Dr. Jerome McAndrews, a spokesperson for American Chiropractic Association, told United Press International that cold weather narrows the blood vessels that supply blood to hands and feet "so that the blood is conserved in the torso, where it protects vital organs like the heart and kidneys."

But reducing blood flow to extremities means that "legs, ankles, wrists and hands are especially vulnerable to injury," said McAndrews, who is a past president of the Palmer College of Chiropractic Medicine in Davenport, Iowa. He said that in this vulnerable state even mild stress could cause injuries.

"That's why we recommend stretching before any outside activity during winter months," he said. And he said that stretching "requires a real work out, not just a few simple stretches so that you 'feel the pull.'" He recommends placing one foot on a slightly elevated flat surface, such as stool or a coffee table, and then "leaning forward so that you try to touch the knee to the nose."

Dr. Robert Aranosian, director of emergency services at Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital, Pontiac, Mich., agreed that stretching should be a prelude to any outdoor activity during winter months, but he said that it is also important to use a little common sense. Too often people will mix alcohol with holiday tasks and as a result will find themselves heading to the emergency room. For example "people have a couple of beers and then decide to go hang the Christmas lights on the house -- they end up falling off the roof. We've already had several of these cases this year."

Aranosian said that one problem is that the holidays often mean doing things that people don't ordinarily do: like climbing a ladder, going on a ski trip, or moving heavy furniture to make room for a Christmas tree. "All these seasonal activities pose a risk," he said.

Among the greatest risks are falls from walking on icy surfaces. McAndrews said a friend fell two weeks ago "he thought he was fine but after several days he experienced weakness and some vision problems." The friend had developed a large blood clot on his brain.

Aranosian said that brain injuries can occur when a person slams his or her head onto an ice covered sidewalk, but he said that an even more frequent injury are wrist and arm breaks and sprains. "People put out a hand to break the fall and this can create a very serious injury," he said. "In an aging population we are seeing more and more of these cases."

But Aranosian said that most injuries caused by falls could be handled at home with basic first aid. Any sprain requires "ice for the first 24-hours, followed by heat thereafter and anti-inflammatory drugs for pain and swelling."

While many people think that immediate swelling is a sign of a fracture, Aranosian said that swelling has no relationship to the severity of the injury. "The best way to differentiate a fracture from a sprain is walking. If the person can't walk at all, it is probably a fracture." He said, too, that a person with a broken bone will "often say I heard it snap, not I heard a snap. And while people with a sprain will say that it hurts all over, a patient with a fracture will point to a specific area and say 'It hurts right there.'"

It's not, however, just ice and snow that are sources of potential injury, McAndrews said that shopping also has risks.

"You see people with three or four shopping bags, struggling to carry these packages, shifting them from arm to arm. All of these activities put stress on the back and can cause injuries," he said. His advice is to "use a cart, don't try to haul around arm loads of bags."

Finally, both McAndrews and Aranosian said people are more likely to have happy, accident free holidays by avoiding excesses -- whether it be one more drink, one more present, or hanging one more string of lights.