Home safety is an important topic for many homeowners. Locking doors and closing windows are just two of the many precautions they take to safeguard their homes against potential break-ins.

In addition, others place fences, motion-detection lighting and other deterrents on their property to keep away would-be thieves - all of which are successful to keep an eye out when you’re at home.

But what about those times when you’re travelling and not spending the night in your own bed? Many people use the holiday season as a chance to take extended vacations to travel or visit with family members across the country, leaving their homes susceptible to break-ins and their possessions available for theft.

With that in mind, here are a few things to consider before you head out for the holidays and leave your home compromised to whatever it is that goes bump in the night.

A full mailbox means an empty house.<$> If your home does not have a mail slot in the front door, a telltale sign that you are away is an overstuffed mailbox. Before you leave, arrange to have your mail, newspapers and flyers picked up by a neighbour or friend. If you can, arrange to have newspaper delivery suspended for the duration of your trip.

Leave a light on, and keep any Christmas lights on a timer. If your beautiful Christmas lights display glows in the weeks leading up to Christmas but then suddenly disappears once the holiday arrives, this indicates to any and all would-be thieves that your house is ripe for the picking.

By leaving a kitchen light on inside your house and keeping your Christmas lights on a timer, you’re at least giving the appearance that someone is home, and a yard illuminated thanks to your decoration lights makes it much more difficult for potential thieves to creep around your house under the cloak of darkness (stringing up a few lights in the backyard is a good idea as well).

Keep track of your doors. <$>If he does not suspect your home is equipped with a home security system, any burglar worth his salt will check a door for point of entry before anything else.

Where possible, make sure your doors are solid-wood construction and are equipped with deadbolt locks with a minimum throw of one inch. The throw is the length the deadbolt extends from the edge of the door. The longer the deadbolt, the safer you are. For doors such as sliding patio doors, install anti-lift plates so a burglar cannot simply lift the door out of its track.

Secure all windows. <$>Along with making sure your windows are locked, hang thick curtains or blinds in all windows to keep potential burglars from peering in and seeing your valuables. And just as with sliding patio doors, make sure any sliding windows have similar anti-lift protection.

Give someone you trust a spare key to your home. Leaving a key under the doormat or behind the flower pot, or even in the mailbox, is a bad idea, since most burglars are fully aware of all the traditional hiding places for spare keys.

Give a key to a neighbour you can trust or a family member rather than leaving one in what you might think is a remote hiding spot around the house. Also, if you have just moved into your home, replace the keys and locks immediately, since there is no telling who might have had access to your home before you lived there.

If you don’t feel it is necessary or cannot afford to purchase a home security system, purchase a fake one. <$>Though it might sound childish, it is possible to buy home security decals and lawn signs even if you do not have a home security system. Place these decals in windows and near all doors, and any lawn signs in a well-lit area where potential burglars can see them.

There are also very inexpensive products that require little to no installation, which will sound when a window is opened and a sensor is tripped. This scare tactic may thwart a would-be thief.

Join a neighbourhood watch. <$>Many neighbourhoods today feature a neighbourhood watch programme where any suspicious activity can be monitored and reported to police by your neighbours when you are home or away. Particularly when you are out of town, this is a great way to provide yourself with some peace of mind.

Keep all entry ways to your house well lit. <$>By keeping all of the possible ways of entry to your house well lit while you are away, you are making it harder for potential burglars to find a viable point of entry without being noticed. This is especially important if you do not plan on putting up any Christmas lights.

Also, before leaving for an extended period of time, remember to replace all light bulbs with fresh ones, assuring that your lights will burn brightly during the entirety of your vacation.

Keep all landscaping neatly trimmed. A great place for a burglar to hide and go unnoticed is in bushes that are not well trimmed. Take this option away from him by making sure all of your bushes have been trimmed neatly so he does not have easy access to a hiding spot he can use to scope out your house, even while you are home. Another great idea is to strategically plant security bushes near any potential points of entry for a burglar.

Placing a rose bush, for instance, near all ground floor windows is a serious deterrent for a potential burglar since rose bushes, while beautiful when in bloom, are loaded with thorns.

Put away patio furniture and other backyard tools. Do not provide a thief with easy ammunition. Store away ladders, chairs and boxes he might be able to use to climb into second-storey windows. Also, simple garden tools can be used to break windows or shimmy open doors, so lock those away as well.