These 4 Home Safety Tips Will Secure Your Holiday Season

The holiday season is a time for us to regroup with friends and family, unwind, overindulge, and celebrate. Ironically, that’s precisely the reason why the holiday season is something of a peak period for accidents, crashes, injuries, fires, and falls, among others. According to the National Safety Council, holiday-related hazards range from Christmas tree and cooking fires to toy-related injuries.

Because the holiday season is also a popular time to visit family far away — or even take a quick winter sun vacation — there’s also a greater risk of burglary. Take an important step toward safety by following these four holiday safety tips. 

1. Prevent Fires and Other Hazards from Holiday Decorations

The National Fire Protection Association warns that the festive season is one of the busiest times of the year for fire departments. The common culprits are candle fires (11% are in December/January), Christmas tree fires, home cooking fires and decoration fires. 

• Choose flame-resistant or retardant decorations and keep well away from lit candles or heat sources. Two out of five decoration fires start because of nearby flames or heat. 
• Check the condition of electrical cables, cords, plugs and switches. Use only according to the manufacturer’s instructions where it concerns indoor/outdoor use, fuses or circuit connection. 
• Water trees to prevent them from drying out. 30% of Christmas tree fires are in January when the dried needles become like tinder. 
• Turn off decorative lights when you go to bed or the home is empty. 

A flickering candle is deceptively comforting, but those flames can become an inferno with terrifying speed. One-third of home decoration fires are started by candles. As prudent as you are, there’s always the possibility that a small child or pet will upset an unattended candle. 

• Never leave candles unattended, particularly overnight
• Keep burning candles away from flammable materials (paper decorations, pine needles, curtains). 
• Place candles in a solid, secure holder that will catch the wax drips and not topple over easily. 
• Make sure you (and the family) know where the fire extinguisher is in the house and that it’s up to date and in full working condition. 

2. Safeguard Packages and Deliveries

A lost or stolen package can really bring the festive mood down, especially if a gift intended for children goes astray. Unfortunately, porch pirates and packet thieves are particularly active during the holiday season. The National Sheriff’s Association reports that 19% of Americans have at least one package stolen each year. Thieves don’t take time off for the holidays. 

• If you’re not going to be home, arrange for packages to be delivered to secure lockers, or left with neighbors you trust. 
• Leave delivery instructions with your order (and track it). It’s a good idea to ask delivery workers to leave your boxes out of sight from the curb, or at the rear of the property if possible. 
• Insist on signatures for important or high-value deliveries. If you’re not home, you can authorize a delivery over voice or video using our smart video doorbell cameras which allow you to interact with anyone on your porch. 
• As gifts and valuables accumulate in the home, consider leaving decoy packages under the tree and the genuine articles in a strong box or Smart Safe

3. Invest in Smart Locks for Peace of Mind

Upgrading to a next-generation Smart Lock or Smart Safe is an intelligent choice at any time of the year, but it’s really the gift that keeps on giving during the holiday season. 

Safety Benefits of Lockly Locks

Lockly locks offer:

• Advanced physical locks paired with electronic access options like fingerprint or touchpad
• Digital "keys" in the form of mobile apps, encrypted codes, etc.
• Secure wireless protocol like Bluetooth or WiFi
• Remote app for access control and monitoring so the lock can be controlled and accessed intelligently based on user identity.

Smart locks offer several advantages over traditional locks, including:

• No need for physical keys that can be lost, stolen or copied
• Ability to create virtual keys with custom access permissions
• Real-time notifications if access attempts occur
• Tamper-resistant design against lock picking attempts
• Software updates to evolve protection against new threats
• Encryption and advanced microchips that offer robust front door security.

Lockly is pushing smart lock innovation even further with products like the Lockly Vision Elite. It combines a smart lock, video doorbell, fingerprint sensor and voice assistant compatibility into a single sleek device. This allows complete control over home access as well as visibility of who is at the door anytime from your smartphone.

As smart home technology evolves, smart locks are becoming the foundation of intelligent, automated security. Lockly brings the convenience of connectivity with the safety of cutting-edge encryption and biometrics. Protect your home with style using their range of award-winning smart access solutions.

Safety Benefits of Smart Safes

Lockly’s Smart Safe offers:

• Lock away your valuables for an extra layer of security (after the lock)
• Twin Credential Opening Capability
• Anti-Theft Cable so people cannot steal your valuables along with the safe
• Drop-tested so it will not break by thief through dropping the safe onto the floor
• Real-time notifications

By using a high-tech smart safe like Lockly's:

• Your valuables are more secure even when you're home
• Only authorized people like family can access the safe
• The safe cannot be easily stolen or broken into
• You get alerts about break-in attempts

The multiple layers of security give you complete peace of mind about keeping your valuables safe from theft.

If you’re away from home (ie. on vacation or out of town), you can set your smart locks before you leave and monitor in real-time wherever you are from your smartphone. Should anyone appear on your porch or try to gain access through a door or window, motion sensors on our Video Doorbell Smart Locks will notify you immediately (and record the activity). Our Smart Locks will auto-lock after a set period of inactivity, so your home is secure even if you’re thousands of miles away and forgot to lock. 

Footfall in and out the house increases over the festive season and you don’t want to be leaving a physical key where anyone could intercept it. With our Smart Locks, all you have to share is a unique code, or grant remote access by biometric fingerprint. You can update or block access at any time. 

4. Avoid Slips and Falls Outdoors

We’ve all seen the funny YouTube videos of people taking a tumble on their porch, but slips on ice or snow can be deadly serious. The risk is even greater if people leaving or entering the property can’t see the surface conditions in the darkness. That’s another reason to install motion-triggered lighting to help delivery workers with their hands full, for example, or remind people leaving the house that they might be stepping onto ice. 

• Wear footwear with good traction on the sole and plenty of support around the ankles. 
• Step carefully and keep one hand free to hold onto railings. 
• Clear pathways of ice and snow, using salt or sand to prevent freezing and improve traction

Enjoy Happy Holidays with Lockly 

Our range of next-generation Smart Locks and Video Doorbells secure your home all year round, but the holiday season is the perfect time to upgrade if you’re unsure about your legacy locks and CCTV set up. Because our locks are Bluetooth- and WiFi-enabled too, they integrate seamlessly into your smart home automation system, so you’re always in control. Pair your festive cheer with the peace of mind Lockly gives you and you have a holiday season to remember for all the right reasons. 

Should you decide to upgrade your lock or have questions about it, our customer service team stays open throughout the holidays to ensure you stay comfortable and protected.