All right, who else here has seen A Christmas Story?

Lots of hands? No surprise. The story of young Ralphie’s quest to receive a Red Ryder air rifle under the tree has become a holiday perennial, one as familiar as the Grinch and Charlie Brown. Most of us know about Little Orphan Annie decoder rings, or adults who proclaim “You’ll shoot your eye out!”, or the glow of a tacky leg lamp in the living room window.

And that lamp, believe it or not, is what brings us here today. 

Ralphie’s dad, you may remember, blows a fuse when he first plugs the lamp in. Why? Because he’s got plugs plugged into plugs that are themselves plugged into plugs – what’s sometimes called an electric “octopus.”

Both in that era and today, octopuses are a bad idea. They can overload the circuit, cause wires or plugs to overheat – and needless to say, they increase your risk of fire.  That’s not a happy holiday under any circumstances.

So when it’s the most wonderful time of the year,  how do you handle the need for all those extra plugs (with or without a Major Award involved)? These days, the safest way is a power strip, which offers extra outlets for all those devices and decorations while also having its own circuit breaker as a guard against overloads. They’re easy to get – in fact, we offer advanced power strips at the Efficiency Works store that also reduce your “phantom” energy load by cutting off power to devices when they’re not in use, saving you energy and money.

It’s good to remember for holiday safety and beyond.

You might even say it’ll give you a leg up on the season.