Now that Thanksgiving is over, Christmas season is in full force, and for many people, this means its time to decorate their houses and yards and drag the Christmas lights down from the attic and set them up. Are you a fan? Do you think decorated yards spread the Christmas cheer or is it to much? Personally, I think simple is better, I enjoy seeing the lights at night, but I detest seeing the collapsed inflatables laying around in yards during the day. I mean, if you are going to have them, why not have them inflated all the time? But my story is about lights and here are some interesting facts.
Christmas light displays have come a long way over the years, It started with folks putting candles on their trees, this raised huge problems with dripping wax and the fires that they created. Then, Edward H. Johnson put the very first string of electric Christmas tree lights together in 1882. Johnson, Thomas Edisons friend and partner in the Edisons Illumination Company, hand-wired 80 red, white and blue light bulbs and wound them around his Christmas tree.
in 1895, Grover Cleveland was the first President to have a Christmas Tree decked out in electric bulbs. He requested the first family’s tree be lit up with hundreds of multi-colored bulbs. The 24th President is credited with giving the public the idea of electric Christmas lights. And so began the light displays.
The famous New York Rockefeller Tree is now full of all LED lights, and is said to have over 50,000 lights on strings that stretch over 5 miles. It holds a star at the top that is 9.5 feet and has 25,000 crystals. Now that is a light display! I hope one day that I can go see it in person.
Take the time to drive around and check out the Christmas lights in your neighborhood, or even travel to see bigger displays. Christmas lights bring joy to the Season of Christmas!
