How to Use Christmas Lights Safely

Christmas lights are a beautiful addition to the holiday season. Strung from homes and trees, they make festive decorations. Take a few precautions to make sure your lights are safe and don't pose a fire hazard for you or your neighbors.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Christmas Tree Lights
• Fire Extinguishers
• Fire Extinguishers
• Combination Smoke/carbon Monoxide Detectors
• Heavy-duty Extension Cords

1. Keep Christmas lights stored in a covered box, wrapped neatly around a plastic light organizer, or just loosely wrapped, untangled.

2. Check each and every light for broken or non-functioning bulbs. Discard lights that don't work and replace with new bulbs.

3. Make sure cords and wiring are intact. Avoid frayed cords - discard immediately if frayed.

4. Know that there are separate lights for indoor and outdoor use. Use indoor lights inside your home, and UL-approved outdoor lights outside.

5. Turn off all Christmas lights when you go to bed.

6. Use mini, low-voltage lights on a tree. The large lights generate too much heat and can dry out your tree faster, making it a fire hazard.

Tips & Warnings

• Stress fire safety to your family around the December holiday season, when matches, candles and decorative lights are being used much more.
• Keep a fire extinguisher handy in your home and have functional smoke detectors installed.
• If a fire breaks out in your home, leave immediately and call 911 from a neighbor's home.

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on 11/22/2005 When using the cool bright bulbs outdoors they tend to fade in color over time. To renew them use permanent magic markers to paint each bulb. The colors are very bright and long lasting. This also works to color miniature bulbs in sets that are all clear if you are looking for a particular color scheme. Be sure to color bulbs while sets are NOT plugged in.