Day 19 – Tonight, take a walk through a neighborhood and admire the Christmas lights. Come back home and have hot chocolate with mini marshmallows in it.
I love putting lights on my house, and I love seeing other decorated homes. It’s such a happy sight. I also love learning cool history, and the history of Christmas lights is both surprising and totally expected.
In a round-about way, we can thank Thomas Edison for Christmas lights. (I found a great article on Smithsonian.com that shared this story.) Edward Hibbert Johnson helped get Edison’s inventions in front of the public. He toured with the phonograph, charging people to hear this modern marvel. In 1880, Johnson invested heavily to form a company with Edison to sell light bulbs because they knew it would be the next big thing.
The Christmas tree came to England thanks to Prince Albert in 1841. The idea soon spread to the United States. President Franklin Pierce had one in the White House in 1856, and by the 1870s, they were common in stores and homes. Ornaments were plentiful, but the lights on the trees were candles, and that was a real fire hazard.
Back to Edward Johnson. In 1882, he set up a Christmas tree in the window over Edison’s shop at 136 East 36th Street in New York City. He strung 80 hand-wired red, white, and blue light bulbs on the tree. To add to the electrical magic, he put the tree on a rotating pedestal. To make sure everyone knew about his lighted spectacle, he invited a reporter to see it.
People gathered at 136th Street to see this remarkable tree. Johnson continued the tradition, adding more bulbs each year. While he put electric lights on his tree above Edison’s shop, electricity was not widely available, and the lights were expensive. (really expensive.) In 1900, a strand of 16 lights sold for $12 ($350 today.) However, people wanted these lights, and more and more were sold. By 1914, a 16-foot string cost $1.75. As electricity spread, so did Christmas lights.
About 150 million boxes of lights are sold in America each year. These lights decorate about 80 million homes. Take some time to wander around your neighborhood and town and admire a tradition that started with American ingenuity. Don’t forget the hot chocolate.