Happy Holiday

This little safety reminder is for the decorators who put up the outdoor or indoor Christmas lights. I'm running late this year and dragged mine out of storage this afternoon and started the process. To save some time and be safe, here's some safety hints on putting up lights:
Lay the strings of lights out and check each and every bulb to be sure the light up. While going through that process, look at the wires. Are any of them frayed or broken? Bare wires can arc and start a fire or shock the installer. And, it's frustrating to get the whole string on the eave of the house, plug it in, and be rewarded with total darkness.

Check the extension cords that bring the light strings together to the electrical plug. It's a very good idea to have a grounded outdoor plug just for the lights. Plugging the lights into a household circuit with appliances or other electric lights on it may overload the circuit and kick the breaker. If the breaker keeps kicking off, don't ignore that warning signal. The breaker is kicking off because it's overheated or its a bad breaker. Use your common sense and unplug something. If the breaker keeps going off call an electrician.

Indoor lights need careful installation. Check the cords and lights. A common error with indorr lights is running the cords under a rug or tree skirt to hide them. The tree looks so good with all the decorations and the tree skirt. Wouldn't you know it, the plug is not in exactly the right place for the lights to be plugged up so an extention cord is needed. But who wants that bright orange cord spoiling the red/green decor? Throw a rug over it and solve that problem. However, a frayed cord under a rug or tree skirt can short out and cause a fire. Or give your mother a shock when she steps on the rug. There's two schools of thought about outdoor Christmas lights: leave 'em up all year or take 'em down and put 'em in the shed until next year. I favor the take 'em down school of thought but either one works. But, however you feel about it, if you take the lights down, don't crimp the wires when you put them in the box. if you're careful about rolling them up and storing them, they'll be a lot easier to put up next year.

If you like to leave your lights up on the house ready to go next November, remember that before you plug the lights in, the ladder will have to come out of storage, go up on the house, and you'll need to check the wires for bare spots or breaks. A year of wind blowing and rubbing the wire against the cornice can wear away the insulation from the wires causing a fire hazard.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!