Going to grandma's house for presents and a big meal? Attending a candlelight service to celebrate the season? It takes only minutes for burglars to break in. To help reduce your risk of burglary this holiday, here are some home security tips from Lowe's Home Safety Council:

Lock Windows and Doors

Did you know that in almost half of all residential burglaries, thieves simply breezed in through unlocked doors or crawled through unlocked windows?

• Make sure every external door has a sturdy, well-installed deadbolt lock. Key-in-the-knob locks alone are not secure.
• Secure sliding glass doors by installing locks or placing a broomstick or dowel in the inside track to jam the door. To prevent the door from being lifted off the track, drill a hole through the slide doorframe and the fixed frame. Then insert a pin in the hole.
• "Pin" double-hung windows by drilling a small hole at a 45-degree angle between the inner and outer frames, and then insert a nail that can be easily removed in the event of a fire.

Keep Intruders Out

• look at your house from the outside and think about how you would break in.
• Burglars avoid bright lights. Install outside lights and keep them on at night, or install motion detector lights that only turn on if a sensor detects movement after dark.
• Keep your yard clean. Prune back shrubbery so it doesn't hide doors or windows. Cut back tree limbs that a thief could use to climb to an upper-level window.
• If you travel, purchase timers that will turn lights on and off in different areas of your house throughout the evening. A consistently dark house (or one in which every light in the house is on) signals an empty house.
• Don't let your mail pile up in the box. Call the post office to stop delivery while you are on vacation or have someone collect it.