The holiday season often means travel, deliveries, visitors, decorations, and changes to normal routines. Those changes can also create security gaps around homes, apartment communities, condominiums, and HOA properties.
Whether you’re traveling for several days or simply receiving more packages than usual, a few practical precautions can help reduce vulnerabilities and keep your property safer during the holiday season.
Here are five holiday security tips for homeowners and residential communities.
1. Avoid Publicly Sharing Your Travel Plans
If you’re traveling during the holidays, avoid publicly posting exact departure dates, return dates, hotel locations, or other information that clearly shows when your home will be vacant.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recommends limiting information about travel plans on social media and waiting until after returning home before sharing vacation photos. Review CISA’s social media safety guidance
Even when a social media account is private, information can still be shared beyond the audience you intended.
Before leaving:
- Make sure trusted family members or neighbors know how to reach you.
- Avoid posting real-time location updates.
- Turn off unnecessary location sharing on social media.
- Make sure emergency contacts are current.
- Let property management know if your community has established procedures for extended absences.
For businesses and properties that will also be less active during holiday periods, see our guide on what happens to property security during long weekends.
2. Make an Unoccupied Home Look Maintained
A home that appears unattended for several days can attract unwanted attention. Before traveling, take a few simple steps to maintain normal activity around the property.
Secure all doors, windows, garage entrances, and gates. Check exterior lighting and consider using timers or smart lights where appropriate. Ask a trusted neighbor, friend, or family member to periodically check the property.
You should also:
- Arrange for mail and packages to be collected.
- Avoid allowing newspapers or deliveries to accumulate.
- Confirm that alarms and cameras are functioning.
- Keep landscaping reasonably maintained during longer trips.
- Avoid leaving high-value items visible through windows.
Residential communities may also benefit from professional mobile patrol security services during periods when fewer residents are home. Patrol officers can check parking areas, entrances, gates, common areas, and property perimeters according to the community’s approved security plan.
3. Protect Holiday Packages and Deliveries
Package deliveries often increase significantly during the holiday season, creating more opportunities for theft when items remain unattended near doors, mail areas, or community entrances.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service recommends retrieving mail and packages promptly. USPS also offers options such as Delivery Instructions, Hold for Pickup, Smart Lockers where available, and Hold Mail for people who will be away from home. Review USPS guidance for preventing mail and package theft
For longer trips, USPS Hold Mail can temporarily pause mail delivery to an eligible address for up to 30 days. Learn about USPS Hold Mail service
Additional precautions include:
- Enable package tracking and delivery notifications.
- Use secure package lockers when available.
- Ask a trusted neighbor to retrieve deliveries.
- Use signature confirmation for valuable items when appropriate.
- Position cameras or video doorbells to cover delivery areas.
- Avoid leaving packages unattended for long periods.
Apartment managers and HOAs can also review package-room access procedures, camera coverage, visitor entry, and patrol activity around delivery areas. Secure Guard provides apartment security services that can be tailored to multifamily and residential properties.
4. Use Holiday Lights and Decorations Safely
Holiday decorations can create electrical and fire hazards when damaged lights, overloaded outlets, or improperly placed decorations are used.
The U.S. Fire Administration recommends inspecting holiday lights before use and discarding strands with frayed or pinched wires. Christmas tree lights should also be unplugged before going to bed or leaving the home. Review U.S. Fire Administration holiday fire-safety guidance
Additional holiday fire-safety precautions include:
- Keep decorations away from fireplaces, heaters, candles, and other heat sources.
- Avoid overloading outlets or power strips.
- Replace damaged extension cords.
- Follow manufacturer instructions for connected light strands.
- Keep live Christmas trees properly watered.
- Keep decorations clear of exits and emergency equipment.
For apartment communities, hotels, and other managed properties, common-area decorations should also be reviewed to make sure they do not interfere with walkways, emergency exits, security cameras, access-control equipment, or fire-safety systems.
5. Review Your Property Security Before the Holidays
The weeks before holiday travel begin are a good time to review your property’s security procedures.
Check:
- Main entrances and secondary doors
- Gates and perimeter fencing
- Parking garages and lots
- Exterior lighting
- Cameras and alarm systems
- Package and delivery areas
- Emergency contact information
- Visitor and vendor procedures
- Common areas and amenities
- Existing patrol routes
For managed residential communities, this is also a good time to review guard post orders, parking procedures, guest access, after-hours escalation instructions, and patrol coverage.
Professional armed and unarmed security officers can support access control, patrols, visitor management, incident documentation, and other property-specific responsibilities.
Properties that already use cameras may also benefit from professional video monitoring services to support observation, activity verification, documentation, and response procedures based on the client’s approved security plan.
Holiday Security for Apartments, HOAs, and Residential Communities
Holiday security can become more complex at apartment communities, condominiums, gated neighborhoods, and HOAs because residents, visitors, delivery drivers, vendors, and vehicles may all be entering and leaving the property at different times.
Depending on the property, a residential security program may include:
- Gate and entrance coverage
- Guest and vendor procedures
- Parking-area patrols
- Package-area observation
- Amenity checks
- Trespassing deterrence
- Mobile patrol services
- Video monitoring
- Incident reporting
- After-hours escalation procedures
Secure Guard develops residential security programs around the property’s layout, operating hours, access points, resident activity, and specific areas of concern.
For larger residential properties that do not require a standing officer at every location, mobile patrols can provide scheduled or randomized property checks. Patrol activity can also be documented through SecureTrack security reporting and patrol verification, including GPS-supported checkpoints, photographs, incident reports, and activity records depending on the service configuration.
Security Technology Can Support Holiday Coverage
Security technology can provide additional visibility when properties are less active than usual.
Depending on the site, cameras and monitoring may help property managers observe entrances, parking areas, package rooms, gates, common spaces, and other locations that require additional oversight.
Technology should not replace appropriate security procedures, but it can support professional officers and mobile patrols by improving visibility, documentation, and communication.
A blended security program may combine:
- On-site security officers
- Mobile patrols
- Video monitoring
- Access-control procedures
- Digital incident reporting
- SecureTrack patrol verification
The appropriate combination depends on the property’s layout, operating hours, activity level, existing systems, and known areas of concern.
Keep Your Property Secure This Holiday Season
Holiday security is easier to manage when procedures are reviewed before travel, deliveries, visitors, and schedule changes begin.
Whether you manage an apartment community, HOA, gated residential property, or another environment that needs professional security coverage, Secure Guard can review your property and recommend an appropriate combination of officers, mobile patrols, monitoring, access procedures, supervision, and reporting.
Contact Secure Guard to request a security consultation or call 888-908-7818 to discuss your property and security requirements.