If right now 'tis the season to be jolly, it's also the season to be careful.
Scenes like this one from the movie actually do happen in real life:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jumf67jgt30But unlike in the movie, in real life people don't just get up and walk away. They usually wait laying on the ground for the ambulance to arrive and take them off to the ER.
"Every year, from Christmas through Dec. 31, more than 6,000 people on average end up in emergency rooms because of holiday products or activities that cause serious injuries, according to data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)."Top five injuries: laceration, fracture, other, internal injuries, contusion/abrasion.
Top five body parts: head, face, finger, lower trunk, upper trunk.
"Fireworks caused the biggest increase in injuries from Christmas to New Year’s Eve compared with the first weeks of December ... backyard fireworks during the end-of-the-year festivities resulted in dozens of facial burns, finger amputations and cuts ... During the calendar year 2021, at least nine people died and an estimated 11,500 were injured in incidents involving fireworks."
"Hoverboards and powered skateboards and scooters – popular Christmas gifts for children – were responsible for 12 daily injuries on average from Dec. 24 to Dec. 31, the data shows ... emergency physicians reported falls, fires, bruises, neck fractures, displaced shoulders, dislocated elbows and strained wrists among the hoverboard-caused injuries."
"Holiday ski trips were also responsible for an average of 6 daily injuries resulting in ER visits, according to the CPSC data. The ER reports show that more than 40% of those injuries are fractures and 20% strains, and that 3 out of 10 of the incidents involve the knee and the lower leg."
"Other holiday-related injuries reported include toy guns with projectiles, quad bikes, slicers, choppers and knives, candles and fishing equipment."From:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/12/30/holiday-emergency-room-visits-explained/10940949002/But I really have to believe that we here on HW are very unlikely to be among the people like those mentioned above who fall victim to the types of injuries described.
That's because our experiences in dealing with the beast have led us to be the thoughtful, careful types, and much less prone to fall victim to seasonal incidents such as happen to many at Christmas time.
But in general, as one psychology website I visited noted, the holidays cause so much distraction (buy this, cook that, visit so-and-so) that a good many of us neglect to follow our usual cautionary habits, and we fall off the roof, as Clark Griswold does in the above video.
But still, it's always good to remember to pace ourselves while under the stresses of the holidays, and to be careful out there.
The holidays are certainly more enjoyable when they're accident free!