How Long Can Your Christmas Lights Be On?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Happy Friday. It's Star one oh five point seven West,
Michigan's Christmas Station. I'm Schmidty, and naturally we're all about
the Christmas lights. I mean, if you could see inside
of my iHeart studio right now, we're absolutely decked. We've
got running lights across the ceiling, the tree, the inflatables.
But it's something that comes up every year, and I
feel it's a very fifty to fifty kind of thing.

(00:22):
Do you leave your Christmas lights on overnight inside Christmas tree?
So I'm guilty of this. We've got our Christmas tree,
I've got lights on our mantle, and then I've got
garland and lights running our stairwell. But I do I
keep them on. I don't keep the tree on. We
turn the tree off every night, but we keep the
mantle and the stairwell going. It is so nice in

(00:43):
the morning, you guys know, I get a bit like
three o'clock am. I ain't three am. You know. I
want some a nice white glow of the Christmas magic.
It takes the edge off. I'm pretty you know, I'm
pretty mean. Having to get up better early it helps.
But now experts have weighed in and it comes from
an interview with Martha Stewart, the official Homemaker Queen. So

(01:03):
I think it's definitely research we can trust. They say, honestly,
you should not have your Christmas lights on more than
six to eight hours at a time, and you should
have someone that's there like monitoring them to make sure
something bad doesn't happen. Lights can overheat. These are electricians talking.
These that listen. Especially if they're older or have damaged wiring,

(01:23):
they can pose a serious fire hazard. Also, make sure
the cable is not damaged. It could be crushed by
furniture or poorly made. That adds a bigger risk. Keeping
your Christmas tree lights on can actually dry your tree out. Yes,
that makes it increasingly flammable. Bulbs can break because of
continuous heat or tension in the strand you also risk

(01:45):
short circuiting. Leaving lights unattended could mean a short circuit
or an electrical arking, which could lead to fire. Older
and less expensive lights can be faulty. Plus, they say
you are actually paying more on your electric bill and
it will show and a risk of overloading the socket.
Anytime I hear that, I immediately think of that scene

(02:05):
in a Christmas story where he just pops in like
the seven hundredth plug on this thing. So there you go,
West Michigan Star dot com. I feel bad. I feel
like I just really buzz killed your Friday. I love
Christmas lights, but I also love your house and your
being alive, and we don't want fires, all right. Check
it out