Safety Tips for Using Live Christmas Decorations

Even though many people now use artificial Christmas trees and artificial Christmas greenery for most of their Christmas decorations, there are still many people, such as my family and several of my friends, who use live Christmas decorations. Perhaps the reason many people have switched from live Christmas decorations to artificial Christmas decorations is that live Christmas decorations require a little extra care to prevent them from becoming dried out and possibly causing a fire. For all of my life, we have used live Christmas decorations in our home, and never even had a fire. Here are some home safety tips for those that still use live Christmas decorations in their homes.

One of the biggest concerns when using live Christmas decorations and Live Christmas trees in the home is the tree drying out. When you cut the tree from behind your house, or from your local Christmas tree farm, the tree can, and indeed does, dry out after a period of time. The heat generated by your Christmas lights on the tree will also cause your Christmas tree to lose some moisture.

In addition to watering the tree each day, it's a good idea to fill your Christmas tree stand with moist sand or rocks. If you fill the tree stand and still notice that it becomes dry you should use one aspirin such as Tylenol or Bayer Aspirin. Drop the aspirin in the rocks of sand inside your Christmas tree stand. The Aspirin will dissolve and help the tree to better retain moisture so that it won't become dried out.

While it may be visually appealing to place your Christmas tree near the fireplace in your living room or den, this is a major fire hazard. Not only are you risking the long protruding branches of the tree catching the burning fire, but also the heat directly in front of and beside the fireplace will cause the tree to lose moisture much more quickly than it normally would.