Page 42 - Allisons Magazine Holiday 2021 Issue 04

As far as outdoor lights are concerned, it’s of the

utmost importance that yours are actually made for
the outdoors; C7 and C9 are two of the more popular
options. For safety reasons, use the ubiquitous
plastic clips rather than screws or nails to attach
them to your roof. Also, if you’re connecting multiple
strands, make sure to wrap the connectors securely
with electrical tape to keep the elements out. And
speaking of connections, ensure that your outdoor
outlet for your display is covered and grounded with

a ground-fault circuit interrupter to prevent an
electrical mishap of Christmas Vacation proportions.

Keep them at arm’s length
One of the most frustrating parts about holiday
lights is that they get easily tangled. If you’ve
experienced this before, you probably feel like

untangling strings of lights is more difficult than
solving a Rubik’s Cube.

However, there’s a simple way to prevent this. When
it’s time to remove them from your roof or tree, grab
one end of the strand, and then bend your arm at a
90-degree angle. Wrap your lights vertically, from
elbow to hand, around your forearm, until you reach
the end of the strand. Remove your neatly wrapped

lights from your arm, and voilà—they’re ready for
storage and easy unraveling next year.

Be eco-friendly
If you decide to get a new set of lights, don’t just
trash the old ones. Holiday lights are particularly
difficult to recycle and need special care to do so,

so check to see if there’s a local organization that
has holiday light drop-off locations you can deliver
them to.

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