Beware These Horrific Holiday Mishaps

Work enough Christmases in the ER, and you’ll see every manner of bizarre holiday accident—some of them more than once. One UK doctor shares with the Telegraph the injuries his hospital sees "without fail" every year:

• Exploding tree lights burn eyelids and eyeballs, so keep a safe distance of, oh, more than 6 inches from your tree.
• Beware errant tree branches, which poke people in the eye with surprising regularity—generally as they eagerly try to grab gifts from underneath.

• Eyes in general seem to be trouble spots. Children often poke themselves in the eye with new toys. They also get glitter in their eyes from cards or decorations.
• In at least one painful case, a patient got his eyelid caught in a zipper while trying on a new sweater.
• The most common injuries involve alcohol in the kitchen, where drunk cooks constantly burn themselves, cut themselves while carving meat, or get hit in the eye with champagne corks.
• And watch the booze: Drunkenly sleeping with your eyes open, causing excessive dryness, is common.

(More Christmas stories.)