From Candles to LEDs: A Short History of Christmas Lights in America

Every December, entire American neighborhoods light up like runways. It's easy to forget that for most of the 1800s, "Christmas lights" meant real candles clipped to the branches of a very dry tree. Here's how we got from there to here, and what the story can teach us about decorating today.

The candle years

Before electricity, families lit their trees with small candles, usually for a few supervised minutes at a time, with a bucket of water nearby. It looked magical and it was genuinely dangerous: a candle and a drying evergreen are a bad combination. That risk is exactly what pushed early inventors toward electric bulbs. (It's still relevant, by the way: the National Fire Protection Association reports that in December, candles start nearly half of all home decoration fires.)

1882: the first electric Christmas tree

In December 1882, Edward H. Johnson, a business partner of Thomas Edison, hand-wired 80 red, white and blue bulbs onto a Christmas tree in the parlor of his home on East 36th Street in New York. The tree even sat on a slowly rotating box. A Detroit newspaper reported on it, calling it one of the most beautiful sights imaginable, and within a couple of years Johnson's tree had grown to 120 bulbs.

It was a publicity triumph, but not yet something ordinary families could buy. Electric lights were expensive, homes weren't wired, and every bulb had to be connected by hand.

Lights come to the White House, then to the store

The White House got electricity in 1891, and in 1894 President Grover Cleveland's family tree was lit with electric bulbs. (You'll sometimes see 1895 quoted; the White House Historical Association gives 1894.)

Around 1900, a string of lights could cost about $12, a lot of money at the time, so some people rented them instead. In 1903, General Electric began selling pre-wired sets of eight bulbs ("festoons"), which made lights far easier to use.

Family lore says a teenager named Albert Sadacca, whose family sold novelty lights, suggested adapting them for Christmas trees after a candle fire in 1917. Whether or not every detail of that story is true, the Sadacca family's company grew into NOMA, which became the biggest Christmas light maker in the country for decades.

1923: the National Christmas Tree

On Christmas Eve 1923, President Calvin Coolidge lit the first National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse near the White House: a 48-foot balsam fir from Vermont, decorated with 2,500 red, white and green bulbs. Lighting a big public tree became an American ritual that towns across the country copied.

The move outdoors (and the first light contests)

Here's the part we love most at FestiFowl. In 1927, General Electric introduced outdoor light sets, and in the 1920s electric companies sponsored neighborhood decorating contests to encourage people to use them. Decorating the outside of your house was, in part, invented as a friendly competition. By the 1950s, whole streets of lit-up houses were a normal sight.

Styles kept changing: bubble lights were a big hit from the 1940s into the 1970s, then smaller "miniature" bulbs took over. By the mid-2000s, LED sets had become bright and affordable enough to go mainstream, and they use a fraction of the electricity.

Dyker Heights and the modern mega-display

In 1986, Lucy Spata decorated her Brooklyn home with dozens of angels in memory of her mother. Her neighbors joined in, then tried to outdo each other, and Dyker Heights became one of the most famous Christmas-light neighborhoods in the world. It's the perfect example of how one house can start a whole street's tradition.

History-inspired ideas for your display

• Recreate the 1882 tree. Wrap a porch tree or front-yard evergreen in red, white and blue bulbs, a quiet nod to Edward Johnson's original.
• Go "National Tree" colors. Red, white and green bulbs, like the 1923 tree on the Ellipse.
• Use big bulbs where it counts. Large C9 bulbs read clearly from the street on rooflines; smaller C7s suit porches and railings.
• Frame the door. A fresh evergreen garland wrapped in warm white lights makes an entrance glow.
• Light the planters. Wrap porch topiaries or planters in lights and set them on a bed of greenery.
• Choose flameless window candles. You get the old-fashioned candle look without the historic fire risk.
• Put lights on the trunks. Wrapping tree trunks and using net lights on shrubs fills out a yard quickly.
• Stay safe. Use only lights labeled for outdoor use, plug them into GFCI-protected outlets, fasten strands with clips (never by piercing the wire), and check cords every year before you hang them.

When your display is up, snap a photo at dusk and upload it to FestiFowl. Somewhere, a 1920s electric company is proud of you.

Sources

• Smithsonian Magazine, "Untangling the History of Christmas Lights" (2016)
• Detroit Post & Tribune report on Edward Johnson's tree (December 22, 1882)
• White House Historical Association, "White House Christmas Trees"
• Library of Congress, "Who invented electric Christmas lights?"
• National Park Service, "1923 Tree Lighting"
• NECA / CSE Magazine, "The True Story of Electric Christmas Lights"
• U.S. Department of Energy, report on LED niche lighting applications
• NFPA, winter holiday fire safety data
• Electrical Safety Foundation International, outdoor decoration safety tips