This holiday season, keep toy and online safety in mind when picking out gifts.

For a deeper dive into this, check out Doctor’s Letter to Santa  with our top tips for the big man ahead of loading up his sleigh later this month.

#HealthyHolidays is a virtual advent calendar with ways to look after your health this holiday season.

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Doctors have just finished their annual letter to Santa.   As usual, I’m going to let you have a sneak peak at our letter…

Dear Santa –

Hope you’re keeping well.  If it’s not too much trouble, we have a Christmas list again this year:

1. Please remember to bring a helmet with every new bike, rollerblades, and scooter. You forget so many every year!

2. Please don’t load up that sleight with E-scooters. They aren’t toys so please consider another toy for a child who is too young to understand all the rules of the road (From up in the North Pole, you might not know in Ireland that hundreds of children have been injured, even recently,  in part due to lack of regulations here.)

3. Scramblers aren’t toys either. Please don’t bring any of those for children.  Too many children and teens have been injured and even killed.

4. Only safe for under-3 toys for under-3’s – no matter how cute!  Remember to test it by using a toilet roll tube: if the toy or detachable piece of the toy fits inside, a young child can choke on it. That includes amber teething beads – there have been too many accidents.

5. Please don’t bring toys with magnetic beads or water beads – this can cause serious harm if accidentally swallowed!

6. Please remind the elves again to enable parent controls or install/enable internet safety software an all new devices. Cybersafe Kids has great advice if the elves need help.

7. Please leave all baby walkers with wheels and amber teething beads in the North Pole. Please.  There have been too many accidents.

8. Batteries!  That has nothing to do with health, but you do forget some every year!

Thanks so much!    

-Doctors Everywhere