What's your anxiety dream?

We all have them – those subconscious fears that jolt us awake at 3am, heart pounding, relieved it was just a dream.

But here's one that isn't just a bad dream – it does, and has, actually happened, usually around 1pm on Christmas Day.

Picture 25-degree heat, twenty hungry relatives sprawled across the deck, the paddling pool full of kids, and you’re in the kitchen juggling five salads, a half-melted pavlova, and a semi-cooked turkey. Then it happens – the oven dies. Not just a quick trip of the switch but a complete electrical meltdown that takes out all the house power!

Your brother-in-law tries to convince everyone he can fix it himself. Spoiler alert: he can’t. The news isn't good when you finally admit defeat and call for emergency electrician support. Three hours' wait – minimum. You weren't the only family whose Christmas lunch plans were unravelling due to overloaded circuits! And to add insult to injury, your backup plan – cooking the turkey on the BBQ – falls flat when you discover the BBQ’s out of gas (whose job was it to check that?) It’s not until 8pm that you can serve up ‘lunch’ to an extremely hungry and irritable family.

We see this scenario play out every December. People don't realise how quickly they can overload their circuits during the holidays. It's not just inconvenient – it can be downright dangerous. And let's be honest – nobody wants to pay emergency callout rates on Christmas Day.

Remember there are multiple oven and cooktop types so no Electrician can carry every part needed to repair your appliance on the day and without Electrical Wholesalers open on Christmas there can be a long wait to repair your particular oven or electrical issue. Don't let your festive season turn into one of your worst nightmares. Here's what you need to know to keep your home and family safe this Christmas.

Before the festivities begin

It’s a few weeks before Christmas, and you’re decorating the Christmas tree and putting up the lights around the house. You never have enough sockets in the right places, so you do the usual and have a few extension cords and multiple power boards daisy-chained around the room. It looks good, but it’s an electrical fire waiting to happen.

Start with the basics:

• Something wrong with your oven now? Get it serviced before that Christmas dinner prep, and ensure you have a full gas bottle for the BBQ.
• Check all your Christmas lights for frayed cords or broken bulbs.
• Consider upgrading to LED Christmas lights – they use less power and don’t get so hot.
• Consider timers for your decorative lights – you don’t need them running all night.
• Never connect multiple power boards in a chain (what we call piggy-backing).

Hosting the family

It’s not just the oven that can trip out the system. If it’s usually only four of you living in your house and it’s going to swell to 15 for a week, your electrical circuits will be severely challenged.

Don’t leave it to chance. Get an electrician in to check your electrical circuits, install new plug sockets, and some dedicated phone charging wall sockets, so you’re not all plugged into one power board! It really does happen – last year, No Shock received an emergency call on Christmas Day where all the electrical systems had been knocked out – not helped by the fact that all the relatives had been staying over, with everyone charging their devices at once. Add in the electric oven working overtime, and their ageing electrical system couldn't cope.

Christmas should be about creating memories, not dealing with electrical emergencies. A few simple precautions can make all the difference between a festive celebration and a festive disaster. Remember:

• When in doubt, check it out – electrical inspections are cheaper than fire damage.
• Set up proper charging stations for visitors – consider installing USB outlets in guest rooms (but get a professional to do it!)
• Spread your major appliances across different circuits.

Your holiday getaway checklist

• Unplug all appliances you're not using – yes, those seemingly harmless phone chargers can cause a fire even when nothing’s plugged into them!
• Remember to switch off appliances in the garage, including your electric bike and car charger.
• Double-check that your light timers are working correctly and randomly throughout your rooms to make it seem like you’re home. Some really good Bluetooth systems can do this for you.
• Consider smart switches that you can control from your phone. We're installing more and more smart home systems. They're brilliant for holiday safety - you can control your lights from anywhere, monitor power usage, and even get alerts if something's not right.
• About the hot water cylinder – you don’t have to switch it off – contrary to popular belief, it takes more energy to reheat a full cylinder than to maintain the heat while you're away.

We know the best Christmas call-out is no call-out. We'd much rather be home with our families than fixing preventable electrical problems on Christmas Day.

Get in touch with No Shock Electrical to ensure your home is safely ready for the holiday season.