by Eleasha Hylton-Rowe | December 17, 2025
The festive season is a time when workplaces across the UK transform their offices into warm, welcoming spaces filled with lights, decorations, and celebration. But behind the tinsel and twinkling LEDs lies an often-overlooked reality: this time of year brings a spike in both fire and intruder false alarms.
From overloaded plug sockets to decorations drifting in the air-conditioning flow, it doesn’t take much to disrupt a busy office with an unnecessary alarm activation. That’s why, as businesses prepare to wind down for the festive season, it’s essential to make safety part of your festive planning.
At APS, we help organisations keep their premises secure, their systems functioning reliably, and their staff protected all year round. Here’s how you can enjoy a safe, compliant, and false-alarm-free December.
December introduces several new factors into the office environment: more electrical items, more movement, more heat sources, and more decorations in unusual places. These all increase the likelihood of both fire and intruder alarms triggering unnecessarily.
Here are the most common causes:
Fairy lights and illuminated decorations can cause overheating, especially if they’re old, damaged, or low-quality. Faults in wiring can produce smoke or heat that fire detectors register even without a real fire.
Hanging garlands, ceiling decorations, or paper decorations can shift with airflow from vents or heaters. After hours, these slow movements can easily trip intruder sensors designed to capture subtle motion.
Placing decorations too close to radiators or desk lamps may trigger heat detectors or create enough warmth to be interpreted as a fault by your system.
Extra decorations, gifts, or festive displays can obstruct detector heads, fire escape routes, or alarm panels – which affects system performance and may cause faults or false activations.
With a few simple precautions, businesses can reduce the risk of disruptive alarm activations and keep teams safe throughout December.
Look for CE or UKCA markings and avoid lights that are years old or have frayed cables. Replace any sets that flicker, overheat, or behave unpredictably.
Avoid hanging decorations near:
Even a slowly rotating decoration can trigger an alarm once the office is empty.
Ensure all festive items are positioned well away from:
This reduces both fire risk and accidental alarm activations.
Christmas is the time when plug sockets work overtime. Add timers, extension leads, chargers, and lighting together and you may exceed safe limits.
To prevent issues:
If you’re placing displays around the office, ensure that:
Clear access is not only vital for compliance but fundamentally, it protects lives.
Regular servicing is the most reliable way to keep false alarms at bay. A well-maintained system is more resilient to seasonal environmental changes and more effective at detecting real risks.
At APS Security, we provide:
With our engineering teams looking after your critical systems, businesses can enjoy the festive period without inconvenient disruptions or emergency response callouts caused by false alarms.
Many offices close for several days over the Christmas break, leaving buildings unoccupied and more vulnerable to faults or intrusions.
Before closing your doors:
A few minutes of preparation now can prevent a frustrating call-out on Christmas Eve.
This time of year should be about celebration, not disruption. By taking a safety-first approach to your festive decorations and keeping your alarm systems well maintained, you can ensure your office remains joyful, compliant, and false-alarm free.
APS is here to support you throughout the season and beyond. If you’d like tailored advice or need to arrange servicing before the holidays, our team is ready to help. Contact us today to keep your workplace safe this festive season.
If you want to talk to us about an Access Control System for your building, contact us through our website, or give us a call. We can answer any questions you might have about Access Control Systems or any other aspects of security and fire safety products and procedures.
