It’s the season for giving. It’s the season to make merry, but most importantly, it’s’ the season to outdo your neighbor’s Christmas light arrangement. Yes, Christmas is upon us, and with it comes neighborhoods full of lights, windows full of beautifully decorated Christmas trees, and snowball fights with anyone trying to go bigger than you with their Christmas cheer.
Hanging Christmas lights is a century-old tradition, and at Lightning Exteriors, we can’t help but get giddy with excitement as we watch our neighbors start pulling out the ladders and the endless, tangled string of lights to put around the house. So, as a company heavily invested in our communities, we thought we would take a moment and impart some of our collective wisdom to help you hang those Christmas lights safely.
Untangle and Assess The condition of your Holiday Lights
Our first tip derives itself from the one reason most people wait until the last minute to start hanging their holiday light arrangement, the tangle. If you don’t already have a preferred method for storing your lights, so they don’t end up in a mess next year, here are some crafty web solutions to help. We recommend finding a solution that works for you because this knotted ball of potentially hazardous electricity makes us cringe in the first place.
Sure, Christmas lights are beautiful and fun to look at when correctly installed, but exposed wires and broken bulbs pose a grave threat to the safety of anyone around them. In addition, many Christmas lights are damaged during the emotional journey of untangling. Whether it’s due to poor storage conditions, unsuspecting feet stepping on them, or the frustrated yanking and pulling that does them in; exposed electricity is not the shock of surprise you want this Christmas season. So always check your cords and ensure they are in good condition before installing them on your roof.
Holiday Lighting Looks Great on The Ground Too
After laying out all of the lights and assessing whether you can use them this year, your next step might be to grab the ladder and head to the roof, but we recommend slowing down a bit here and taking in the full potential of your real estate.
Hanging lights from your roof will look great, but when you step back and look at your property, you might see a lot of opportunities go unnoticed. String lights can look beautiful anywhere, including bushes, shrubs, trees, pillars, light posts, walkways, etc. Any of these ideas will complement what you already have planned for your roof, but a combination of them can keep you safely on the ground too.
Over 15,000 people go to the ER annually for Christmas decorating-related injuries, and 34% of those are caused by falls. Of course, we don’t want to deter you from putting up lights where you want to, but for those afraid of heights, these lower-elevation alternatives can make your home look just as cheerful and bright as a string of lights hanging from your eaves.
Choose Hanging Options for Your Holiday Lights that Won’t Damage Your Roof.
We would all love a Gatling gun that can shoot lights up to our roof for us. The job wouldn’t just get done fast, but we might actually enjoy it more. Unfortunately, upon further review, it’s a fictionalized device that would probably leave our house with more damage than we would really want during the season of giving. Even though the device is made up, many people still manage to damage their homes similarly.
The days of nailing and stapling string lights to your house are over. This method may have been necessary once upon a time. Still, Christmas decorating companies have manufactured entire lines of products to get the job done with less potential for injury and less damage to your home. Plastic has revolutionized the way we hang lights on our houses. With so many attachment possibilities, even in each clip individually, the choice is easy. Sometimes, you don’t even have to worry about differences in bulb size; some clips already have built-in solutions. As a service provider for roofing needs, this is a tip that Lightning Exteriors highly recommends to its neighbors. Move away from practices that will harm your roof and move toward safer and more economical options for hanging your Christmas lights this season.
Find Safe Ways to Power Your Holiday Lights This Year
Holiday lights around the house mean power cords on the ground. Having a labyrinth of cords, power surges, and light strings probably isn’t your ideal scenario, but it becomes a reality when hanging holiday lights is done without much preparation. Thankfully, there are plenty of solutions to help minimize the mess and the stress.
Power stakes are relatively new but excellent for homes with few external outlets to power their lights. Power stakes allow you to put electricity in your yard and give you multiple outlets. You can converge light strings from various locations to a single source and declutter your yard. The stake sticks out of the ground, so it’s more visible than other options. Your yard shouldn’t feel like an obstacle course every time.
Besides tripping hazards, electricity faults are also important to watch out for. Make sure that any surge protector you use is compatible with outdoor use and has a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) to ensure your family stays safe anytime they’re around your Christmas decorations this year.
Stay Safe this Holiday Season
We believe in sharing the joy of the holiday season with our communities. Seeing Christmas lights go up in our neighborhoods makes the daily commute special. If you need help deciding which holiday light hanging options are best for your home, give Lightning Exteriors a call. Your local office will ensure you get answers to your questions this holiday season.
