Important Fireplace and Mantel Decorating Safety Tips for the Holiday Season

Decorating for the holidays has already begun, from hanging strings of Christmas lights to dressing up the tree to decking the halls—everything is starting to look festive and grand! Another popular area to decorate in your home is the fireplace and fireplace mantel area, where stockings hang on hooks and wreaths are placed above rustic figurine village scenes. While this is a lovely tradition, you need to take care where you place these items throughout your home—especially when decorating near the fireplace. Stay safe and take the proper precautions when deciding where to put your decorations.

Below are six tips to ensure fireplace and mantel decoration safety in Wausau, WI this holiday season:

• Tree placement: There are a few reasons why choosing the right spot for your Christmas tree is important, including wanting to maintain home aesthetics and the flow of energy. However, you also mustn’t overlook this detail for safety reasons. Whether you have a real or artificial tree, make sure it’s not too close to your fireplace, stove or other heat sources.
• Trees: Make sure your artificial tree is fire resistant, whether you’re putting it near heat or not. The plug-in or battery-operated string lights you plan to wrap around your tree can also pose a fire risk. While all trees will burn if touched by fire or flames, fire-resistant trees are able to resist fire and can be extinguished more quickly than other varieties. If you’ve purchased a live tree this holiday season, make sure to water it every day. A dried-out tree plus heat is a true fire hazard.
• Stockings: You’ve seen it in holiday movies, TV shows and books—we’re talking about festive Christmas stockings hanging above and in front of a roaring indoor fireplace. What the movies don’t focus on is fireplace decoration safety. As traditional as this may seem, resist the urge—stockings are made of cloth, and are therefore are not safe to place anywhere near flames.
• Candles: If you use real wick and wax candles as a part of your fireplace mantel decor, never leave them unattended. Better yet, don’t light them. Simply use unlit wax candles as decoration or get a set of LED candles in place of real candles.
• Wrapping paper: Building a fire in the fireplace for your family to sit around while opening presents creates a festive atmosphere. If you do have a fire going, resist the urge to burn wrapping paper and other gift packaging. These materials burn too quickly, and most contain chemicals that are unhealthy to breathe in.
• Fireplace screens: It doesn’t matter if you’re burning real wood logs or a manufactured fire log—you need to use a fireplace screen whenever a fire is going. A screen will keep sparks from flying out of the fireplace that can potentially ignite nearby holiday decorations and other objects.

Every household should take mantel and fireplace decoration safety in Wausau, WI seriously. If you need fireplace service this holiday season, don’t hesitate to call Marcell’s Specialties Inc.!

Categorised in: Fireplace Decor, Fireplace Mantel Ideas

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