The Origins Of Christmas Lights

The Christmas light has become a standard in most homes during the holidays, but this was not always the case. In fact, lights were really not lights when they started.

The use of lights in a tree was actually started in Germany during the 17th century. The lights only adorned the homes of the extremely wealthy. This was before the invention of electricity so as I said, the lights were really not lights but candles instead. At that time, the candles were only used on trees and held in place by gluing the candles to the branch or affixing them with a pin. Then at the turn of the century around 1900, they started using actual candle holders and about 15 years later, there were very small lanterns and glass balls that held the candles in place.

Several years before that though, in 1882, Edward Johnson who was Thomas Edison's assistant decided to put his idea of electric Christmas lights into action. In New York City, he took a tree and lit it up with about 80 bulbs. Approximately 20 years later, the stores were putting up Christmas lights everywhere and Christmas lights were being massed produced for purchase by the consumer. In 1917, there was actually a tragic fire in New York City with the use of the candles on the tree outside so Albert Sadacca decided to come up with a way to take Johnson's lights and make them safer. This man became the owner of a multimillion dollar company known as NOMA electric.

The outdoor Christmas tree became very popular in America and the use of the Christmas lights became used all over the world.

This is what led to the use of lights on the indoor tree. So as you can see, the evolution of the Christmas light has taken some time to become an every Christmas event for most people. What has become more popular over just the past few years is taking the Christmas light idea and spreading it over into Halloween and some other holidays. Christmas lights are very beautiful and they can decorate and cheer up a room in ways that no other decorations can. For some people it is a family tradition to go out and cruise in the family vehicle and look at specifically, Christmas lights.

Now you know the history of the Christmas light, you can pass it on!

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