This post is important. It’s especially important for those of you who have “live” Christmas trees in your homes. In some cases, the wonderful smelling, beautiful live tree experience can be a fire hazard. Don’t believe me? The National Fire Prevention Association states that firefighters respond to an average of 250 home structure fires that began with Christmas trees resulting in 14 deaths, 26 injuries and over six million dollars worth of damage. That’s a sobering bunch of statistics. More sobering is a video comparison of a dry tree (left) and a wet, maintained tree (right).

That’s right. The whole room was fully engulfed in less than 40 seconds. Do you know how scary that is? Think about how long 40 seconds is for just a moment. Is that enough time to round up your children and get out the door? What if you’re in the opposite corner of the house unloading the dryer or trying to find the presents you have hidden in your storage room? Could you get to your children and get out of your house in less than 40 seconds? That’s a scary thought, isn’t it?

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be the case. In short, “a wet tree is a safe tree.” The information from NIST is encouraging and informative. (They also have a comparative video on above link.) Here’s what their research concluded.

Wet trees tell a different story. For comparative purposes, the NIST researchers selected a green Scotch pine, had it cut in their presence, had an additional two inches cut from the trunk’s bottom, and placed the tree in a stand with at least a 7.6 liter water capacity. The researchers maintained the Scotch pine’s water on a daily basis. A single match could not ignite the tree. A second attempt in which an electric current ignited an entire matchbook failed to fire the tree. Finally they applied an open flame to the tree using a propane torch. The branches ignited briefly, but self-extinguished when the researchers removed the torch from the branches. Trees that have been watered properly, and maintain pliable, green needles are harder to ignite than dry trees with needles that break easily when bent and fall from the tree when the branches are shaken.

In short you need to cut your own tree from a tree farm. Do not purchase trees that are pre-cut from roadside stands. And you need to water it. Daily. If you’re going to grandma’s house for four days, don’t go with a real tree this year. Watering is insanely important.

As much as a dry, unmaintained tree can be a fire hazard, it’s not the only fire safety concern when it comes to the holiday season. The US Fire Association (USFA) has some important tips on keeping your family fire safe this year. Here are some very important things you need to do before you decorate or now if you’ve already decked your halls.

• Maintain your lights. Check for frayed wires, bare spots or other unsafe spots in your wiring.
• Do not overload electrical outlets. Do not link more than three strands. Check wires by touch; they should not be warm.
• Do not leave holiday lights unattended. I know they’re pretty but turn them off when you’re going to Christmas Eve service or dinner at grandma’s house.
• Use only nonflammable decorations. Keep all decorations away from heat vents.
• Never put wrapping paper in a fire place.
• Avoid using lit candles. Always extinguish them before you leave or sleep. Never put them on a tree. Never.

There are some other suggestions as well.

I share all of this information with you not to be a Scrooge. I love holiday decorations, lights and Christmas trees. As a sharing point, no, we don’t have a real tree in our house. When FireDad showed me these videos this past Friday night after getting home from a week at the Fire Academy for Fire Investigator education, I asked one simple question, “Is that why we don’t have a real tree.” His reply was in the affirmative, of course. I do share this information with you so that you are aware. It is possible to have a well-maintained, live Christmas tree and other safe decorations around your home. It is possible to have a fire safe holiday.

It would be in your best interest to go ahead and remind your children what to do if there is a fire, test your smoke alarms and practice fire safety this holiday season. You could be extra-dorky, like me, and attach these gift tags to any gifts you’re giving this season that will remind others to practice fire safety as well. They’re festive and they promote safety. Just like us. (But we don’t attach well to gifts. Go with the printable tags.)

Be fire safe this holiday season!

We decorated our Christmas tree yesterday. I only showed you a glimpse of our new star (not a bow, not an angel) and thought that I’d talk a little more about what went into decorating this year. Previously, our tree was a mish-mosh of old ornaments, colors and randomness. My obsessive compulsive tendencies couldn’t handle the mismatched cornucopia of colors and styles. It took me awhile to pick a direction but after thinking about what we had the most of, the answer was obvious: a fire tree.

Over the years, we have collected a number of firefighter specific ornaments. When I say “a number,” I do mean “lots and lots,” of course. I started thinking about their coloring as I hopped from shop to shop after the Christmas decorations were put out in stores (which was before Halloween this year and while some may find that deplorable, it helped in my hunt). I fell in love with a mix of red, apple green and white ornaments at The Store That Has Everything from Ornaments to Soy Based Yogurt. It turns out that the mix was a popular one this year because I found accenting smaller ornaments at just about every store I went to over the few weeks it took me to make my decision. I purchased a huge bundle of them from the initial store (50 larger ornaments) and a bunch of teeny ornaments from various stores. The colors are gorgeous.

In fact, when I started to pull out our specialty ornaments, I realized that the new ones were perfectly complementary to the ornament that is always displayed front and center on our Christmas tree: Santa as a firefighter.

We have a few variations of snowmen as firefighters as well. The reds of their hats or whole bodies were also perfect for the new coloring of our Christmas tree.

Yes, that last one is actually a bell. And it does jingle. But don’t tell the boys. Please.

We have another Santa but I always put him off to the side now. He was a gift from the owners of Teach, Bank, Blog back in 2005, just a month after BigBrother was born. I love the ornament but I feel bad that it doesn’t have LittleBrother’s name on it. So he hangs off on the side that faces my computer now. I smile at him and he watches me to make sure I’m being nice, not naughty.

One ornament doesn’t really match the color theme but definitely fits the fire theme. A firefighter dalmatian, complete with axe. He may be in yellow and blue but he’s a welcome addition to our fire tree.

The funniest fire themed ornament on our tree is a firefighter… Pez dispenser ornament. It makes me laugh every time I see it.

We also have a special series of ornaments on our tree. Robert’s Fire Catalog releases an ornament every year with the date and a different fire truck. I have purchased one for FireDad every year since we have been married. While we were engaged on Christmas Eve 2003 and I’d like to have an ornament from that year as well, I can’t seem to get my hands on one from that year. Such is life. 2004 is my favorite. 2005 is kind of… pink. 2009 may or may not be opened on Christmas morning. Guess FireDad will just have to find out.

One of the gems of the tree is a Hallmark ornament that is a 1938 fire truck. Our batteries are dead so it doesn’t currently do anything except match our colors and look generally awesome. It sits close to FireDad’s recliner so that he can pretend he’s like Jay Leno and has an antique fire truck. Someday.

I hope to add another ornament or two, other than the one from Fire Catalog, this year. As such, if you’re ever stuck for a gift idea for our family or any firefighter, consider an ornament. They’re usually easy to find. Santa as a firefighter is a recurring theme year after year, likewise with the snowmen as a firefighter. Hallmark almost always has a fire truck ornament but I’m not always quick enough to get them before they’re sold out of our local Hallmark. (20 firefighters on our local department plus the surrounding volunteer departments mean that fire truck ornaments go pretty quickly around here. Ebay is always an option.)

In the end, I’m in love with our “new” Christmas tree. I even bought a new tree skirt. And, yes, that is a firefighter snowman sitting next to the tree. I am pleased that our new Christmas tree not only matches itself but reflects our family. Fire trucks, firefighters and the color green. I mean, it’s a win-win-win for us all!

Especially with a star on top.

I was privileged to be a part of a web conference with Thom Felicia. Don’t know Thom? I don’t know how! Thom is an interior designer, author and host of Dress My Nest! He’s just a man about town. During the web conference, I learned a bit about organization, decorating and other stuff that I simply am not good at doing.

One tip that I liked, mainly because it told me that I was doing something right with my total lack of decorating ability, was that a toy corner in your living room was fine. (Thank goodness! Remember my lamenting the addition of a toy corner? I’m not a total failure!) Thom then went on to talk about how rooms/space that were off-limit to kids taught them more about cleaning up and such. Apparently Thom has not been to our small house. That said, for the most part, our bedroom is off limit to the kids. Unless I’m too sick and tired to move from bed and it is a day that FireDad is at work… then we play in my bed all day. You make it work when you have to, ya know?

All the same, I learned quite a few things (some of which are in his new book) that I hope to implement in the next five months. I’m pretty sure that Thom would have a near coronary if he found out that we’ve lived her for over three years and I still don’t have proper window treatments in the living room. Gosh, I could use his expertise.

Which is why I entered the Room-a-Day Giveaway. Have you? You should. You can enter now through March 6th. Go do it!

But before you do, I’d like to give you a chance to pre-win. You know, just in case you actually win the big-big prize. (In which case, please have Thom order you an extra pair of curtains and send them to me, okay? Thanks.) But seriously, I have a great prize pack to offer up. It just arrived today and it’s pretty nice!

First and foremost is Thom’s new book, Style. I’d keep it for myself but, let’s face it, I’m a lost cause when it comes to decorating. Unless I win the room-a-day sweepstakes, I’m just sorely out of luck in this department. Here’s the book itself:

See? It just looks too swanky for me, doesn’t it? Hopefully our winner will take pity on me and come decorate my house.

And then, up next, we have a big bag full of goodies from Kimberly-Clark, the co-hosts of the Room-A-Day Giveaway! What’s in the bag? We’ll let’s see.

1 Roll of Kleenex Viva Paper Towels, 1 package Cottonelle Fresh Flushable Moist Wipes, 1 box Kleenex Expressions, 1 package Poise Pads, 1 package Kotex Pads, 1 bottle Huggies Soft Skin Shea Butter with Oatmeal Wash, 1 package Huggies Supreme Thick and Clean wipes, 1 package Kleenex Anti-Viral tissues, 1 roll Scott Extra Soft toilet paper. (LittleBrother’s hand not included in winner’s prize package.)

That’s a bunch of stuff! Of note: LittleBrother grabbed the small package of tissues and ran with them. If they arrive at our winner’s house smelling of pretzel stick spit, please accept my most humble of apologies. One of the tricks of working from home is trying to keep the kids off of my work. I sometimes fail. Do forgive! (That said, they’re anti-viral so you should be fine, right?!)

So, how do you win these nice prizes? It’s simple. You help ME!

WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH MY LIVING ROOM WINDOW?! Viewed here:

(Check out all that snow outside. Goodness.)

I’m embarrassed that it’s not a very big window and, if we had the money (gee, thanks economy), we’d replace it with a double-width window. But, right now, this is the window that stays. We have blinds because we don’t like people on our street being able to see into our home. Other than that, I need help. How to create the illusion of something bigger, grander, without creating a hazzard? (Meaning, drapes to the floor might not be the best idea with a three year old and a one year old, right? Or is it okay? I have no clue. Help.)

And so, please leave a comment with what you would do to our living room window. Note that the colors in our living room are various blues and we do not plan on changing the coloring anytime soon. (Our walls are a light beige.) If you could, oh, make it affordable, I’d be grateful. Pictures and links to specific ideas are not necessary but would be highly appreciated. So, of coruse, the rules.

1. One comment (with an idea for the window) per person.

2. You can receive one extra entry by tweeting the contest. Just copy paste this into your twitter account and then return here to leave a separate comment with the link to your singular twitter (not your twitter name). To grab the URL for the singular tweet, click on the “time” in which you posted (2 minutes ago, as an example) and grab the URL that way. Copy/paste this:

Win with Thom Felicia & Kimberly-Clark at Stop, Drop & Blog! http://tinyurl.com/c6s64c

And that’s it!

The giveaway will be open through Saturday, February 7, 2009. One random winner will be chosen via Random.org and contacted via email immediately. And hopefully, in the next month or so, I will post pictures of my new window. (Note: I don’t have to “do” what the random winner has suggested. I mean, what if it was something I hated! Ha!)

Don’t forget to enter the Room-a-Day Giveaway while you’re at it! Now get to decorating my window, please.

I swear I’m not a Scrooge by I don’t have time to decorate tomorrow either. And on Monday FireDad will be out on the Back 40 over at Gramps’ with his Dad having male bonding time while searching for the Great Buck. Or something. So that day is out. And then Tuesday is his shift day. When, oh when, are we going to decorate for Christmas?

To be fair, I didn’t decorate yesterday and won’t today because even though LittleBrother’s birthday is not at our house tomorrow, many a person will likely stop by, including my best friend and her eight-ish month old son. Our living room isn’t fantasmically huge so if you try to shove in an extra baby, a best friend and multiple grandparents while I’m scrambling to give orders so we can get out the door and to the party, well, it doesn’t bode well to have less room because of a half-decorated Christmas tree.

Yes, half-decorated.

We don’t do the whole “put it in a playpen” thing because with the traveling we do around the holidays we might need our playpen. For BigBrother’s first moving-around Christmas, we did decorate. He pulled two (non-breakable but glitter covered) balls off the tree. Just that once. BigBrother was content to sit in one place and play quietly, even if I ran some laundry downstairs. All I had to do, at that age, was tell him “no-no, don’t touch” and he didn’t bother the tree again. LittleBrother is likely to pull the tree over on himself. I’m serious. And so I am predicting: no tinsel (sigh), all unbreakable ornaments (sigh) and too high up the tree for the littlest one to reach. Very sexy Christmas tree, no?

I might take down the Thanksgiving wreath from the front door and replace it with the Christmas wreath. I might also put the candy cane ribbon around our outdoor firefighter’s neck. (Oh, yes.) I might get a few things out for the living room. I might find our Christmas towels for the kitchen.

I might. I might.

Are you realizing that this post is more about convincing me than convincing you, my reader? This year has been so hectic and set at such a whirlwind pace that I have no idea how I’m going to fit in the minor/major task of decorating for my most favorite holiday of the year. Perhaps I should have considered this back when we planned our December 18th wedding and purposefully conceived both of our boys in the first week of March. Apparently I had no idea what parenthood would really entail when it came to birthday parties and holidays.

All that said, Morningside Mom has just launched her HP Magic Giveaway. Another one will launch later today. Be sure to pay attention to my tweets on twitter to find out when the other one goes live today!