Holiday decorating injuries send thousands to the ER

of all the injuries. A core feature of Christmas is a grown man sliding down chimneys, so perhaps the falling men are in the spirit of the season.

Most of the injuries are not serious — small cuts, strains, maybe a broken bone. But the most memorable ones are doozies, said Dr. Christopher.”The anecdotes that you remember are always the saddest. Someone who’s shovelling snow and drops, or the snowblower injuries. During Christmas, that is devastating.”

One other holiday injury trend deserves to be mentioned — and it’s not a stomach ache from being forcefed fruitcake.

“69 [year-old man] SUSTAINED A LEFT 2ND DIGIT LAC[eration] WHILE USING A KNIFE TO CARVE HIS CHRISTMAS HAM” — Christmas Day, 2016

“Just like Thanksgiving,” Dr. Campbell said, “We get a lot of cuts from people who are trying to cut their Christmas ham or otherwise food related. They were helping out in the kitchen and they’re someone who usually doesn’t use a really sharp knife.”

It turns out that for knife injuries, Christmas was the worst day last year, followed by Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve, Christmas Eve and Thanksgiving Eve. Christmas saw more than three times as many knife injuries as the average day.

Mr. Meyer, the paramedic, said cooking injuries were often the most memorable.

“Someone dropped a frozen turkey on their big toe,” which became “large and purple,” he recalled. “Fortunately, they were laughing about it, but you drop a 20pound turkey on your toe, you’re wearing a boot.”

Dr. Christopher pointed out that the knife injuries might not all be from cooking. “Believe it or not, as people open up their gifts, they tend to use all sorts of objects and knives, so we get a lot of lacerations.”

Despite all the halldecking injuries, the PostGazette was unable to find any evidence of injuries involving roasting chestnuts or one-horse open sleighs spinning out, despite the apparent inherent danger of those activities.

Dr. Christopher encourages anyone who does get hurt on a holiday to go to the emergency room right away. “With lacerations, especially on your hands, you can’t suture if you wait too long,” he said. “It’ll heal, and stop bleeding, but you have a higher risk of infection, the scar will be bigger, and it will take longer to heal.”

And that’s one holiday memory no one wants.