When decorating your home, you want the d'cor to reflect your own personal style while keeping the Christmas tradition always present. A few tips can help make this holiday decorating season even brighter.
Christmas Decoration Tip #1: Lights Out
With each year that passes, Christmas lights tend to burn out at some point. Unless you have a strand that burns with the exception of the troublesome light, it can be a real headache to find the faulty bulb. Consider investing in a light tester, which will check each individual light and detect the one that needs replacing. These can be found with the Christmas supplies at most department stores.
Christmas Decoration Tip #2: Angels Nearby
Whenever possible, decorate your home with angels. They add a touch of peace and tranquility to your home and we all need to know that there are angels watching over us.
Christmas Decoration Tip #3: Be fruity
Prepare a fruit-filled clear glass bowl as a centerpiece for your dining room table. Nothing smells like Christmas as much as an orange or a nice fruit combination.
Decoration Tip #4: Add a personal touch
If you hang Christmas stockings, consider personalizing them with your name, your spouses name and those of your children. These days, even pets have stockings, so don't forget to add Fido's name on a stocking. You can easily personalize a traditional stocking using a glitter pen, preferably one that writes in silver or gold. A personalized stocking is a nice idea and a special added touch.
Christmas Decoration Tip #5: Pucker up
Decorate your home with poinsettia and mistletoe, which are both holiday traditions. A nice artificial poinsettia plant will always be beautiful and is easy to take care of - no water required. A mistletoe is always a nice touch and especially if you just need one more reason to smooch.
Christmas Decoration Tip #6: Working with wreaths
.Don't forget to place a beautiful green wreath on the front door of your home. Make sure to add a red bow for a brightening touch! Artificial wreaths will last year after year, but real wreaths do have a wonderful scent. If you want to add wreath's to the windows in your home, consider purchasing a magnetic wreath hanger. This type of hanger comes in two parts - one goes on the inside of your home and the piece with the hook will go on the outside. These hangers have been around for years, but they are steadily beginning to gain in popularity. The magnets are so strong that they can work through doors and windows, which is ideal for hanging wreaths on the outside of your home without the fuss of a traditional plastic wreath hanger, which drapes across the top of your door.
Christmas Decoration Tip #7: A perfect fit
When choosing a Christmas tree, make sure to measure the preferred location from side to side and from floor to roof. You will want to make sure that perfect tree fits when you bring it home. Artificial trees are easy care, but a real tree requires plenty of water.
Christmas Decoration Tip #8: It's all about tradition
It's nice to start a family tradition by decorating your tree on a certain day each year. Perhaps after Thanksgiving dinner, the whole family can spend the evening dressing their home for Santa.
Christmas Decoration Tip #9: Shop smart
Make sure that all electric decorations are UL listed to ensure that they have been tested for quality and safety. Don't forget to unplug everything before you leave home or go to bed at night.
Christmas Decoration Tip #10: Say Cheese
Always remember to have plenty of film and batteries for the camera. Now that you have the perfect decorations, don't forget to capture them on film.
For whatever reason, the person who is perpetrating fraud by making a bogus claim of being injured or disabled can often be "found out" at Christmas time. Often during the holidays a person falsely claiming to be totally disabled can be found carrying packages or a child, hanging decorations, or generally doing things that are inconsistent with his or her claim.
Investigative firms like David Morse & Associates (http://www.davidmorse.com) provide surveillance on suspicious Workers Comp claims. If the person is proved not to be disabled, usually by filming them engaging in physically demanding activities, his claim is disallowed and often he is prosecuted. Here is an example.
Repetitive Christmas Decoration Hanging Syndrome by Jim Smith, Deputy Director of Investigations
"A female employee went out on a Workers Compensation claim due to the repetitive motion injury "carpal tunnel syndrome" in both wrists. She and her doctor indicated that she had a fairly severe case of carpal tunnel and could not use either arm or wrist for lifting, twisting or typing.
"Surveillance was approved, and initially we did not see any evidence contrary to the claimant's allegations. But rumors persisted in the workplace that the claimant was not as injured as she claimed.
"As the holiday season was approaching I suggested that we conduct surveillance near Christmas, thinking we might find the claimant involved in holiday activities inconsistent with her claimed injuries.
"We set up surveillance on a weekend early in December. We were quite amazed to see and film the claimant, over both weekend days, putting up outdoor Christmas lights and decorations outside the house. This included climbing a ladder and even getting up on the roof, untangling Christmas lights, lifting lights and decorations over her head, and using a staple gun to place the lights on the outside of the house. She did all this with no hesitation or obvious signs of discomfort or disability.
"We later learned that the claimant was separated from her husband and was the person responsible for all the 'chores' around the house. In this case, that included climbing up on the roof and preparing the house with all the signs of Christmas cheer.
"Once the film of this festive weekend was shown to the claimant's attorney, the holiday season became a lot less cheery for him and his client."
Another victory for truth, justice and lower insurance premiums.
Tom Reitze has sinced written about articles on various topics from Finances, Insurance and Finances. Tom Reitze is President of David Morse & Associates (http://www.davidmorse.com) , an independent investigations and claims adjusting company with 41 offices in 15 states.. Tom Reitze's top article generates over 4400 views. to your Favourites.