How did Christmas lights come about?

Answer 1

Christmas lights are lights often used for decoration in celebration of Christmas, often on display throughout the Christmas season including Advent and Christmastide. The custom goes back to when Christmas trees were decorated with candles, which symbolized Christ being the light of the world. The Christmas trees were brought by Christians into their homes in early modern Germany.

The first use of electric Christmas lighting was by Thomas Edison in 1880.

The first illuminated Christmas tree was shown off by one of Edison's employees to reporters who visited his Manhattan house in 1882.

Electric lights were very costly at first and required the services of a trained electrician.

Answer 2

Candles had been used, but were very dangerous. The public was slowly beginning to embrace the idea of lighting their trees electrically, and as towns and cities were wired for electricity the variety of lighting on the market grew dramatically.

The world's first practical light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison in 1879, and a mere three years later in 1882 an associate of his, one Edward Johnson, electrically lit a Christmas tree for the first time. The tree was in the parlor of Johnson's New York City home, located in the first section of that city to be wired for electricity. The display created quite a stir, and was recorded by a visiting reporter named Croffut in the Detroit Post and Tribune.