LIGHT IT UP

Light in the darkness has been a winter holiday thing as long as there’ve been winter holidays. There’s a primal human impulse to shine a light into the void, to remind ourselves cold and dark will inevitably give way to warm and bright, as winter gives way to spring.
Until the last century and a half, that light was usually a candle or an oil lamp.
Solstice celebrations often feature candle-lighting or gatherings around a fire. The Hanukkah miracle is eight days of light from one day’s oil. Christians light Advent candles in the weeks before Christmas.
From Advent candles to lights on Christmas trees is a very short leap, probably made in Germany in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. While Christmas trees didn’t become widespread until the Victorian era (next week’s post!) candles – and in Jewish communities, menorahs – in the window were long a winter holiday fixture in much of the world.
Christmas trees became widely popular in the mid-19th century, still lit with candles, which were every bit as much a fire hazard then as now…without smoke alarms or reliable home fire extinguishers. No surprise, then, that as soon as there were electric lights, people started looking for ways to use them on Christmas trees.
The first electric tree lights were a string of 80 red, white, and blue bulbs hand-wired around a tree by Edward H. Johnson, an assistant to none other than Thomas Edison, in 1882. Edison had actually started an outdoor Christmas light display at his Menlo Park lab two years earlier, but Johnson’s was the first tree light set.
Both light displays caused a sensation: Edison’s was near the railroad, so plenty of folks saw it – and Johnson invited reporters to his home to get a good look.
Though electric lights were clearly a great addition to the holiday celebration, they weren’t within reach for most people for a long time. At first, the tree lights had to be hand-wired, making them extremely expensive.
In the 1890s, companies began to mass produce strings of light. In 1894, the White House tree had its first electric set. By 1914, they were becoming more affordable, and in 1920, General Electric put out the first pre-assembled, reasonably priced set, and by the 1930s electric Christmas lights were common.
Big outdoor displays grew along with the technology, as developers came up with sturdy strings that could survive weeks outside in the winter, as well as new colors and new ways to use them. Communities, businesses, and families now put up huge displays for fundraising – promotion – or just fun.
Now, there’s also a whole range of lights for indoor and out. You can buy a pre-lit tree that will flash in rhythm with your favorite Christmas tunes…an LED menorah to shine in your window…or gleaming icicle strings for your roof, to name a few.
And it all comes back to that one simple idea: bringing light in a time of darkness.
However you understand it, and however you celebrate, may you get your light this holiday season!

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