This Day in History: 22 December 2019
22 December 1882
137 years ago, today, the first strings of Christmas tree lights were created. This was crafted by Edward H. Johnson, an associate of famous inventor Thomas Edison, who was the vice president of the Edison Electric Light Company and had Christmas tree light bulbs made especially for him. His Christmas tree was decorated with light bulbs of red, white and blue that had been hand-wired together, on this day, at his home in New York. This was, at first, ignored by newspapers, as they viewed this as a publicity stunt, but was published by a Detroit newspaper reporter, and today Johnson is regarded as the Father of Electric Christmas Tree Lights. Afterwards, businesses were inspired to start stringing these behind their windows, but they were still too expensive for the average person, and only became the majority replacement for candles in 1930.
Previous to this, Christmas trees were traditionally decorated with candles, and were glued with melted wax to the tree branch, or instead, attached by pins. The concept of an illuminated and bright Christmas tree came from the British Queen Victoria's reign, which, through emigration, spread to North America and Australia. In 1881, the Savoy Theatre in London was entirely lit by electricity, provided by Sir Joseph Swan, and a year later, the principal fairies at the theatre were equipped with miniature lighting from Swan's company, for the opera, Gilbert and Sullivan, premiering on 25 November 1882, causing the term 'fairy lights' to enter into the English society.
Want to find out more about this common staple of the Christmas season? Click here for more information.
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