Year after year, U.S. homeowners travel long distances tocelebrate the holidays with family and friends. As statistics haveshown, when homeowners are away, criminals tend toplay. Nationwide, for one, has documented a related uptick incertain claims during peak travel months. When examining three years'of claims data, it found that more than 15,000 home thefts occurredduring November, December and January.

Recently Allstate Insurance Co. went one step further,suggesting that Hawaii residents are more vulnerable to holidaythefts than insureds in other parts of the country. Thenation's largest publicly held personal lines insurer reportsthat theft-related insurance claims spike about 18percent during November and December in the Aloha State alone.

Right behind theft is a surge in fire-related insurance claims,which increases by 16 percent during the holidays.Fire-related claims can be extremely costly for Hawaiihomeowners, Allstate says, as the median cost ofChristmas-tree claims exceed $100,000.

Among other costly holiday perils and fire hazards in Hawaiiare:

• The median cost of candle-related claims is $50,000.
• The median cost for turkey fryer-related claims is$29,000.
• The median cost for fireworks-related claims is $14,000.

Since 2008, the most expensive holiday fireclaim arose from an incident involving an artificial Christmastree in a Hawaii homeowner's living room. At thetime, the claim amounted to a total financial lossof $2.4 million.

Allstate joins other insurers in reminding homeowners toexercise caution and consider potential safety hazards in the homethis holiday season.