Cover at Christmas: Protecting your home during the holidays

Isn’t Christmas lovely? It’s that one time of the year when everyone comes together to celebrate the holidays at home. In most houses, the fridge is full, the kitchen is busy, and the front doorbell is working overtime. But for all the fun and festivities of the season, it’s also a time when properties are often left unoccupied for periods of time - whether we’re visiting family, heading out for late-evening events, or making annual trips to relatives across the country. Add in the piles of presents under the tree, and it’s no surprise that Christmas is a peak period for burglaries.

As a home insurance provider, we want to make sure that you enjoy a relaxing, peaceful December. That’s why we put together these simple tips to help you stay safe and protected this holiday season.

1. Lock up and light up

For a number of years, An Garda Síochána have been targeting organised crime gangs through Operation Thor, which includes checkpoints, patrols, and public awareness. Part of this is their “Lock Up, Light Up” campaign which highlights a couple of key facts:

Nearly half of all burglaries (46%) take place between 5pm and 11pm
In one in five cases, burglars gained access through an unsecured door or window

According to Garda data, the most common items stolen are jewellery, cash, computers, mobile phones, TVs, and game consoles - all of which are often found neatly wrapped and under the tree at Christmas.

The advice from the Operation Thor team is surprisingly simple and focuses mostly on two aspects: lock all doors and windows, and light up your home to make it look occupied. Check out the Garda Burglary Prevention Advice.

The good news is that it’s never been easier to do this, with a range of smart solutions including lamps, plugs, and lightbulbs that can be programmed to come on automatically or at set periods of time. That means you don’t have to spend a fortune keeping your house glowing while you’re gone.

2. Create a winter security checklist

If you’re heading away for a night or two - or the entire Christmas week - you’ll need to be extra careful to safeguard your home. Every household is different but here’s a practical checklist to start with;

Make sure all doors, windows, and gates are locked
Set your home alarm system
Set timers for indoor and outdoor lights
Leave a car in the driveway (locked and secure)
Keep valuables out of sight
Test and clean sensor lights and camera lenses
Ask a trusted neighbour or friend to pick up your post and check the house
Avoid sharing information on social media until you’re home

Taking the time to work through these steps could make the difference between coming back from your travels to a safe and secure home…or an unpleasant surprise.

3. Keep your car safe from thieves

It might be hard to believe given the advances in technology, but last year, car thefts in Ireland hit a 12-year high, driven, in part by what RTÉ’s Primetime calls “a loose network of teenage joyriders.”

Losing your car at any time would be upsetting, but at Christmas it could make shopping and socialising plans almost impossible. Apart from the normal breaking-and-entering, many keys are stolen through electronic key-relay attacks, where criminals use a relay device to copy the signal from a keyless-entry fob inside your home. This unlocks your car silently - you may not notice until you wake up in the morning and see an empty driveway.

The best way to prevent this is by investing in a Faraday pouch, which blocks the signal. A metal tin also offers some protection, so consider keeping the tin once you’ve finished your Jacob’s Kimberley biscuits this Christmas.

‘Fishing’, or stealing keys through letterboxes, continues to be a problem, especially in the Dublin region. The best solution to this problem is keeping keys far away from the front door. This is easier said than done, especially during the busy festive season, so an alternative is to place a hook high above the front door, maintaining easy, safe access for family and friends - while blocking opportunistic criminals.

4. Be mindful of extra fire risk

Burglary isn’t the only risk you have to contend with at Christmas. Between decorative lights, candles, and burning stoves, the chances of a fire at home rocket over the holiday period.

To combat this, the Irish government is calling on people to build a fire safety routine they can carry out before going to bed every night. This should include, “extinguishing all candles and fires, unplugging electrical appliances and taking precautions to ‘prevent fires from starting’ because once a fire starts, it will stop at nothing.” The seven steps are:

Fit a working smoke alarm
Stay safe when decorating for Christmas – don't leave your Christmas lights on permanently, especially if you’re not in the house
Drink sensibly
Stay vigilant if using fossil-fuel fires
Unplug electrical appliances after use
Extinguish any candles, cigarettes and ash
Get out immediately and call 999 or 112 in case of an emergency

We recently listed eight ways you can winter-proof your home, which is worth a second look to help you stay fire safe this Christmas.

5. Check your home insurance cover

Here at RedClick, we offer practical home insurance solutions, taking into account the realities of busy family life at Christmas.

That’s why, during the month of December, we increase the contents sum you have insured by 10% - to cover gifts and extra food and drink for the Christmas season. Available as part of our affordable contents insurance policies, this small gesture goes a long way for customers who experience a burglary during what should be a happy time.

This is in addition to our other benefits, which can cover visitors’ personal belongings (up to €1,000), frozen foods (up to €700), and money (up to €500). With our Buildings and Contents cover, our Emergency Home Repair service adds extra peace of mind, especially during winter, when the risk of burst pipes and leaking roofs start to rise.

If Santa has been particularly good this year and gifted you something worth over €3,000, make sure to list it individually on your home insurance policy. Common items of value include jewellery, specialist bicycles, art, laptops, and more. More information is available in our policy booklet, but you can also chat with us on 015534040.

If you don’t already have good contents insurance in place, don’t delay - now is the time to get a quote, before the hectic season really kicks in. When you buy home insurance from RedClick, you can save more online too which might even cover the cost of your turkey this year!

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