Those of us who celebrate Christmas with a tree in our homes usually choose to
light it in one way or another. But did you ever stop to wonder how we got
started lighting our trees?
The first lights on Christmas trees were
candles that were attached to the tree branches with either melted wax or pins
that held them in place. As you can imagine, many trees went up in flames due to
this practice. One might guess that at that time, many families would have kept
buckets of water nearby to extinguish the impending fire. In the homes of the
wealthy, it was often times the job of a servant to watch the tree during the
evening hours and be prepared to extinguish a fire, if necessary. As a result of
this eminent risk, most trees were decorated on December 24th and promptly
removed following Christmas day. This must have been a lot of work for such a
short viewing of the tree!
In 1882, the technology of Thomas Edison was
used to hand wire 80 red, white, and blue lights onto the first electronically
lighted Christmas tree. It took a few years for this idea to catch on. When
President Grover Cleveland set up an electronically lighted Christmas tree in
the White House in 1895, finally the idea began to get some publicity. The
general public realized that there was a better way to light their Christmas
trees.
By the close of the 1800's, General Electric Company began
manufacturing and selling hand blown bulbs that were ready to wire into a string
to be put on a Christmas tree. Since the average homeowner was not well educated
about how electricity worked in those days, a new industry sprung up of
"wiremen" who were hired to wire the bulbs together to light the family
tree.
In the early 1900's, some big department stores began setting up
large illuminated trees to attract customers. And attract customers it did!
Everyone wanted to have a tree at home like the stores were capable of putting
on display. In the early 1900's, the cost of such a tree was in excess of $300.
That price included a generator and the wireman's service. By today's standard,
that cost would be equivalent to more than $2,000.
In 1903, the American
Eveready Company developed and marketed the first Christmas light set, which had
screw in bulbs and a plug in wall socket, since many homes had been "wired" for
electricity by this time. Then in 1908, entrepreneur Ralph Morris came up with
the idea of taking the lights from an old telephone switchboard, wiring them on
a Christmas tree, and running a battery as a power source.
But the
individual who made the biggest difference in electric Christmas tree lights,
and who made them affordable to the general public, was Albert Sadacca. Albert's
family manufactured imitation birds in a wicker cage that lit up with
electricity. At the age of 15, Albert had the idea of making electric Christmas
lights. His parents thought it sounded like a good idea, and the family gave it
a go. The first year, they only sold 100 sets of lights. The following year,
Albert decided to color the bulbs in red, green, and other colors. This idea
really took off. Albert Sadacca went on to become the head of a NOMA Electric
Company, a multi-million dollar corporation. Headed up by Albert and his two
brothers, Henri and Leon, the trio formed the largest Christmas lighting company
in the world prior to 1965.
Today, yet another revolution in Christmas
lighting is occurring. The newest offering in holiday lights are LED lights that
use significantly less electricity than incandescent bulbs and burn out less
frequently. With the trend toward energy conservation and "going green", LED
lights are rapidly gaining in popularity. Though they are more expensive than
traditional incandescent light sets, one way to change over all your holiday
lights is to buy one new set of LED lights per year until everything is changed
over.
Christmas tree lighting technology will continue to change as time
goes on. History shows us that we've made many improvements in the last few
centuries. Only time will tell what's in store for holiday lights in years to
come!
Ellen Bell works for The Christmas Tree Storage Shop, a
retail website offering seasonal storage
solutions for all your holiday decorations, including Christmas
lights storage products.
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