You do not want your holidays to turn to tragedy, so you need to understand why the holiday season is a high risk time for injuries and even fatalities. There are ways that you can keep yourself and your children safe and minimize the holiday dangers for your family. By taking the right steps throughout the holiday season, hopefully you can enjoy this festive time of year and get through to the New Year without any injuries or problems befalling your loved ones.

The first thing most people do for the holidays is decorate their homes. If you are going to be decorating, you need to be careful about the products that you use.

According to Electrical Safety Foundation International, there were 1,170 house fires from 2004 to 2008 started by holiday decorations, not including Christmas tree fires. Many of these fires caused injuries and fatalities.  Buy all of your holiday decorations from trusted sources, and don’t overload electrical circuits in your home. If your purchased decorations turn out to be defective and injury happens due to fire or other problems, you can sometime hold the manufacturers of the decor items accountable.

Many people also buy gifts during the holidays. If you are going to be buying any presents, you should check with Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to confirm that the products have not been recalled. This is especially important if you are buying toys for your children.  In 2015, 254,200 injuries happened due to toys over the course of the year which sent kids to the hospital. The holidays tend to be a time when a lot of new stuff, including new toys, come into the home. Before you bring items in, it is worth checking to ensure they don’t have defects that will endanger your family.

Finally, if you are going to be traveling to see loved ones over the holidays, as many people do, you also need to be cautious that your car trip does not turn into a disaster because an accident happens. USA Today indicates around 250 deaths and 27,900 injuries in auto accidents occur over the holidays because of increased holiday travel. You should be watchful for unsafe drivers on the road, and don’t contribute to unsafe behavior yourself by speeding or drowsy driving. Leave plenty of time to get to your destination and don’t allow yourself to get distracted on the road.

If you follow these tips, you can significantly reduce the chances of problems causing injuries over the holidays. Unfortunately, things like defective products or other unsafe drivers could still cause you to get badly hurt or even cause a fatality to happen. If someone else causes you to be harmed or hurts your family over the holidays, make sure you understand how the law protects your right to compensation for loss.