5 Practical Tips to Keep Your Home Safe this Christmas

Christmas is almost here and for burglars that means one thing - opportunity. Piles of expensive presents, gadgets, electronics and more are on show in living rooms across the country. For many families, Christmas is a time for visiting relatives and so many houses are left unoccupied for extended periods of time, leaving them incredibly vulnerable for opportunistic thieves looking to cash in on Christmas. We understand the threat this poses, so we’ve written this blog to provide some top tips for keeping your house secure this Christmas.

If you decide to go away over the Christmas period or visit family, your empty house becomes an obvious target. The driveway might be empty, the lights remain off and perhaps post even begins to build up by the door. There are a number of ways for you to prevent burglaries by convincing potential thieves that someone is still living there. Enlist the help of a neighbour to keep your house looking lived in. If you don’t have another car to park on your drive, see if they would like to (or their guests) and they could visit the house to turn lights on and open curtains. Alternatively, timers can also be used to turn your lights on automatically. Bear in mind that it gets darker faster in the winter, so the lights may need to be on earlier than usual and for longer periods of time.

Christmas is a burglar’s dream for a number of reasons, most obvious being the huge amount of expensive gifts just left under trees in family living rooms. Make sure potential burglars can’t simply peer through your windows and see the presents on show. Hide them in wardrobes, cupboards and just generally keep them out of view. The same applies to your Christmas tree - an obvious target. If your Christmas tree is close to the window, it can be tempting for burglars to simply smash the glass and try to take what they can. Keep presents and the tree itself as realistically far away from the windows as possible.

3. Security Cameras (CCTV) Help you Remain Vigilant

While it’s clear that the entirety of your neighbourhood isn’t out to burgle you, it doesn’t hurt to be vigilant about what’s going on around your home. Keep an eye out for any suspicious behaviour. Security cameras (CCTV) both inside and outside your home can help to make you feel safer, as well as keep your house secure. At Spectrum, we offer a wide variety of home security systems , including both wired and wireless intruder alarm systems to suit any requirements.

We also have a number of cloud based options meaning you can keep an eye on your property from your phone wherever you are!

If you’re planning on being away from your house for an extended period of time and have taken the initiative to have a neighbour visit every so often to keep it looking lived in, it’s best to simply give a spare key to that neighbour. Burglars know where to check when it comes to looking for a spare key - the usual spots near the front entrance include under a door mat, in flower pots or under rocks. It’s not worth the risk to simply leave a key in one of these places.

There are a number of smaller security points that need to be addressed when the Christmas season arrives that many families simply don’t think of. A lot of families will run Christmas lights during the festive period and many will use extension leads to connect the lights to a power source inside the house. Leaving an extension lead running through an unlocked window is welcoming burglars into your house with open arms. Potential other options include running the extension lead from your garage if the door can be closed and locked while the lead is running beside it, or hire an electrician to install an exterior outlet.

Christmas is a wonderful time which can easily be ruined by an unfortunate or careless security mishap. Burglars are looking to take advantage of any family that hasn’t been careful enough, so following these tips should hopefully give you a helping hand in deterring crime.

For any advice on your home security, get in touch with us on 01753 754890.