(KSTU) -- Christmas lights; they sure are beautiful, but they can also be very dangerous.
We put on our climbing shoes and followed a holiday light professional, to get some expert advice.
"My favorite way of hanging lights is with a shingle clip like this. Basically, the purpose of that clip is it's permanently installed on your lights and it's non-invasive on the house," said Jeff Wyner, owner and operator of Bright Holidays.
Professionals also say make sure your ladder is steady, on stable ground and test it before you start climbing.
"Safety regulations say you need to have three points of contact at all times, meaning one hand two feet or two hands one foot," Wyner said, "so if you’re carrying lights up, you have to make sure they are not in your hands while you’re doing that."
Lighting professionals recommend inspecting your holiday lights each year before putting them up. They say throw away light strands with frayed or pinched wires.
"Maybe when you were pulling them off the house, you had a wire catch an edge and it ripped the sheeting off of the wire," said Wyner.
They remind decorators to not overload their power source. LED lights draw a third less power than incandescent.
"I realized that they put 200 light bulbs in the line, and what that means is it’s about two times more than with that wire is meant to handle," Wyner said.
If done safely, holiday lighting can get you and your family into the holiday spirit.
