Twinkling Christmas Lights Here, There and Everywhere!
German and American contributions to the tradition of Christmas lights
Christmas lights are commonly used to decorate indoors and outdoors today. Christmas lights adorn Christmas trees, homes and other buildings. Going for a drive to view the amazing Christmas lights is a tradition for many families.
Laura Legend explains the origin of Christmas lights...
Nobody knows the exact origin of the tradition of lighting up a Christmas tree, but the first widespread practice of adorning Christmas trees with “lights” and goodies such as fruit, nuts, candy and baked goods began in Germany long before the availability of electric Christmas lights.
In Germany, trees were initially “lighted” with candles that were actually adhered to the branches of the tree using melted wax. Later the candles were placed in candleholders and eventually in glass bulbs or lanterns.
Electric Christmas lights didn’t come about until the late 1800s when Thomas Edison’s friend and business associate, Edward Johnson, used electric lights to decorate a Christmas tree at his home in New York City. As strands of Christmas lights became available commercially, the tradition of using Christmas lights to decorate Christmas trees and buildings spread like wildfire.
Speaking of wildfire...
Early Christmas lights (especially candles and candle lanterns) were not incredibly safe and they were known to start fires. Oddly enough, electric Christmas lights really weren’t much safer than candles.
In the early 1900s, Albert Sadacca, a very young American man whose family came from Spain, saw a need to make Christmas lights that would be safer than the Christmas candles that were so widely used.
Albert’s family thought making Christmas lights was a great idea and they put the plan into motion. Albert and his brothers started a company by the name of NOMA Electric Company which produced Christmas lights. The Sadacca’s company became the largest distributor of Christmas lights in the world and was a multi-million dollar company.
Today, it is a worldwide tradition to decorate Christmas trees, buildings and homes with Christmas lights.