Pittwater Online News

Christmas Cheer 2024: Time to Deck Your Home With Rows Of Jolly! + Keeping Mozzies away - Ticks at Bay This Summer

Anyone who visits Elaine Avenue in Avalon during Christmas week knows how lovely this street looks with all its lights. The neighbours create visual splendour for little people that adults also drive down or stroll by, simply to enjoy. More consumers are switching to LED lights for decorating outdoors as energy-efficient LED lights use less power and require less repairs. Over time, they can be a better investment. Nowadays the range of solar lights are growing as well and as usual, Johnson Brothers are front and centre of these developments with a great range of these on offer for some Christmas Cheer for 2024.

This week they also stocked the Lions Christmas puddings and cakes so you can do something good while getting something sweet - these sell out fast so make sure you drop into the Mona Vale store and grab yours before they're all gone.

The news service has also been getting emails about a rise in mozzies and ticks across the area at present - the warm humid weather seems to enable this so, as requested, the links and tips run on the JBH page in past Issues on how to protect your pets, family and visitors if you're having a mozzie and tick problem.

To avoid the week before Christmas frantic rush we usually put up the tree and lights the first week of December, it’s a tradition for us – the kids love it, even though now all grown tall, and everyone enjoys the indoors and garden lit up with a rainbow of tiny lights. 

Just in time for lighting up your own home and garden - a few tips for spreading some Christmas Cheer and keeping it all safe.

Christmas Lights - Dos

• Use more light if your house sits farther back from the street to enhance its curb appeal.
  
•  Leave at least a foot between the edge of the driveway and staked lights when lining your driveway. If a driver backs out too close to the edge, they won’t take out a row of lights.
  
•  Create a flow of light that moves the eye from one area to the next. Avoid "hot spots" of lights bunched in one area.
  
•  Illuminate more than just the façade of your home to create depth.
  
•  Use special lighting effects sparingly, such as a red or green gel pack that can filter the colour of a white light.
  
•  Incorporate seasonal lighting with your outdoor landscape lighting. Consider how the pre-existing lights can be used to enhance or complement the Christmas lighting.
  
•  Carry the design style from within your house to the outside.
  
•  Add pre-lighted wreathes and garlands to doors and columns. Pre-lighted candles in windows are a classic look.
  
•  Highlight architectural features such as roof lines, chimneys, peaks, windows and ridges.
  

Safety First
Look for the safety approval mark - Decorative lights for sale in Australia must comply with relevant safety standards. It is illegal to offer decorative lights for sale or hire in Australia without the necessary safety approval. When buying decorative lights, you must ensure that it has been tested for safety and approved for use in Australia by an Australian state regulator. Safety approval details will be marked on the decorative lighting.

Indoor or outdoor use - If you are going to use the decorative lighting outside make sure it is suitable for outdoor use. Never use indoor lighting outside because the insulation on the wires is not suitable for wet or windy weather and may result in fires, electric shocks and/or injuries to people. It is safe to use outdoor lights inside as they usually have a transformer to convert household electricity (230V) to a safer extra low voltage.

Checking your lights before use
Lights that have been used before
If you are re-using lights from a previous occasion, when you first take them out of storage you need to ensure that they are free of defects such as damaged wires, burnt-out bulbs or loose connections.

New lights
Lay the lights along the floor and check that no bulbs are loose or missing. Plug in the light set temporarily to check if all the bulbs are working. You must unplug the light set from the power source before replacing the bulbs. Use new bulbs of the same type and wattage to avoid the lighting set overheating which could cause a fire.

When preparing your lights:

• never turn on the light set while it is in the box
  
• always unplug the light set before replacing the bulbs
  
• do not modify or cut a set of lights including the plug and fuse elements
  
• Regularly monitor your lighting for faulty and burnt-out bulbs and replace them immediately.
  

When putting up your lights:

• keep them away from paper, cardboard, curtains, material and other flammable material to minimise the risk of accidental fire especially if you want to leave your lights turned on overnight.
  
• do not place the lights near metal foils – eg foils from Christmas tree or other decoration
  
• always use plastic clips or hooks to mount the lights – never use metal pins, nails or staples to mount your lights
  
• do not connect one set of lights to another unless it is designed for that purpose – connecting light sets can overload the transformer.
  
• Using outdoor decorative lighting
  
• When using outdoor lighting that is powered by your mains electricity you must:
  
• plug the light set into an earthed power point that is protected by a safety switch – if you do not have safety switches in your home, use a portable safety switch 
  
• place transformers and light changing controllers indoors unless they are designed for outdoors use
  
• not overload power points – the normal capacity for a power point is up to 2,300 watts; this means that the total wattage of lights connected to the power point should not exceed its capacity.
  

Courtesy South Australian Government Safety Tips website. 

Pittwater, with all the humidity, is experiencing some mosquitoes at present. NSW Health advises no being outdoors at dusk when they are prevalent, wearing long sleeves so they cannot bite, using a good insect repellent.

If you are going to host people outdoors some citronella candles or a good mozzie zapper will increase mozzie safety - especially as they can be carrying diseases that will make people ill. For those who cannot bear citronella, the mozzie zappers will help keep your family and Christmas-New Years visitors safe and keep safe those beneficial insects we all need to help our gardens flourish.

To leave windows open to catch those cooling breezes as it heats up, but keep the mozzies away, repair any damage to flyscreens. See previous Johnson Brothers Mitre 10 DIY Page: 

DIY Flyscreens  

Residents are also sending in that ticks are also high across the area. If you have pets or are going to have visitors you may like to have a look at these tips for keeping ticks at bay from a few years back before they head over:

Reducing Ticks in Your Garden: Garden care, Plants that Repel, What to Wear Outdoors 

Attracting Insectivore Birds to Your Garden: DIY Natural Tick Control 

If you get stuck into orgaising these details over the next week or so you will be ready for the Christmas- New Years rush.

Some products available at JBH Mitre 10 at Mona Vale and Avalon Beach (so you don't have to go 'round the bends', simply order it in and you can pick up from the Avalon Beach store) to help you bring on that Christmas Cheer.

Johnson Brothers Mona Vale E-Waste Recycle Program

Johnson Brothers have become a FREE e-waste recycling collection point at our Mona Vale store.

The bins for disposal are at the start of the parking for our Trade customers, but it’s free for all to use (during business hours).

From December 4th 2023, you can drop off any unwanted electrical items at Johnson Bros Mitre 10 Mona Vale for recycling by our e-waste management partner, Sircel

E-waste is anything with an electrical plug or battery. This includes electric power tools, household appliances, computers and mobile phones.

We cannot accept gas, petrol or diesel appliances.

When you bring your stockpile of old power tools, tablets and TVs to our e-waste collection bins, what happens then?

Our recycling partner, Sircel, collects the waste each week and transports it to a facility in Western Sydney. There, Sircel deploys their world-leading and proprietary refining solution to: 

• Triage all electronics that may have a future useful life, such as TVs and computers
• Securely data-erase all electronics to remove all information in preparation for reuse
• For products with no viable future use, Sircel safely removes any batteries and sends them downstream to a dedicated, authorised battery recycling partner
• All e-waste is then mechanically destroyed
• Individual commodities are recovered and returned to the circular economy for re-use as regenerated resources.

Give your old power tools, household appliances and computers a new life in the circular economy. 

Plastic tool casings could become bench seats, copper cabling could become a new copper pipe, and the gold, silver and palladium in your old phone could be transformed into fuel cells in your car.

Together, we can make finite resources infinite.

Johnson Brothers Family