Christmas, Santa Claus and Insurance: One of These Things is Not Like the Others

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Christmas, Santa Claus and Insurance: One of These Things is Not Like the Others

Christmas, Santa Claus and insurance are usually not thought of as having much in common, but according to research from John Lewis Specialist Home Insurance, the number of homeowners insurance claims typically increases during the holidays. As publicized recently by PRWeb, some of the most common insurance claims at Christmas include:

Party damage to carpets, furniture and soft furnishings due to wine spillages.
Enthusiastic game-playing causing damage to TVs. For example a Wii remote control going straight through the TV.
House fires and damage to furniture caused by house fires.
Chimney fires can be caused when the chimney hasn’t been swept or used frequently.
Theft of Christmas presents from unattended homes or due to intercepted postal deliveries.
Pet fouling, scratching and damage due to unusual food consumption and being locked up and over-excited.
Water damage to unoccupied homes because of extreme weather conditions e.g. burst pipes. [1]

In other holiday insurance news, TripInsuranceStore.com is offering Santa Claus free travel insurance just in case he gets hit by a cement truck at the North Pole. According to Steve Dasseos, a leading travel insurance authority:

Santa Claus is such a vital part of Christmas, it'd be a tragedy if something happened to him and he had to cancel his trip… Everybody just assumes Santa's showing up. Once we found out Santa hadn't thought of getting travel insurance, we decided to give it to him free of charge.[2]

However, it doesn't take an actuary to figure out that the chances of Santa Claus getting hit by a cement truck at the North Pole are pretty low. It's not clear if the free travel insurance would cover Santa if he strains his back carrying all those presents – a much more likely scenario.

Additionally, TripInsuranceStore.com was not clear as to whether the coverage includes workers compensation claims for toy workshop-related injuries suffered by Santa's elves, or accidental injuries to reindeer while landing on steep rooftops.