Beware: Your Christmas tree could KILL you

IT’S the most wonderful time of the year — but it’s also the most dangerous, too.

Amid all the merriment, Christmas sees a spike in injuries across the UK, with some 1,000 reported across the festive period.

From the four people every year who break their arm pulling a cracker, to those who set fire to themselves while lighting the Christmas pudding (one in ten), it seems there’s potential for peril everywhere.

According to the Royal Society For The Prevention of Accidents, the most common reasons for trips to A&E include children biting into glass baubles and adults plunging from make-shift ladders, such as tables, while putting up fairy lights.

More than 1,000 are expected to be treated after falling while decorating the tree, while 350 get on the wrong side of fairy lights. More seriously, more than 30 people have died from electrocution as a result of watering their trees while the lights are switched on in the past 17 years. Similarly, six people have died from eating decorations they mistook for chocolate, while hundreds have poked their eyes with branches when reaching under the tree.

The busiest day for A&E is the Friday before Christmas — the height of party season — so try not to be one of the 200 who break a tooth or crown opening a bottle. Watch out, too, for jumpers catching fire, and take care ripping into presents with a knife or scissors.