Holiday electrical safety checklist

Expert tips from Tulsa’s trusted electricians

The holidays may be the only time of year when people willingly drag extension cords through bushes, hang electrical wires from gutters like Clark Griswold in Christmas Vacation, and overload power strips like they’re auditioning for a fireworks finale. The result looks great. Until a breaker trips or something starts to smell like melting plastic.

Fox Electrical Inc. gets more “holiday emergency” calls than you’d expect, and most of them come down to the same issue: homeowners decorating like it’s 2025 while their electrical system is still living in 1987. So before you plug in the twelve-foot inflatable Santa and that LED deer family that eats watts for breakfast, walk through this holiday electrical safety checklist.

Start with the circuit reality check

Most homeowners decorate first and think about power second, which is how circuits get overloaded fast. If you see flickering lights, smell something electrical, or notice a breaker tripping more than once, the system is already telling you it’s overworked.

GFCI outlets have a reset button for a reason. Push the button. It could save you a service call.

If you want a deeper look at how holiday overloads lead to fires, the Electrical Safety Foundation International has a solid breakdown of what goes wrong most often.

Quick check:

• Know what’s on the same circuit before adding new light strands
• Don’t daisy-chain inflatables, lights, and heaters into one outlet “just to see if it works”
• Use outdoor-rated outlets, not whatever’s closest to the door

 

If your panel is older or you already know you’re limited on capacity, you can also schedule a panel upgrade or inspection so you are not gambling with your decor.

Use the right lights (and don’t staple through the wires)

Old incandescent lights look nostalgic until you realize they get hot enough to toast a marshmallow. Modern LED holiday lights are safer, cooler, and use much less power, so that you can connect more strands without stressing the system.

The U.S. Department of Energy has a helpful overview of why LED decor uses less power and lasts longer than incandescent lights. And it’s not just about saving money. It’s about reducing heat and fire risk, too.

And since someone does this every year, we are saying it clearly: do not put nails, screws, or metal staples through the wiring. If you pierce the cord, you are not “hanging lights.” You are installing a live electrical hazard.

“Weather-resistant” and “waterproof” are not the same thing.

If you’re not sure what you have, here’s the rule of thumb: if the box has a picture of a family inside their living room, those lights don’t belong on your gutters in an Oklahoma ice storm.

Quick check:

• Choose LED lights, not relics from the “we still rent VHS tapes” era
• Use smart plugs or timers so you’re not outside unplugging things at 11 p.m. in pajamas
• Protect every outdoor connection from moisture (zip-top tubs, proper covers, electrical tape, anything except “hope”)

 

If you want outlets installed under the soffit or anywhere else to eliminate extension cords entirely, Fox Electrical does that year-round.

If your home is older, your power capacity might be too

Homes built before the early 2000s weren’t wired with blow-up snow globes, smart-synced light shows, and 18,000 LED pixels in mind. Some older homes deliver half the power of a modern setup. Meaning you can overload circuits faster than you think.

That doesn’t mean you can’t decorate. It just means get the panel checked before the decorations go up, not after the smoke alarm goes off.

Fox Electrical can install dedicated outdoor outlets, soffit-mounted plugs, switch-controlled circuits, and smart timers. You won’t be running cords out windows or tripping breakers every night at 6:17 p.m. like clockwork.

Design it once, enjoy it every year

The best time to think about next year’s holiday setup is before you’re on a ladder with half-frozen fingers untangling lights that were “neatly” put away in January.

Fox Electrical regularly adds mantle outlets for garlands and soffit outlets for permanent lighting. We also install garage-mounted smart switches so you can turn off your display from your phone instead of sprinting across the yard in slippers.

No more “Where can I plug this in?”

No more “Why is every extension cord orange?”

No more “Whose bright idea was it to run the entire yard off one outlet?”

If you want a setup that looks clean and doesn’t involve 10 orange extension cords, we can design it with you any time of year.

And while we are talking seasonal power issues, if you want your house to stay powered during ice storms or outages, this is also the time to think about a backup generator.

A real Tulsa story (because this actually happened)

A Tulsa homeowner called us on Thanksgiving afternoon. Because every time they turned on their oven, half the house lost power. Brand new construction. Brand new panel. Everything up to code.

Turns out, the problem wasn’t the house, but the industrial building across the highway. Their gigantic holiday display was causing enough electrical interference to trip the homeowner’s arc-fault circuit breakers. The grid couldn’t keep the peace between twinkle lights and turkey prep.

Utilities, engineers, and Fox Electrical got involved, and the fix eventually required redistributing sections of the grid. The moral: electricity is simple…until it isn’t. And when things get weird, you want the electrician who has seen all the things.

Quick holiday electrical safety checklist

• Don’t overload a single outlet or circuit
• Inspect cords for chew marks (pets and squirrels do not take holidays off)
• Use outdoor-rated cords, plugs, and lights outside
• Keep connections off the ground and away from water
• If your home is older than your Christmas playlist, get the panel checked
• Call a pro before the smoke alarm becomes the alarm system for your decor

About Fox Electrical Inc.

Fox Electrical Inc. has been helping Tulsa homeowners stay safe and powered since 2006. Whether you need outdoor outlets, smart lighting setup, breaker panel upgrades, or just someone to tell you why the inflatable reindeer keeps killing the living room lights, we’re here for you.

Schedule a holiday electrical safety check or talk through your setup with one of our team members.