Christmas Lights
It's only fitting, perhaps, that along with the
magic of Santa Claus at
Christmas, holiday and Christmas lights also came
about through the work of a wizard - the Wizard of
Menlo Park in New Jersey - as Thomas Edison was
called.
It was Edison who first developed and demonstrated
an incandescent electric light bulb in 1879 that had
commercial potential, an event that led the way for
the mass use of electricity and lights on Christmas
tree as used today.
Before the discovery and use of electricity, candles
were used to light
Christmas trees. That practice evolved into having
glass covers with candles inside them or metal
lanterns that had small wicks. These were hung like
ornaments on Christmas trees. But even after Edison
invented the incandescent electric light bulb, it
took many years before the large-scale manufacture
of Christmas tree lights were available
commercially.
It is said that the idea of Christmas lights came
from one of Edison's
assistants, Edward Johnson. In 1882, Johnson had
Christmas tree bulbs made specially for him. He
displayed these electric bulbs on his Christmas tree
at his home on Fifth Avenue in New York City and it
drew widespread attention. But Christmas tree lights
underwent many changes and improvement before
General Electric Co. introduced Christmas lights on
a commercial scale. As an example, among the earlier
lights used on Christmas trees were night-lights
that were
strung together to make light strings. After the
commercial introduction of Christmas lights, sales
and wide-scale use of them soared.
Decorative mini-lights to be used for Christmas tree
lighting were introduced in the 1970s. Since then,
they have continued to be popular and are the
dominant types of Christmas tree lights in the
marketplace. Before that, icicle lights were
introduced as decoration for rooflines. Those
decorative lights are the most popular ones used for
outdoor landscape lighting during the holidays.
Outdoor decorative lighting has evolved from
Christmas tree lighting to also become a popular way
to use colorful lighting during the holidays to
create spectacular scenes.
Another development in decorative lighting at
Christmas time is the use of candles. Real candles
can be used, but electric candles became more
popular and safer because they present less threat
of a fire hazard. Today that threat has also
decreased with the development of flameless battery
candles. The battery operation also makes their use
more flexible because they can be placed in areas
where there aren't electrical outlets. Candles are
usually displayed at several windows of a house
during the holidays. They produce an appealing look
especially if there are at least two sets of three
windows each other where they
can be placed.
Battery-operated candles can also be used during
Christmas and the holidays for other activities such
as caroling, church services, school activities and
for other holiday arrangements around the home.
As Christmas lights have become a mandatory feature
of the holidays, they are continually being used in
new ways that differ considerably from their early beginnings. Outdoor lighting is now just as common
as indoor lighting and that is an area in which a
change in the use of holiday lighting can be seen.
Along with icicle lights that illuminate rooflines
and frames of houses, there are also lights that are
placed in shrubs. Holiday lighting also comes in the
shape of trees and other ornaments that can be
placed on lawn to enhance the visual appeal during
the holidays.
Many lawns are landscaped by lighting during
Christmas and the holiday season with lighted
figurines and various other items associated with
the season. In some communities, entire blocks of
streets will have such elaborate holiday lawn
lighting that they attract passersby and even
tourists - residents from elsewhere - who are
captivated by the spectacular visual displays of the
landscaped holiday lighting.