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When Were The First Christmas Lights Used?
We are so acustom to seeing Christmas lights in homes, at work, in retail stores and on the streets that we assume that they have just been around forever. It is hard for us to even imagine Christmas without the colorful lights. Children even use them to guide their way on Christmas morning.
If you think about it just a bit then you will realize that Christmas lights are tied to the era when most houses began to be equipped with electricity. However, for many today they have never experienced a home without electricity.
In 1879 Thomas Edison invented the first functioning light bulb. Then in 1882 an associate of Edison's used lights on his own Christmas tree. His home was located in one of the first sections of New York city to be wired for electricity.
A visiting reporter from Detroit reported the following in "The Detroit Post and Tribune": "Last evening I walked over beyond Fifth Avenue and called at the residence of Edward H. Johnson, vice-president of Edison's electric company. There, at the rear of the beautiful parlors, was a large Christmas tree presenting a most picturesque and uncanny aspect. It was brilliantly lighted with many colored globes about as large as an English walnut and was turning some six times a minute on a little pine box. There were eighty lights in all encased in these dainty glass eggs, and about equally divided between white, red and blue. As the tree turned and the colors alternated, all the lamps going out and being relit at every revolution. The result was a continuous twinkling of dancing colors, red, white, blue, white, red, blue---all evening."
Edison published a promotional brochure in 1890 which is believed to be the first mention of commercially available electrically powered lights for Christmas.
As time has gone by the popularity of Christmas lights has done nothing but grow. We expect to see the many different colors, shapes and sizes most everywhere we go at Christmas time. We expect them in all the retail stores as we do our Christmas shopping and we certainly make use of them in our homes to add a special warm and pleasant feeling during the Christmas season.
Mr. Edison not only gave us a wonderful convenience of lights in our homes, he has given us the gift of Christmas lights that we all enjoy and cherish during this holiday season. |
