Christmas Light Safety

1. AVOID PUTTING LIGHT PLUGS IN RAIN GUTTERS

It’s not a smart idea to put the plugs in the gutters to hide them when plugging in your Christmas lights outside along a roof. Our electricians see this happen too often and have even had to chip some out of ice. Just don’t do it. 

2.  PLUG YOUR LIGHTS INTO A GFCI-PROTECTED OUTLET

For outdoor Christmas lights, you want to make sure that you are plugging them into a GFCI protected outlet because water and debris can get into them and you want to reduce the risk of shorts and shocks. Look for outlets that have a test and reset button on it. Water is a great conductor of electricity and unfortunately, when you’re wet you become a good conductor of electricity too and there's a risk of electrocution.

3.  CHECK THE CONDITION OF YOUR LIGHT STRANDS

Some people put them up year after year after year. Especially for outdoor lights sun and cold outside can be very damaging to the cords. Inspect the strands of lights before you put any Christmas lights up for damage or exposed wires, especially outside ones. If you can bend the wires and they’re brittle and crack, don’t use them. If they’re not in good shape, it’s not worth using them on or in your house.

4.  VERIFY THE OUTLET HAS ENOUGH POWER

When it comes to Christmas lights sometimes less is definitely more. It’s easy to overload a circuit and you want to make sure you aren’t plugging too many items into an outlet or into an extension cord. If you’re pulling too much power, the breaker for that outlet should trip.

So, be smart about how many strands you put together especially when plugging them into an extension cord and don’t plug in too many and overdo it. Many fires are caused by small extension cords with too many things plugged into them.

5.  USE EXTENSION CORDS THAT ARE THE RIGHT SIZE

To go along with #4, when using extension cords to plug your Christmas lights into (both indoors and outdoors) make sure that you are using an adequate size for your lighting and keep an eye on them as they can occasionally overheat. Touch the cord and if it’s hot, unplug it.

PRO TIP: When you’re checking for the size of an extension cord, a smaller number means a bigger gauge. So, a 12 gauge wire is bigger and will be more expensive than a 16 gauge one. The more strands you’re going to have connected together, the larger the gauge of extension cord you will need.

6.  MAKE SURE THE ELECTRICAL PANEL IS SAFE

Pulling too much power from your electrical panel and not having breakers trip can be a dangerous thing. There are some older brands of panels that have lost their safety rating because the breakers would not trip when they were supposed to. Look at the brand of the panel you have and if you have an older Zinsco or Federal Pacific, Google those panels online and see some of the safety issues they have.