When did people start putting lights up for Christmas?
Edward H. Johnson put the very first string of electric Christmas tree lights together in 1882. Johnson, Edison's friend and partner in the Edison's Illumination Company, hand-wired 80 red, white and blue light bulbs and wound them around his Christmas tree.
Lights and Candles
May the beautiful lights of every holiday season remind us of Him who is the source of all light.” 1 Christmas lights can remind us that Jesus Christ is the Light of the World. They can also remind us to be lights to others and to help others come unto Christ.
Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce.
It was believed that lighting the Yule log summoned the sun's return while simultaneously driving away evil spirits. It has been argued that Christian traditions build on the idea of the Yule log by using light during the holidays to represent Jesus lighting up the darkness.
"That became a symbol of Christ — being triangular in shape it represents the trinity — and from there came the idea that the tree should be a symbol of Christ and new life," Dr Wilson said. "That's one of the main origins of the Christmas tree and bringing it into the house."
Just like the Christmas tree can be a symbol of spring, it can signify eternal life. Different colored candles and lights mean different things; white means purity, and pink means joy.
A hundred years ago, Christmas trees most closely resembled those of their Victorian origins—real candles were bound to the boughs with wire or clip-on hardware and lit for a soft glow.
Dating back 135 years, it was at the Savoy Theatre in London that the term 'fairy lights' was first coined. Opened in 1881, the Savoy was the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity, fitted out with 1,200 incandescent light bulbs created by North East inventor Sir Joseph Swan.
Very early incandescent electric lamp made by Thomas Alva Edison, 1879. This lamp has a single loop of carbon which glowed when a current flowed through it. Swan's first successful bulbs used 'parchmentized thread' made from cotton as the filament.
1925: First widespread commercial sales of Christmas lights
That is, until Albert Sadacca, a teen at the time out of New York City, decided to repurpose the white novelty lights his family had sold for years by turning them into colored bulbs. As a result, a cheaper and more accessible Christmas light was born.