For some, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year.
But for tens of thousands of Kiwis, it’s also a time of accidents, whether it’s cutting the Christmas ham or hanging decorations.
The number of ACC injury claims between December 1 and Christmas Day is increasing each year.
In 2016, there were around 125,000, while last year there were 134,000, an increase of 9000 claims in the space of five years.
“Typically a lot of those injuries happen at home,” ACC injury prevention leader James Whitaker said. “They’re slips, trips and falls, so things in the way, too many things going on.”
But ACC also records some slightly more unusual accidents around this time.
Between December 18 and January 10 each year over the past three festive seasons, there’s been around 60 injuries involving Christmas trees, around 50 involving Christmas hams, and 40 odd because of Christmas decorations.
Those gifts under the tree are also a trap for the unwary, with a handful of claims from wrapping them up.
“It’s the laceration from using scissors and stuff like that,” Whitaker said. “It’s getting the scissors from somewhere, like you might overreach wherever they’re stored, fall over, and you’re injured.”
Last year, St John Ambulance were called out to over a 1000 jobs on Christmas Day alone.
Operations manager James Stewart says paramedics deal with their fair share of unusual call-outs.
“We have quite a few call outs for parents injuring themselves on children’s toys or undertaking activity that wouldn’t be usual for them throughout the year.”
ACC has concerns this year could be the worst yet.
“Some people might get over excited,” Whitaker said. “They do need to take a step back and actually think things through before they get stuck in.”
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