HOLIDAY HAZARDS -- DAY 9

In the old days, probably no holiday hazard was as tragic as fire caused by candles on a live Christmas tree. And even in my lifetime, those big multi-color Christmas lights would overheat and cause a drying tree to catch fire. I remember how happy my parents were when the mini lights came on the market. Still, I miss the ambiance created by the old C7s.

Here's a holiday hazard which occurred in the 1910s, related by my mother: “One Christmas we got up with the usual excitement but found no gifts under the tree. There was a note my dad read to us. Santa had had trouble with his reindeer and would have to deliver the gifts on foot. Sure enough! He came walking up through the deep snow. Mama hurried and lit the candles on the tree and Papa met Santa at the door. He gave me my doll and an erector set to my brother and was distributing the gifts that came in the mail when Papa opened the door and shoved Santa headfirst out into the snow. His beard had caught on fire from the candles. Mama didn’t light candles on the tree anymore though we did put them on the branches.”

The “holiday hazard” we experienced was frustrating but not a threat to life or property. It happened as I was setting up my lit houses, each of which is lit by a single nightlight on a cord that slips into the house through a hole in the bottom or back and is held in place by a metal flange. As I was inserting the light into “Christmas at Grandma’s House.” I experienced a moment of distraction and somehow the whole unit – light and flange – slipped through the hole and into the house. The flange then prevented the light unit from coming out the hole. Since it can’t come out the way it went in, it has to be turned so that the light heads out the hole. Naturally, it doesn’t want to do that.

My initial efforts were fruitless, so I showed it to Mike, and then he owned it. When fiddling with fingers didn’t work, he went for tools – a needle-nose pliers, wire, etc.

After 20 minutes of hard work, I realized that it just might have happened to someone else, so I googled it and sure enough, I found suggestions. A needle-nose pliers, they said. (Check.) A twist tie. (Mike had wire.) And if all else fails, just cut the cord and buy a new unit, which we deemed a last resort.

I found a long twist tie, and Mike managed to loop it around the base of the light bulb and pull it through the hole. Then it was just a matter of bending the flange to get it out. It was a challenge, but he managed to do it. Then he hit the “easy button,” and I promised to be more careful in the future. KW