Christmas tree lights when on Vacation

[NotUrsula]

Trust me, witness one Christmas tree fire and you'll never leave a string of Christmas lights lit while you're away from home again.

We don't decorate for Christmas if we're going to be traveling, except that we take stockings and a 3' pre-lit "travel tree" with us to our destination. With cats left at home, leaving decorations up would be a recipe for disaster.

 

[Colleen27]

Ours are on timers so the routine doesn't change based on what we're doing, but it is pretty unusual for us to travel over the few weeks the (real) tree is up. The timer is there more for turning it off in the middle of the night rather than for turning it on in our absence. I used to worry more about the fire risk and limit the tree's lit hours to when we were home and awake, but not so much now since all our lights are LED and fairly new.

 

[mumto3girls]

Our outside lights are on a timer so no reason for those not to come on in the evenings—I think it would make it look more like we are home for the lights to come on. I have a few inside things controlled with smart plugs this year. I would probably change those to not come on at all. My Christmas Village on the bookcases is controlled with a switch so those would not be on. Our trees aren’t up yet but I will probably have those on a timer unless I get another smart plug. Either way I would have the trees come on for a few hours in the evening so it looks like we are home. Both trees are artificial, have LED lights and can be seen in the windows from the outside.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Trust me, witness one Christmas tree fire and you'll never leave a string of Christmas lights lit while you're away from home again.

I am mindful of this, we have a fake tree and replace the lights every other year, pretty sure the fake ones are fire retardant, I love the real trees but the smell is a migraine catastrophe. When I was testing the Halloween lights one bulb was making a cracking sound so out they all went and now I am even more careful Every few years we replace all the other stuff too, I discovered that outdoor extension cords and all such are deeply discounted this year at the big box stores who remained open in 2020.

I think the This Is Us episode about the old crock pot really made an impression about old electronics, mostly because we still had that exact one in the house that I'd use for warming Superbowl stuff.

 

[MamaMermaid]

We turn our tree off every time we are out.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

After watching a neighbor's house burn down due to Christmas lights, we do not leave them on when leaving the house even for a short time. Inside or out. Coincidentally it was a firefighter's home. Not worth the risk!