Christmas

A Christmas Story ? The First Christmas Lights

One would think that Christmas lights have been around for as long as Christmas itself.
Can any of you imagine Christmas without lights?
How would the children find their way in the dark, so early on Christmas morning without them?
The history of Christmas lights is intricately tied to the dawn of the modern era, when houses began to be supplied with electricity.

As you are likely aware, Thomas Edison invented the first functioning light bulb back in 1879.
A few years later, in 1882, an associate of his first employed the use of lights on his Christmas tree.
Edward Johnson was the first to electrically light his family Christmas tree in his New York home.

His home was located in one of the first sections of the city to be wired for electricity.

A visiting reporter from Detroit reported the following in "The Detroit Post and Tribune":
"Last evening I walked over beyond Fifth Avenue and called at the residence of Edward H. Johnson, vice-president of Edison's electric company. There, at the rear of the beautiful parlors, was a large Christmas tree presenting a most picturesque and uncanny aspect. It was brilliantly lighted with many colored globes about as large as an English walnut and was turning some six times a minute on a little pine box.

There were eighty lights in all encased in these dainty glass eggs, and about equally divided between white, red and blue. As the tree turned, the colors alternated, all the lamps going out and being relit at every revolution. The result was a continuous twinkling of dancing colors, red, white, blue, white, red, blue---all evening."

In 1890, Edison published a promotional brochure which may have been the first mention of commercially available electrically powered Christmas lights.
It stated that "There are few forms of decoration more beautiful and pleasing than miniature incandescent lamps placed among flowers, or interwoven in garlands or festoons; for decorating Christmas trees or conservatories..."

From there, the popularity of Christmas lights exploded.
Before long, every family had them and they became synonymous with the Christmas tree.

It's hard to imagine Christmas without Christmas lights.
I tip my fuzzy red cap to you, Mr. Edison.
You have given us all a gift we will always cherish


New Ways to Use Old Christmas Cards

Forty years ago when I was growing up on our dairy farm in Wisconsin, my mother always saved the Christmas cards she had received in the mail. In those days, people sent many more Christmas cards than they do now. Today, I still find myself saving the cards that I get each Christmas. When the holiday season is over, I take them down off the dining-room side of our kitchen cabinets. I look at each one and think about the person who sent it.

Then I tuck the cards into Christmas canisters and store them with my Christmas decorations. The next year when I take the decorations out, I discover the cards and then I look through them again. They are still much too pretty to throw away, but unfortunately, I only have so much space available for keeping cards!If you save your old Christmas cards, too, but don't know what to do with them, here are three ways that you can put them to good use:? Make ornaments.

  1. Cut out the pictures and glue ribbon or lace around the edge. Craft shops...

New Ways to Use Old Christmas Cards
Christmas > New Ways to Use Old Christmas Cards