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25.01.21

Claims Of Christmas Past

The Christmas decorations have been packed away for another year, and you can consider a “dry-January”, but the world of weird insurance claims continues regardless of the time of year.

Aviva, one of the UK’s leading insurers, have issued some data from December and January over the last five years revealing a number of regular festive fiascos, with unattended candles, wayward decorations and over-watered Christmas trees leading to hundreds of claims.

Here are some of Aviva’s most popular – and unusual – claims of Christmas past. Between 2016 and 2020, during December and January, Aviva settled home claims for the following incidents:

  • 110 cracked TVs knocked over while customers were putting up or taking down Christmas decorations
  • 77 candle calamities, with candle centrepieces burning dining tables, flames setting fire to Christmas decorations and wax spilled on carpets
  • 68 carpets and floors stained or damaged by water from real Christmas trees
  • 27 Christmas party mishaps where possessions were lost or stolen while customers were celebrating. Popular items included mobile phones, jewellery and watches (although, this is perhaps a little less likely this year)
  • 15 items accidentally thrown out with discarded wrapping paper. Lost possessions include spectacles, earrings and hearing aids
  • 11 feet put through ceilings while customers were getting Christmas decorations from their lofts
  • Seven sets of fairy lights causing fires when they are over-heated
  • Six cookers destroyed while cooking Christmas dinner, with pans and pots dropped on hobs and hard-working ovens catching fire
  • Five reindeer stolen from customers’ gardens (ornamental beasts, not the real variety)
  • Four Christmas card catastrophes; a pot of ink knocked onto a carpet, a phone and a china centrepiece smashed while writing Christmas cards – plus superglue on a sofa while making handmade cards
  • Two… gold… rings; one customer was making mince pies so took her rings off while she was preparing pastry. Unfortunately, they got thrown out with the rubbish when tidying up
  • And one case of Santa’s sleigh crashing into a house, damaging a doorway, when the horses pulling the vehicle were startled at a Christmas festival