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Out & AboutThe History ofChristmas LightsBY ROBERT C. JOHNSTON, WRITER AND RESEARCHERThere is nothing quite like Christmas! Spending quality time with family and friends, singing carols, enjoying the warm glow of twinkling lights.On trees and on houses, Christmas lights have become one of the key identifiers of the season in Australia.But from where did the custom originate?It is said to have begun in Germany around the 1500s when people started to fasten candles to Christmas trees using pins, melted wax, or special candle holders (some European families still do this). The candles represented the stars in the night sky.Christians in Europe would also often place a candle at a window to signify that in their homes weary travellers could find shelter.This sketch published in 1848 of the Royal Family of Queen Victoria and her German-born husband, Prince Albert, raised the profile of candlelit Christmas trees in Great Britain.Although they were generally lit for only a few minutes, hang-ing candles onto trees inside a house caused many fires, and so eventually, in 1882, the American Edward Johnson created thefirst electric Christmas lights. His friend and colleague, Thomas Edison, had invented the electric light bulb only three years prior. Upon seeing the coloured elec- tric lights on Johnson’s Christmas tree, a reporter remarked, “one can hardly imagine anything prettier.”Initially electric Christmas lights were costly and had to be laboriously wired individually by a professional wireman (they lacked screw-in bulbs), and so they were seen chiefly in high society. And people were still wary of electricity – a fledgling and potentially very dangerous new technology.In 1895 US President Grover Cleveland had the White House Christmas tree lit for the first time with electric Christmas lights and this helped to elevate them (pun intended) into the public spotlight (pun intended... ok I’ll stop now).NOMA Christmas lights sold in the late-1920s.It wasn’t until 1903, when General Electric began selling pre-wired Christmas light kits, that safe electric Christmaslights became available for the masses. Blinking lights followed in the 1920s and the craze grew exponentially over the decades since – from adorning humble trees to entire house exteriors.In recent years LED, solar and programmable technology has enabled Christmas lights to be even more compact, durable and elaborate.So when you next get out that box of lights this Christmas, remember that you will be keeping the candles aglow in a wonderful tradition going back hundreds of years.Happy Christmas!The tradition of decorating houses in entire neighbourhoods has steadily filtered into many Australian suburban streets. Some great places to view Christmas lights on the North Shore are Prince Albert Ave Mosman, Sydney Rd Hornsby Heights, and Sutherland St Lane Cove. Where do you recommend? Let us know and we’ll include it on our website!