Marshfield Lawn Care: Outdoor Holiday Tree Safety

If you have an evergreen tree or shrub in your Marshfield lawn that you like to decorate for the holiday season, you’ll want to read these safety tips first. Holiday lights can add joy to the landscape, but they’re also responsible for a troubling number of holiday fires. That’s not really how you want to brighten up the holidays!

There are two elements to the “How safe is it to decorate this tree?” equation. The first is the tree or shrub; the second is the set of lights.

As your Marshfield lawn service, we’d of course like to talk about the tree or shrub first. There are a couple of questions you need to ask yourself before adding lights to a tree. How healthy is the tree in question? In the case of an evergreen, are the needles lush, green and vibrant? If the tree is all dried out, with orange or rust-colored needles, it is too dry to be lighting up. If a tree has a dry patch but otherwise looks fine, proceed with caution. Keep lights – particularly the old-school style lights that can get very hot – away from dry evergreen boughs. The two just don’t go well together.

Now about those lights. Modern LED lights are so much safer for decorating evergreen trees than the older lights were. This is because they don’t get as hot. However, you still need to check over every light strand carefully before you commit to using it for the holidays. Lights should be designated as suitable for outdoor use. The coating on the wire should be complete throughout its entire length; if at any point you can see bare, copper colored wire, the lights are not safe to use! Use an outdoor rated extension cord or outlet as appropriate.

Throughout the holiday season, check on your lights every now and then. This is especially true after ice storms or heavy winds. It’s good to make sure things haven’t been damaged in a way that endangers your property. With these tips in mind, having a happy holiday in Marshfield should be safer than ever!