The History Of Christmas Tree Lights

The first christmas tree lights were red white and blue, strung on a Christmas tree in 1882 in  the home of Thomas Edisons partner, at a time when few homes had electricity, and months before Edison successfully ran his first three wire light in Sunbury Pa.

Thomas Edison strung a line of electric lights outside of his Menlo Park Labatory in New Jersey in 1880, delighting passengers on passing trains.  Two years later, the Christmas before Edison wired a building in Sunbury with the very first three wire lighting system, Edison's partner, and former boss, ran a string of red, white, and blue lights around a rotating tree in his parlor window.  He improved on his display each year, and in 1884 the New York Times wrote about his tree, titling the article "A Brilliant Christmas Tree, How An Electrician Amused His Children."

 As most homes didn't even have electricity at this time, the lights were more a publicity stunt than an invention for sale.  It would be another 12 years before Grover Cleveland used  electric  lights for the first time on the White House Christmas Tree, and not until 1903 that GE sold a strand of Christmas Tree Lights that could be installed without the help of an electrician.  Even then, the lights were so expensive that some department stores offered the option to rent them.

In 1871, Edward Hibberd Johnson hired Thomas Edison, then a 24 year old an inventor, as a consultant for the Automatic Telegraph Company.    Johnson wrote, of Edison, "he ate at his ate at this desk and slept in a chair,  In six weeks he had gone through the books, written a volume of abstracts, and made two thousand experiments...and produced a solution.”

Johnson was so impressed by Edison that when Edison left to form his own company, Johnson went with him. In a role reversal, Edison's boss became his employee, and before long, trusted partner. When Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, Johnson took it on tour.  When Edison patented the light bulb in 1880, Johnson was one of the first investors to form the Edison Lamp Company. Johnson worked as a vice president of the Edison Electric Light Company, and he was chief engineer for the electric generation system that Edison had unveiled in lower Manhattan that September.

Johnson's Christmas Tree Lights, December 1882

Setting up a tree by the window in his parlor, Johnson hand wired Red, White, And Blue light bulbs and strung them together around the tree.  He placed the trunk on a revolving pedestal, all powered by a generator.

Years of promoting Edison's projects had taught him the value of publicity.   As soon as his tree was completed, he called a reporter.   W.A. Croffut, a reporter for the Detroit Post and Tribune, who was visiting New York,  wrote :

"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. 

I need not tell you that the scintillating evergreen was a pretty sight---one can hardly imagine anything prettier. The ceiling was crossed obliquely with two wires on which hung 28 more of the tiny lights; and all the lights and the fantastic tree itself with its starry fruit were kept going by the slight electric current brought from the main office on a filmy wire. The tree was kept revolving by a little hidden crank below the floor which was turned by electricity.  It was a superb exhibition."

The New York Times, December 27 1884

New York Papers seem to have largely ignored the display, until 1884, when the above article was written.  It's thought that the newspapers viewed Johnson's tree as a publicity stunt for Edison's electric company.

Electricity however, was still new, and not available in the majority of homes.  And even if the home had electricity, the Christmas lights were exorbitant in cost.  A string of 16 bulbs in brass sockets the size of shot glasses sold for $12 (roughly $350 today).

The first commercial mention of electrically lighting a Christmas tree appears to have been in a 28 page brochure Edison published in 1890.  On page 14, it reads, in part 

"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..."

Christmas Lights Were Still Too Expensive For Most To Purchase, So Department Stores Offered The Option To Rent Them

"In 1895, President Cleveland proudly sponsored the first electrically lit Christmas tree in the White House. It was a huge specimen, featuring more than a hundred multi colored lights. 

Scranton Times Tribune, December 26 1894

Finally, the general public was taking notice, and it was not  long afterward that members of "high society" were hosting Christmas Tree parties. They were grand events indeed, as a typical lighted tree of the early 1900s cost upwards of $300 (more than $2000 today), including the generator and wireman's services. Still out of range for the average American family, smaller and less expensive battery-operated lighting strings were decorating the trees of those adventurous enough to do the wiring. In fact, an article in Popular Electricity Magazine had an piece for children, explaining how to light the family tree with battery-powered electric lights. The back pages had instructions on ordering the necessary wire, sockets and light bulbs. General Electric even offered miniature light bulbs 1902 Edison advertisement, offering Christmas light bulbs for sale or rent.for rent in some cities, as an alternative to an outright purchase of the expensive lamps. But electric tree lighting was not to be truly practical until the General Electric Company came to the rescue in 1903. That year, GE offered a pre-assembled lighting outfit for the first time. Still quite expensive at $12.00 (the total weekly wage for an average worker and the equivalent of about $80.00 today),  many department stores in the larger, electrified cities would rent outfits for the season for $1.50.

 Called a "festoon", the outfit consisted of eight green pre-wired porcelain sockets, eight Edison miniature base colored glass lamps, and a handy screw-in plug for easy attachment to a nearby wall or ceiling light socket. The set was suitable for a table-top size tree. https://oldchristmastreelights.com/bills_site/history.htm

Before 1904, Christmas lights were not only costly, they required an electrician to install them.  In 1903 that GE sold the first pre-assembled lighting outfit.

"While Thomas Edison and Edward H. Johnson may have been the first to create electric strands of light in 1880/1882, it was Albert Sadacca who saw a future in selling electric Christmas lights. The Sadacca family owned a novelty lighting company and in 1917 Albert, a teenager at the time, suggested that its store offer brightly colored strands of Christmas lights to the public. By the 1920’s Albert and his brothers organized the National Outfit Manufacturers Association (NOMA), a trade association. NOMA soon became NOMA Electric Co., with its members cornering the Christmas light market until the 1960’s." https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/item/who-invented-electric-christmas-lights/

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An Index Of Christmas Activities & History in the Susquehanna Valley

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/11/christmas-in-valley.html

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