The best holidays of the year are fast approaching! To ensure that these days remain occasions for joy, consider these five techniques for protecting your house against the unique strains that the holiday season provides.

Winterize your home before it’s too late.

Across much of the United States, it seems that the fall season gets shorter and shorter with each passing year as winter freezes replace summer heat in the blink of an eye.

As a homeowner, knock out those winterizing tasks before the holidays roll around to ensure that you do not wait too long! If you live in an area where temperatures will eventually dip below freezing, shut off your exterior water supply and remove your garden hoses.

Failing to do so can result in extremely costly pipe breaks that can end up flooding other parts of your home. Along these lines, you will also want to wrap interior pipes in places that do not receive heat (for example, garages and crawl spaces) to keep those pipes from bursting.

Another crucial but straightforward winterizing task involves a trip to your local hardware store to stock up on safety supplies. People often forget to purchase their sidewalk salt, snow shovels, and emergency kits (flashlights, candles, bottled water, canned food, etc.) until the first snow of the year is underway, leaving them unprepared to deal with that initial storm. This can be particularly problematic if that first snow coincides with one of the fall/winter holidays and interrupts your plans to host holiday parties and family gatherings.

Ensure that your homeowner’s insurance and home warranty plans are paid up.

The holiday season inspires activities that pose risks to your house. For example, most Americans deck out their homes with elaborate decorations for the various fall and winter holidays. In many cases, these decorations include outdoor lighting projects.

We all love holiday decorations. Still, it is essential to recognize that holiday décor inevitably leads to significant troubles for some homeowners each year. For example, extensive amounts of outdoor lighting strain a house’s electrical system, which can lead to system failures and even house fires.

Given these unique holiday risks, the fall season is a great time to double-check your various coverages to give yourself peace of mind about your home. A standard homeowner’s insurance policy forms the backbone of your coverage package. While these policies do vary, they tend to cover the significant risks, such as house fires, that could devastate you and your family. Complementing your homeowner’s policy should be your home warranty plan. These warranty plans can be tailored to your specific needs to ensure that your home’s critical systems and appliances are protected. These warranties can be designed to cover anything from your washer/dryer setup to your HVAC system.

Check your social media privacy settings.

Sadly, the holiday season can also bring an uptick in home burglaries. To protect your home and your family from this particularly unpleasant risk, be sure to check your privacy settings on your social media accounts. You want to make sure that your public online presence does not inform the world that your family is heading out for an extended holiday vacation. Similarly, it is wise to restrict your audience when posting about exciting new purchases or gifts whose value may entice bad actors.

Install outdoor sensor lights.

As the holidays approach, daylight hours diminish as it gets dark much earlier. As you prepare for family parties or simply adjust to your family’s winter schedules, it is wise to take advantage of new technologies for your outdoor lighting needs. Gone are the days of needing to remember to turn on your outdoor lights to provide safe passage into your home for your family and your guests. Install sensor lighting around your home to secure your house for the dark winter months.

Make a plan for safely receiving your online gift orders.

21^st-century holiday shopping primarily takes place online. This means that packages frequent the doorsteps of homes across America during the holiday months. As you prepare for the holidays, take a moment to sort through your options for receiving these packages successfully.

One option that many people are starting to use is a secure dropbox on your porch like Danby’s Parcel Guard.  When a package from an online order is placed in a parcel guard, it locks so thieves cannot steal it. And, the smart technology the boxes come equipped with notify you of a delivery and allow you to unlock the box from your phone. Simply put, you can monitor who picks up the package from the box. So, Parcel Guard’s not only protect your packages from thieves, but they also keep your packages from the eyes of the people in your house who will be receiving surprises during the holiday season.

If logistics prohibit you from running electric to your mailbox, no worries, you can opt for the simpler no electric version – The Danby Parcel Guard Basic Mailbox.

While these options may seem like overkill, they offer protection for your holiday purchases, not only from package thieves but also from the tough winter weather.