The joy this time of the year comes from family, friends, food and a lot of cords.

Lights on the windows, the Christmas tree, the mantel — you name it. And you're probably using a multi-plug outlet.

There are some safety issues to keep in mind when decorating.

The first thing to remember is to inspect the wiring and cords on your decorations when you pull them out of storage.

"So if you're pulling things out that have been sitting in an attic, especially things for the holiday season, a lot of people keep a lot of older lights, decorations, check the wiring before you plug it in," said Dave Morales of the Firefighters Association of the State of New York. "Make sure it's not frayed, make sure it's not broken anywhere. you should really be getting rid of the really old pieces. I know a lot of them are heirloom lights, things you like. You should be switching over to LED lights to keep the tree safe, to keep your house safe."

Another thing to keep in mind is heating devices. Heaters should generally be kept 3-6 feet away from other objects or walls and placed on a hard surface if possible.

Additional caution should be used when heating devices are used in the same room as a real Christmas tree since those are extremely flammable. Morales recommends keeping real trees watered to prevent them from drying out and becoming even more combustible.

One piece of advice that applies year-round is having functioning smoke detectors.

"They are the number one and first line of defense in terms of fires in your home," said Morales. "They're going to alert you, they're going to get you out safely from your house in the event of a fire. There are a lot of fires that you see in the news and across the country and the world that could have been prevented, could have saved lives had there been working smoke detectors."

Testing your smoke detectors monthly to ensure they're working is a must.

For those celebrating holidays like Hannukah, menorah safety is important because some of them use open flames. Those decorations need to be kept 3-6 feet away from everything else, just like heating devices. Menorahs and other decorations with open flames should also be placed on a stable surface that is not flammable.

One thing that the Firefighters Association sees every year is problems caused by people trying to thaw out their frozen pipes.

"Don't use any open flames, don't use any torches, things like that to try and thaw out your pipes," Morales said. "Leave it to the professionals, because you are going to start some fires if you do it carelessly."