Christmas lights are a big part of the holiday tradition. People go to great lengths to make their homes sparkle for the holidays. Some even participate in competitions hiring professional holiday lighting companies to deck out their homes. But, have you ever wondered how this tradition came to be? Let’s dive into a brief history of holiday lighting.
It all started with the Christmas tree back in the 18th century. The first instances were in Germany. Later, in the 1830s, lit Christmas trees spread to the UK, North America and Australia. Before electric lights, people used to put candles on their trees, attached with pins or melted wax. The candles were initially meant to represent the “Light of Christ”. Eventually they transitioned to clip on candle holders that made hanging lights in the tree a bit easier. In those times, a tree could only be lit for a half hour at most.
The candles used were very small and had to be carefully balanced. As you can imagine this was quite a fire hazard. People had to keep buckets of water nearby because trees would constantly go up in flames. Insurance companies eventually stopped covering fires that were caused by candles on trees because they happened so often. Nowadays, LED technology has made Christmas tree lights very safe.
Luckily for Christmas tree lovers, in 1882 Edward Johnson created the first electrically lit tree. It only had 80 lights that were red, white, and blue. Thomas Edison liked the idea, and worked with Johnson to create “Edison miniature lamps for Christmas trees”. Early electric lights were very expensive, so most people couldn’t afford them, so they didn’t show up in homes very often until the 1930s. Early lights cost $12 for 16 bulbs. That would be around $350 in today’s dollars!
In 1900, businesses started to hang Christmas lights in their windows. In the 1910s Christmas lights started to be used outside of houses and city parks.
Things really kicked off when General Electric started sponsoring community lighting competitions in the 1920s. This attracted widespread attention and popularity to the tradition of hanging lights in the homes.
Christmas lights were on an upward slope from the 192’s until 1973, when president Nixon temporarily banned Christmas lights during an oil shortage to conserve energy. Incandescent bulbs used a lot of power. At that time, Christmas lights took up roughly of the US electrical load in December.
In 1998 LED Christmas lights became available. LEDs save a lot of energy and produce less heat, making them less of a fire hazard than traditional Christmas lights.
Christmas lights light up are lives. And nowadays they are so common, it’s hard to imagine a world without the beauty of our big bright LED bulbs. Hopefully this trip through the past brought even more appreciation for everyone’s favorite part of the holidays. And if you are looking to be connected with the highest quality Christmas lighting company in North America, give Happy Holiday a call. We offer free quotes, unlimited re-services, and storage.