Safety To-Do #1: Take Down Holiday Decor and Store with Care

Oh Tanenbaum, Oh Tanenbaum, how lovely are your branches… or at least they were.  Now your branches are just droopy and dry – a tall stack of kindling standing in our living room with hot lights wrapped around them.  Think I’m exaggerating… take a look at this photo (left).  Our tree conjures images of Charlie Brown’s little twig at the point when the weight of one ornament caused it to go bare.  Yes, it is definitely time to say goodbye to our little tree.

Even if your tree is not quite so dry yet, it will be soon, so go ahead and plan to take it down this week.  As an added bonus, many cities will pick up trees for free in the first or second week of January.  (Check with your local waste management program.)

Now that you have resolved to take the tree down in a timely manner, lets talk about how to take the tree down.  Every year, as we are putting decorations away, we say we ought to buy some holiday storage bins with special compartments for ornaments. And every Christmas, when we pull out the decor, we wish we had… right about the time someone reaches in a grabs a piece of broken glass.  So the first step this year is to purchase said storage bins.  You can typically find them at your local home & hardware store or online.  I posted a few ideas in the “Helpful Products” section in sidebar to the right.

With the ornaments safely tucked away, it’s time to tackle the lights.  Those darn lights!   Remember the days when, if just one broke or came loose, the whole string went out?  We would tiptoe around the tree, gently placing each one for fear of the tree not lighting.  Removing them, too, was an all day project, untangling with the finesse of a surgeon as we went.  For the most part, those days are gone, as most lights are now wired such that they stay ever-lit. Which means, rather than the steady hand of a surgeon, some of us have taken to yanking off the lights with two hands (and sometimes a foot) at a time  as we drag the tree out the door.  After all, one lost bulb here and there in a sea of hundreds is no big deal.  Or is it?

As it turns out,  broken bulbs and stressed wires can increase the chances of a fire.  And sadly, we have no shortage of Christmas tree fires in the US.  The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) reports that, “During the four-year period of 2003-2006, U.S. fire
departments responded to an average of 240 home fires that started with
Christmas trees per year. These fires caused an average of 16 deaths,
25 injuries, and $13.1 million in direct property damage annually.” Therefore, it is a good idea to handle your lights with care.  Wrapping the strings around a piece of cardboard as they come down is a handy way to make sure they stay untangled and ready for next year.  Some storage boxes are built just with this purpose in mind and include nifty slots to slide the light-wrapped cardboard or plastic into so they won’t get crushed.  I posted a couple of those in the Helpful Products section as well.

Now that the tree is undecorated, you are ready to take it out.  If you own an artificial tree, there are several heavy-duty storage bags you can buy to keep it in.  Though it may seem like overkill, any little critters that find there way into your garage or basement may discover the synthetic needles make a cozy nest.

When you finish these tasks, you can rest easy knowing that you have:
- Protected yourself and family from cuts associated with broken ornaments,
- Decreased the chances of your lights causing fire, and
- Cleared your home of kindling, disguised as a Christmas tree, in a timely matter.

Now, pat yourself on the back for completing Safety To-Do #1 – the first in a weekly series of posts designed to help us all address safety issues in 2009.

PS – If you do not celebrate Christmas, or don’t celebrate with a tree, the information on glass ornaments/decorations and light storage may still apply.  If not, have no fear, there will be plenty for you to do in the weeks to come.