The holidays are associated with vibrant decorations, meals with family, baking festive cookies and picking out gifts for loved ones.
But for many, the holidays can be a time of abrupt tragedy.
Known as the deadliest time of year, the “Christmas Holiday Effect” describes a noticeable spike in injuries and deaths from December 22 through Christmas Day.
While many incidents are caused by heart attacks due to shoveling heavy snow, excessive eating and drinking of alcohol, the cold weather, or the stress of buying a gift for everyone on your list, injuries during the holidays are and fatal accidents in some cases freak accidents.
A study Research has shown that approximately 160 decoration-related injuries occur every day in the U.S. during the holidays. Car accidents also peak around the holidays each year, with nearly 40 percent of fatal crashes during this time involving a drunk driver.
Between 2016 and 2020, Christmas trees caused around 100 fires annually, with December being the peak month for such incidents, and the increased use of candles and cooking activities around the holidays is leading to higher numbers of home fires.
And data from 2016 through 2018 shows that in November and December of those three years, Christmas trees caused 100 fires and candles caused 1,000 fires in the US.
Below, DailyMail.com lists the most bizarre holiday injuries that have occurred around the world.
Crushed by a metal tree
The metal Christmas tree (pictured) was set up by Lamsa, a company contracted by the Colombian city of Girardot for the past 18 years to set up Christmas displays
Kevin Navas, a 19-year-old auxiliary police officer, was crushed to death by a 30-foot-tall metal structure resembling a tree in Girardot, Colombia
In Bolivar Park in Girardot, Colombia earlier this month, police officer Kevin Andrés Navas, 19, was crushed to death when a 30-meter-tall metal Christmas tree fell on him.
Dozens of people at the city’s holiday festival rushed to lift the giant metal object from the officer.
After the fact, witnesses reported that the top part of the tree had broken, causing the whole thing to collapse, which festival goers said was a terrifying sound.
‘My God, the foot. Lift it up. Good Lord, look at this,” a woman said in the background. “Right now they’re looking for someone underneath.”
The group was able to partially lift the structure, while several people used their cellphones to search for where Navas was trapped.
By the time the crowd managed to free him, it was too late. He was taken to hospital in critical condition and died from his injuries.
Freak Christmas lights electrocution
Antonio Pascual Mateo was found hanging upside down from a tree after being electrocuted while hanging Christmas lights
Last month, San Diego, California native Antonio Pascual Mateo, 24, was electrocuted to death in a freak accident that left him hanging upside down from a tree for an hour.
Mr. Pascual was hanging Christmas lights as he threw the cable over a nearby power line.
Law enforcement officers who responded to the scene “found a worker hanging in the air with a lap belt. It looked like he had come into contact with some power lines.”
According to his family, Pascual hung upside down in a tree for an hour while firefighters urged the city to turn off power to the area so they could retrieve him safely.
But the family said it was too late to save their loved one.
Paramedics performed life-saving measures on the way to hospital, but Mr Mateo was pronounced dead.
His family said: ‘He had so much life left [for]only 24 years old. He always took care of his mother and family…he will stay young forever. Christmas lights have forever meaning to us. He will remain in our hearts forever.”
Falling off a roof
Felipe Gallegos, 39, (left) worked on the roof of a house in Rhome, Texas, while his wife worked in the front yard. The couple’s 17-year-old son was also working in the house
Another victim of Christmas decorations, a Texas man, died after falling from a roof while hanging Christmas lights with his teenage son.
39-year-old Felipe Gallegos owned a window cleaning company with his wife Alisha Flick.
He also took care of the installation of Christmas lights for his customers. While doing his job on a Saturday in 2019, he tragically fell.
Ms. Flick called it a “freak accident.” Mr. Gallegos had been doing this for years for members of his community.
She didn’t see what happened when he fell, but she heard a loud noise and when she went outside, she found him lying on the concrete and said, “Help me.” Help me.’
Mrs Flick said: ‘The CT scan came back and he had a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain.
‘And then he had a chest fracture and they had to suck blood from his chest.
“They rushed him into emergency surgery, but he didn’t make it.”
Stuck in a chimney
In 1990, Darryl Williams, 30, had to be rescued from the chimney of a restaurant in St. Augustine, Florida, in December, during which police nearly suffocated him.
The self-proclaimed ‘Christmas Bandit’ was rescued by firefighters who sang ‘Here Comes Santa Claus’ as they pulled him from the building.
Mr. Williams was charged with burglary and booked into the St. Johns County Jail.
Capt. JA Williams of the St. Augustine Fire Department said, “He was smiling until he saw the police.”
Crushed by a real tree
Security camera footage showed the moment a tree fell in a Belgian market. The tree can be seen next to a carousel falling on a historic Belgian square (right)
A woman at a Belgian Christmas market in the city of Oudenaarde was crushed when a 20-meter-high Christmas tree fell in December 2023.
Security footage at Oudenaarde Market showed the tree slowly leaning forward as particularly windy weather began to blow it over.
A spokesperson for the public prosecutor of the province of East Flanders confirmed that the victim was a 63-year-old woman from Oudenaarde.
Moreover, two other women from the same city suffered minor injuries in the incident.
Officials said at the time that an investigation into the incident would take place and “focus on whether the tree was properly secured and they would also look at the impact of weather.”
A Christmas present gone wrong
A father of three in New Zealand died on Christmas Day two years ago when he took his new prized Christmas gift – a bright yellow canoe – onto the water.
Varun Chand was watching his daughter in the canoe when her foot became entangled. In an attempt to wrestle him free, the canoe turned over.
Fortunately, his seven-year-old daughter was wearing a life jacket. However, Mr Chand was not. At some point during the battle he went underwater.
As Mr Chand, 37, dived deeper and deeper, his daughter swam to shore and called for help.
But rescuers couldn’t find him. They eventually found his body at the bottom of the lake the next day.
Fatal allergy
Cason Hallwood, 12, from Winsford, died on Christmas Day last year after suffering an allergic reaction
Cason (second from right) had eaten Christmas dinner with his mother Louise and three brothers (all pictured together) before playing with his friends at Wharton Recreation Ground in Cheshire
Twelve-year-old Cason Hallwood from Winsford, Cheshire, Britain, died from a severe allergic reaction to nuts unknowingly added to his holiday meal.
Cason was often hospitalized due to his asthma, but he was excited to be home for Christmas in 2020. That year he spent the day with his family and ended with an extensive dinner with his grandparents.
After his meal he went to the park with friends, but about twenty minutes later he called his mother to ask for his inhaler. His brother quickly brought it to him, but even after taking a few puffs, Cason still didn’t feel well.
Shortly afterwards, Cason’s mother rushed to the park. When she arrived at her son’s home, Cason’s eyes were swollen and he was experiencing an allergic reaction.
Usually treated with an EpiPen injection, the one Cason’s mother gave him in the park had expired and made no difference.
When Cason was rushed to the hospital, it was too late.
It was discovered that Cason’s grandfather had accidentally used a glaze on the ham that contained nuts, which caused the allergic reaction.
A tough stunt that went horribly out of hand
Grandfather Frost is seen in his red fur coat trying to descend the building
The man suddenly lost his grip and fell 70 meters, landing on a structure above the first floor
Last year, a man acting as Santa Claus fell 74 meters to his death in the western Russian city of Chelyabinsk.
He planned to climb down on ropes to greet the children down there as a magical surprise.
The man was dressed as ‘Grandfather Frost’, a mythological figure similar to Santa Claus who is illuminated by a spotlight as he loses his grip and falls.
An eyewitness said: ‘My son didn’t understand it, others understood, and they left in hysterics. All parents are of course in shock.’
Another said: ‘Everyone had fun, and no one could even think this would happen. I thought until the last moment that it was some kind of dummy, that it was a joke.
‘The festivities continued. There was no initial suspicion that this was a tragedy.”
The property management company responsible for organizing the event apologized for the incident and stated that the climber involved was an ‘experienced specialist’.
It added that the accident was unforeseen despite the climber’s qualifications, and the company emphasized its commitment to ensuring safety at future events.