly replace your lights to minimize the risk of this happening. You should also ensure that you inspect the lights before you hang them up. This will enable you to find obvious defects, such as fraying wires.
Drive Safely if Traveling
If you intend to travel to visit family over Christmas, you will want to be especially cautious while driving. Not only is it more dangerous to drive in wintery weather, but there also tends to be a significant increase in traffic over Christmas break. Remain alert at all times while you are driving and never drive after you have been drinking.
Be Careful with Candles
Candles are commonly used over Christmas in order to provide a more festive environment. However, the use of candles translates to an increased risk of house fires. It is important to ensure that you are particularly cautious with your candle use to ensure that you can have a safe Christmas. Keep your candles away from potentially flammable materials and refrain from leaving your candles unattended.
Strategic Placement of Fragile Ornaments
Fragile ornaments, especially glass varieties, can be dangerous for your children and pets if they break. In order to prevent them from being cut by glass, you should ensure that you carefully place fragile ornaments. Ensure that they are high up and out of reach of both your children and pets. You will also want to secure your tree to prevent the ornaments from breaking if the tree falls over.
Don’t Overload Circuits
As fun as electronic Christmas decorations are, it is important to be careful regarding overloading circuits. Your circuits can only handle so much. Trying to force them to handle more than this will likely result in a power outage and will substantially increase the risk of fire within your home.
Care for your Smoke Detector
Because there are multiple factors that increase your risk of a house fire over Christmas, you should ensure that you check on your smoke detector early on in December. Change out the batteries and test it to ensure that it is still working. This will help to ensure that you are alerted quickly if a problem arises with your building.
Online Shopping
Most health experts are in favor of online shopping in lieu of in person shopping this year. This will help to reduce of shopping in crowds, which will similarly help to reduce your overall exposure. However, it is important to be particularly careful when you are shopping online. Only enter your card information on trusted sites in order to reduce the likelihood of your information becoming stolen. It is also important to monitor your accounts so that you catch possible problems quickly.
Don’t Post About your Travel Plans
If you intend to travel this winter, you will want to refrain from announcing these plans on social media. Christmas time is a time of year in which many potential intruders scour the internet to find homes that will be empty during Christmas. Don’t make it easy for them to obtain this information. You might also want to consider having a neighbor or friend check on your house and bring the mail or newspaper in to prevent the home from appearing empty.
Try to Make Gatherings Short, Small, and Sweet
The CDC has outlined several suggestions to make your Christmas as safe as possible. They recommend hosting only small gatherings and limit your number of guests as much as possible. It is often safer to hold gatherings outdoors, though this may not always be possible in the winter. If you intend to hold an indoor gathering, you will want to try to increase your ventilation as much as possible, such as opening windows. You should also try to avoid potlucks, as this will increase the amount of surfaces that you will all interact with, which can increase the possible spread. You should also encourage your guests to engage in safe behaviors, such as mask wearing and frequent hand washing.
In this unprecedented year, it is important to ensure that you make an extra effort to keep your loved ones safe. We hope you have a happy, safe holiday with your loved ones. To learn about our preschool and how we are operating during COVID-19, contact us at Corner Canyon Academy for more information today!
