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Safely Remove Holiday Lights

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Take Care When Removing Holiday Lights

Many people put up lights and other decorations on their landscape plants for the Holidays.  It is amazing how extensive some designs become as homeowners do their best Griswold impersonations.  Not many people get as ambitious as Clark Griswold did in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation movie, although some give him a run for his money.  Of course, there are usually a few Charlie Brown decorating jobs as well. Regardless of the extent of your Holiday display, care must be taken when removing strings of lights from your trees and landscape plants when the season is over.  Unless you live in the far southern parts of the US, the weather was warmer when the decorations went up and often much colder when they come down.  The tendency is to take less care when removing the lights because it can be much colder.  Pulling on the strings of lights can result in limbs and branches that break or are otherwise damaged.  Many flowering shrubs set their blossoms the previous fall.  These buds can be knocked off if the strings of lights are pulled down resulting in fewer flowers in spring. You may have to bundle up more to take down your Holiday lights, but it is a small price to pay to avoid damaging your landscape plants.