The holiday season is 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 beginning December 22 and peaking through Christmas day.
While many incidents are caused by heart attacks from shoveling heavy snow, over indulging on food and alcohol, the cold weather or stress of making sure you buy a gift for everyone on your list, in some cases, holiday injuries and fatalities are freak accidents.
A study found approximately 160 decoration-related injuries occur daily in the US during the holiday season. Automobile accidents also spike every year around the holidays, with nearly 40 percent of fatal crashes during this period involving a drunk driver.
Between 2016 and 2020, Christmas trees caused about 100 fires annually, with December being the peak month for such incidents, and the increased use of candles and cooking activities around the holidays leads to higher rates of house fires.
And data from 2016 to 2018 reveals during the months of 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
In Bolivar Park in Girardot, Colombia earlier this month, police officer Kevin Andrés Navas, 19, was crushed to death when a 98-foot metal Christmas tree fell on top of him.
Dozens of people at the city’s holiday festival rushed to lift the behemoth metal object off of the officer.
Witnesses reported after the fact that the upper part of the tree had broken, causing the entire thing to collapse in what festivalgoers said was a terrifying sound.
‘My God, the foot. Lift it up. Good God, 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 multiple people used their cellphones to search for the spot where Navas was trapped.
By the time the crowd managed to free him, it was too late. He was taken to the hospital in a critical state and died from his injuries.
Freak Christmas lights electrocution
Last month, San Diego, California-native Antonio Pascual Mateo, 24, was electrocuted to death in a freak accident that left him hanging from a tree upside down for an hour.
Mr Pascual was hanging Christmas lights when he threw the cable over a nearby high-voltage power line.
Law enforcement who rushed to the scene ‘found a worker suspended in the air via a waist harness, it appeared that he had come in contact with some high-power tension lines.’
According to his family, Mr Pascual was hanging upside down in a tree for up to an hour while the fire department urged the city to shut power to the area so they could safely retrieve him.
But the family said it was too late to save their loved one.
Paramedics performed life saving measures on the way to the hospital but Mr Mateo was pronounced dead.
His family said: ‘He had so much to live [for], only 24 years old. He always took care of his mother and family… forever young he will remain. Christmas lights forever have a meaning to us. He will remain in our hearts for eternity.’
Falling from a roof
Another victim of Christmas decorations, a Texas man died after he fell off a roof while hanging Christmas lights with his teenage son.
Thirty-nine-year-old Felipe Gallegos ran a window cleaning business with his wife, Alisha Flick.
He also provided Christmas light installation services for his clients. It was while performing his job one Saturday in 2019 that he tragically fell.
Ms Flick called it a ‘freak accident.’ Mr Gallegos had been doing this for years for the members of his community.
She didn’t see what happened when he fell, but she heard a loud noise and, when she went outside, found him lying on the concrete saying, ‘Help me. Help me.’
Ms Flick said: ‘The CT scan came back and he had a skull fracture and bleeding in the brain.
‘And then he had a chest fracture and they had to drain 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 a St Augustine, Florida restaurant’s chimney in December, with law enforcement finding him near suffocation.
The self-named ‘Christmas bandit’ was rescued by firefighters who sang ‘Here Comes Santa Claus’ as they hauled him up and out of the structure.
Mr Williams was charged with burglary and sent to the St. Johns County Jail.
Capt. J. A. Williams of the St Augustine Fire Department said: ‘He was smiling until he saw the police.’
Crushed by a real tree
A woman at a Belgian Christmas market in the city of Oudenaarde was crushed to death when a 66-foot tall Christmas tree toppled in December 2023.
Security footage at the Markt of Oudenaarde showed the tree leaning over slowly as particularly windy weather began to blow it over.
A spokesperson for the Oost-Vlaanderen province prosecutor confirmed the victim was a 63-year-old woman from Oudenaarde.
Additionally, two other women from the same town sustained minor injuries in the incident.
Officials said at the time an investigation into the incident would take place and ‘focus on whether the tree had been properly secured and will also look at the impact of the weather.’
A Christmas gift 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 – out on the water.
Varun Chand was facing his daughter in the canoe when her foot became tangled. In trying to wrestle it free, the canoe flipped over.
His daughter, seven, was thankfully wearing a life jacket. Mr Chand, though, was not. At some point during the struggle, he went under water.
While Mr Chand, 37, plunged deeper and deeper, his daughter swam to shore and called for help.
But rescuers could not find him. They eventually located his body at the bottom of the lake the next day.
Fatal allergy
Twelve-year-old Cason Hallwood from Winsford, Cheshire, in the UK died of a severe allergic reaction from nuts that had unknowingly made it into his holiday meal.
Cason was frequently in the hospital due to his asthma, but he was excited to be home for Christmas in 2020. That year, he spent the day with his family, finishing off with a sumptuous dinner at his grandparents’ house.
After his meal, he went to the park with friends, but about 20 minutes later he called his mother to ask for his inhaler. His brother rushed it to him, but even after taking a several puffs, Cason was still unwell.
Soon after, Cason’s mother rushed to the park. When she got to her son, Cason’s eyes were puffy, and he was suffering an allergic reaction.
Usually treated with an EpiPen injection, the one Cason’s mother brought to 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 mistakenly used a glaze for the ham that contained nuts, which triggered the allergic reaction.
A spirited stunt gone horribly wrong
Last year, a man acting as Father Christmas plummeted 240 feet to his death in the western Russian city of Chelyabinsk.
He had intended to climb down a building on ropes to greet children below as a magical surprise.
The man was dressed as ‘Grandfather Frost,’ a mythological figure similar to Santa Claus, is seen lit up with a spotlight as he loses his grip and falls.
An eyewitness said: ‘My son didn’t understand anything, others understood, and they left in hysterics. All the parents, naturally, are in shock.’
Another said: ‘Everyone was having fun, and no one could even think this would happen. I thought until the last minute that it was some kind of dummy, that it was a prank.
‘The festivities carried on. There was at first no suspicion that this was a tragedy.’
The residential management company responsible for organizing the event issued an apology for the incident, stating the climber involved was an ‘experienced specialist.’
It added the accident was unforeseen, despite the climber’s qualifications and the company emphasized its commitment to ensuring safety at future events.
