It’s not just Santa who’s hustling during the holidays; it’s often the busiest time of year for hospital emergency rooms, too. To save you from a potentially expensive and frustrating trip to the ER, we asked physicians and first responders to share their best tips on how you and your family can stay safe this holiday season. Here’s what they want you to know: Hang lights and decorations with care. ER doctors tell TODAY they see increased visits from slips and falls in December. Deck the halls… with care and precaution During the 2015 Christmas season, six people in the U.S. died putting up holiday decorations, while another 14,000 were treated for decoration-related injuries, according to the Consumer Protection Safety Commission. “We see a lot of falls from ladders, falls from roofs,” says Dr. Niteesh Bharara, a physician at the Virginia Spine Institute. “Whether it’s people hanging decorations on their house, putting lights up, or trying to put a Santa on their roof … most of the holiday injuries I see are related to decorations.” Of course, this doesn’t mean you need to forgo the tinsel completely. Dr. Rahul Sharma, emergency physician-in-chief at Weill Cornell Medicine, says using common sense can make your decorating efforts much safer. “Know your limitations and know your boundaries,” he says. “If you have chronic back problems or a limited range of motion, you should not be getting on a ladder. That's when you should be thinking, 'You know, maybe I'll hire someone or get a friend to help me do this.'" Source