As we enter the month of December, we are greeted by millions of twinkling lights. If you’ve ever wondered about the history of Christmas lights, it might surprise you to learn that the first electric Christmas lights have been around since the 1880s!
A staple of holiday decorating, you can find these sparkling lights inside, wrapped around Christmas trees, lining bannisters and draped on bookshelves. Outside, they adorn the eaves of our houses, add seasonal flare to our mailboxes and provide lighting for our holiday wreathes.
No matter how you choose to display your Christmas lights this year, it’s good to know the story behind them. Keep reading to learn who invented Christmas lights, the history of Christmas lights and a few fun facts about these symbols of Christmas.
Christmas lights are so popular, they even have their own national day called National Christmas Lights Day which occurs annually on December 1st.
First Christmas lights
Like many holiday traditions, early Christmas lights look very different than the ones we use today. While electric Christmas lights are a fixture in many modern day homes during the holiday season, this wasn’t always the case.
Before electric Christmas string lights were invented, people would adorn their Christmas trees with lit candles placed on the branches of their Christmas trees.
There are two school of thought as to why these candles were used. Some say they were used to illuminate Christmas tree ornaments and others say they were used to symbolize the light of Jesus.
In their earliest days, the lit candles would be secured to the tree branches by either candle wax or pins. Later, candle holders were used to keep the candles in place.
Thankfully, when the invention of electric Christmas lights came around, people gradually discarded this dangerous practice, which was a huge fire hazard.
Who invented Christmas lights?
In 1880, Thomas Edison created the first strand of electric lights. He hung them around his Menolo Park laboratory in New Jersey. People who rode on the railroad by Edison’s laboratory got to see the first strand of electric lights decorating his workspace.
In 1882, Edward Johnson, who worked with Thomas Edison, took this invention a step further. He created a hand wound strand of 80 electric lights that had red, white and blue bulbs.
Edward Johnson wrapped this strand of Christmas lights around his Christmas tree, which created the first Christmas tree with electric string lights. He positioned the tree on a rotating platform which added to the awe of this spectacle.
While Thomas Edison invented the first strand of electric lights, Edward Johnson is credited as the inventor of Christmas lights.
To document these impressive Christmas string lights, Edward Johnson called in reporters. The lights had a positive reception from reporters and onlookers, but it still took many years for electric Christmas lights to become popular.
History of Christmas lights
Electric Christmas string lights took a while to become a household fixture partially due to the skepticism around electricity, but also due to the high price tag attached to the first electric Christmas lights.
In 1900, a string of 16 electric Christmas lights cost $12, which is the equivalent of $375 today. For this reason, Christmas trees lit with electric string lights were limited to wealthy homes.
Additionally, not only would it cost a large sum to light a tree, but an electrician would also be needed to come to set the lights up.
The popularity of Christmas lights grew when President Grover Cleveland decorated the White House Christmas tree with electric string lights in 1895. These multi colored string lights contained hundreds of bulbs which illuminated the tree.
After this, in 1903, General Electric began to offer kits of pre-assembled Christmas string lights.
With these kits available, the publicity from the presidential Christmas tree, and the price of electricity dropping, electric Christmas lights became more accessible to own.
Christmas light history took a huge commercial step forward in the 1920s thanks to Albert Sadacca and his brothers. They, along with other patent holders in the field of electric lighting formed a company called NOMA.
In the 1920s, NOMA became the main manufacturer for Christmas string lights. They remained the primary manufacturer of Christmas lights until the 1960s.
Types of Christmas lights
Since the invention of Christmas lights, there have been different types of electric Christmas lights that have been introduced to the market. There are lights to fit every style!
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They come in many colors, from multi colored strands to all white lights, and every color in between. Some of them even change colors, while others twinkle.
Christmas lights come in various sizes. There are mini lights, regular lights, and large bulbs available for all your Christmas lighting needs!
There are also different ways to power your Christmas lights. Some are smart lights controlled by technology, while others are battery powered lights, and are some energy efficient options like LED lights.
In addition to indoor Christmas lighting, there are Christmas light types that are meant for outdoor use. Solar lights, net lights, icicle lights, and light projectors are some of the ones you might see outside this year.
Important events in the history of Christmas lights
Now that you know who invented electric Christmas lights, let’s review some of the main events in the history of Christmas lights.
- Before electric Christmas lights, people used to light their trees with candles affixed by wax or pins.
- Thomas Edison invented the first strand of electric lights in 1880, but it was Edward Johnson who created the first Christmas lights used on a tree in 1882.
- Though Christmas lights come in many colors today, the first set of electric Christmas string lights had only red, white and blue lights.
- In 1895, President Grover Cleveland was the first president to light a tree at the White House with electric Christmas lights.
- Albert Sadacca’s company NOVA Electric Company was the leading Christmas light manufacturer from the 1920s to the 1960s.
Fun facts about Christmas lights
If you enjoyed learning about the first electric Christmas lights, you might like to learn some Christmas light facts. Some may surprise you!
- In America, there are approximately 150 million sets of lights sold each year.
- Bubble lights contain methylene chloride, which is a poisonous liquid! This liquid has a low boiling point and is heated by an incandescent bulb to give a bubbling effect.
- LED lights are more energy efficient, less expensive overall, and cooler to the touch than incandescent lights.
- The evolution of electrical shunts allowed a strand of lights to still function even when a bulb had burned out.
- In 1951 NOMA created tiny, replaceable fuses to help with the safety of electric Christmas lights.
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- Candy apple vs caramel apple – Both candy apples and caramel apples are delicious, but one is made during Christmas the other during Halloween.
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About the author
Since graduating from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Jess has been living and working in Los Angeles, CA. She is a freelance writer, specializing in content related to fashion, food and drink and film industry topics. Find out more about Jess here.
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