How to Address Potential Thanksgiving and Christmas Home Health and Safety Issues

During Thanksgiving and Christmas there is usually a lot of activity going on in the home, with food preparation, decorations, and trees going up. Many people put up their Christmas decorations and trees the day or weekend following Thanksgiving when there are extra pairs of hands available from immediate and visiting family and friends. It is important to take the proper precautions to ensure that your home is safe during those winter holidays.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Decorations Lights Items used for wrapping Table cloth

1. Put short table cloths on the table on which you will be serving Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. Young children just learning to walk and stand may accidentally grab long cloths and could fall or pull hot food items or dishes onto themselves.

2. Remove all bones, gristle and hard-to-chew pieces of meat, especially from turkey or other poultry, before feeding the meat to children under the age of six, to prevent choking.

3. Before adding nuts or hard-to-chew diced fruit, like apples, to any salad or deserts, set aside a portion of the food items large enough to give to (or feed) children under seven years old. Even older children are often in a hurry to eat on the holidays and may gulp their food or not chew enough to keep items like nuts from becoming a choking hazard.

4. Make sure there are no artificial (or real) grapes, nuts, holly berries or other small items in holiday centerpieces as they pose a choking hazard for young children who may think the centerpieces are real.

5. Keep candy dishes on top of fireplace mantles, grandfather clocks, china cabinets or other very tall pieces of furniture and out of the reach of young children.

6. Place the electrical cords for strings of Christmas or other lights at the back of the tree so that they cannot be easily reached by young children. Unplug the cords when you retire for the night. When you put lights around a window, try to position a big easy chair, couch, recliner or other piece of furniture with a back, so that you can keep the cord behind the furniture.

7. Water real Christmas trees daily and completely fill the tree stand to keep the tree needles from drying out before the holiday is over. A dry tree is a fire hazard. Wrap a sheet or holiday tree holder cover around the bottom the tree so that young children will not be tempted to play in the water and possibly pull the tree over on themselves.

8. Hang plastic ornaments on the lower branches of the tree if there will be any young children in your home over the holidays. Try to purchase shapes other than round ornaments as young children may think the ornaments are balls to be played with.

9. When cutting paper and wrapping packages, make sure that you don't leave scissors, pieces of ribbon, knives or sharp-edged paper cutters out where young children could get to them. Place tools used for cutting and wrapping in a locked cabinet or on top of the highest kitchen cupboard to prevent easy access to the tools.

10. Do not place candles on trees or on tables that are low enough for young children to get to them, as candles start several dozen fires a year and children could get burned on the hot wax. When leaving home or going to bed, double check to make sure that any candles or tapers you lit have been put out and placed well out of the reach of young children. Do the same with lighters, matches or other implements used for lighting them.

11. When leaving home for several hours, unplug your indoor holiday lights, including those for the tree to avoid the potential for creating a fire hazard. Do not leave your porch light on when you leave for an extended period of time because that indicates to thieves, who are very active during the holidays, that you are not home. Leave one or two lights on in your house, but not the bathroom light.

Tips & Warnings

• If you put your tree in an alcove or other area that can be blocked off, you can put a baby gate up to keep young children away from the tree.

• Candles placed on the tips of tree branches and used in centerpieces, on mantles, and the dried out needles or branches of Christmas trees are a major cause of home fires during the holidays.