The Christmas season isn't just for decking the halls, trimming the tree and giving gifts. It's also, unfortunately, a time when serious injuries can still occur no matter how much joy is spread.
What stands out most of all about these holiday-time injuries is how odd their causes can be. While these injuries may not be as dramatic as Santa being hurt while sliding down the chimney or elves filing workers' comp claims for getting hurt while assembling toys, some of the real situations that have been reported are almost as strange.
Note: Injuries reported below come from the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission's (USCPSC) National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS).
Christmas Lights: Bright, Cheery and.. Dangerous?
Every year, hundreds of people are hurt in accidents involving Christmas lights. Yes, you read that correctly. Hundreds. In the 40-65 age bracket alone, there were nearly 150 injuries cited in the most recent USCPSC report.
If you've ever seen a movie where someone falls while putting Christmas lights on the roof, you've seen something that happens in real life every year. Unfortunately, in real life, such falls lead to real injuries, not laughs.
Christmas lights are also responsible for electrical injuries, such as when people get shocked due to faulty wiring or when they find themselves caught in an inopportune mixture of electricity (from the strings of lights) and water (such as melting snow). Burns from fires started by faulty wiring on strings of Christmas lights are also common.
Trim the Tree With Caution
Christmas trees are also responsible for several injuries and illnesses every year, and not just injuries that you'd normally think of (such as cuts that occur when chopping down a real tree).
For example, people have reported suffering allergic reactions to trees they have put up in their homes. In other instances, people have suffered eye damage when Christmas trees hit them in the face.
One of the strangest tree-related injuries occurred when a woman was attacked by insects that emerged from her synthetic tree when she took it out of the box. While this also sounds like something out of a movie - the mom in the movie runs screaming from the attic, bugs flying out of her hair while her family laughs - it was anything but funny in real life.
Feeling Jolly and Ready to Dance? You Might Consider Sitting Still Instead
People have also blamed Christmas music and the holiday spirit as reasons for their injuries. One man claimed that he danced so much at a Christmas party that he had serious joint pain. In another instance, an 80-year-old woman stated that she heard Christmas music come on, tried to get out of her recliner to dance and hurt herself while starting to "wiggle her hips."
Christmas Cards and.. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?
Perhaps the strangest Christmas-related injury of all occurred in 2014. A man claimed that he developed carpal tunnel syndrome after writing an excessive number of Christmas cards.
Did this article put some holiday cheer in your heart? Or maybe you just liked it and found it interesting? Either way, please be sure to share this article on Facebook and help us spread the message about holiday safety.