Stuff You Should KnowJust three years after the lightbulb was invented a compadre of Thomas Edison thought to use them to decorate his Christmas tree. It set off a sensation that’s gotten more popular each year since.
Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck Jerry's here too. We're feeling all jingly and belly because this is the pre Christmas short stuff, maybe the best short stuff of the year.
That's right. And we want to thank Daniel Montgomery listener for sending this idea in indeed, as well as our various sources on this. And this could have been a thousand sources because this story is everywhere. Yeah, but Saturday evening posts, loc fizz Org, Smithsonian one thousand bulbs dot com.
Yeah, I love that one.
That's a good one.
Yeah. And we're talking about the advent of Christmas lights, which are They came surprisingly quickly after the invention of the light bulb itself, after Edison invented the light bulb, and it was actually in edison a file a guy named Edward H. Johnson who was in Edison's circle, who came out with the idea of using these new electrical bulbs to decorate his Christmas tree.
That's right. Edward Johnson was an inventor and a businessman and he actually hired Edison when Edison was but twenty four years old because he was like this kid is going places, and they ended up working together, you know, kind of for the rest of their lives in different ways. Johnson ended up as the VP of Edison Electric Light Company, which preceded con Ed and just three years after that light bulb came around, he said, you know what would look great on a Christmas tree and not burn it down like the live candles that they've been using in Germany. Is like an electric Christmas light.
Yes, so let's touch on those live candles. We've mentioned it before in some past Christmas extravaganza. Oh yeah, but Martin Luther, the Protestant dude who is often given credit for coming up with the idea of putting candles on Christmas trees. Christmas trees are very very old in the Teutonic area, and they were introduced to the Victorians in England by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, who was from Germany. And so the Christmas tree itself wasn't all that old as a tradition by the time Edward Johnson put lights on the Christmas tree. But people had been putting open candles on their Christmas tree inside. Yes, the fire hazard is just through the roof, right, So his idea. As sketchy as electricity was back then, was an actual improvement as far as safety was concerned.
Yeah, I can't. There aren't many things that are more flammable than a two week old Christmas tree.
I know, it's I mean, you can just look at it and hear the sound, you know.
Yeah. We collect them, our friends all donate them to the camp and we throw those things on the fire the end of a big night. And it's scary and amazing, how you know, Like we're talking fifteen foot flames up in the air.
I know, it's really thrilling. It's also scary.
It is scary. In fact, we did that when Hodgman went camping with us at the camp on this last trip through Atlanta, when he did a show here, and when I brought that tree out at the end of the night and threw it on everyone else knows the deal. I think Hodgman was a little bit like, what's going on down here in Georgia?
Oh?
Really, like, what are you people doing here? Me? Brady?
Were you looking at him and pointing and saying you No?
He loved it. Actually, so long story short. Edward Johnson lives at one thirty six East thirty sixth Street in New York, and he hand wires a Christmas tree with eighty red, white, and blue lights. Apparently they were like egg shaped, and the tree itself revolved, and as it revolved the colors all so they would light up red then light up white or not all of them, but you know that section would light up red then white than blue as it's spun.
That's so cool. I mean, this guy like knocked it out of the park first try. Heck yeah, work got out pretty quickly, in part because he started calling reporters. But the Detroit Post Tribune sent a reporter, a veteran even not even a cub reporter, to go check this out because people were starting to like line up on the street to peek through the window to see this Christmas tree in Edward Johnson's parlor. And the veteran reporter W. A. Crowfoot wrote, this is great quote. I'm just gonna say the whole thing, Okay, Yeah, it was brilliantly lighted with eighty lights in all encase. Then these dainty glass eggs his his words, and about equally divided between white, red, and blue. One can hardly imagine anything prettier. I love that.
I'm amazed that he was able to get these things to turn off and on as they rotated. That's I mean, in the early days of handwiring something like that, that's the most impressive thing to me.
Yeah, I'm not sure how to do that. It's hard enough as it is today.
Yeah, So should we take a break.
I think we should take a break, Chuck, all.
Right, we'll come right back and tell you where things went from there right after this. All right, So Johnson has lit up that first Christmas tree. Everyone is astounded. He immediately starts one up himself year by year, and I think in eighteen eighty four the New York Times says there are now one hundred and twenty bulbs. So the tradition of kind of you know, one upping yourself or even your neighbor, that started with the very first lit Christmas tree, and all of a sudden, in eighteen ninety, you can finally buy Christmas lights if you have a lot of money.
I mean a lot of money. So a string of sixteen Christmas lights that were available for sale in eighteen ninety would have run you three hundred and seventy five dollars in today's money twelve dollars back then. The average person made about nine dollars a week back then, at least according to one thousand bulbs dot com. So it was cost prohibitive, like you had to be extraordinarily wealthy. Plus you had some other obstacles to overcome. Your house might not be wired for electricity, so you need a generator to run your Christmas lights. That cost again three hundred and seventy five dollars for one sixteen buolb string. Did a professional wireman an electrician to come out and wire this stuff up for you because you should not be doing it yourself. And I think there is an estimate from the Library of Congress that said lighting your Christmas tree around this time would have cost you about two thousand dollars.
Yeah, that was in nineteen oh three, and that's the year that ge started selling these pre assembled kits. But like you said, a full tree two grand. And also, you know, not only was expensive, but electricity was still new and people at the time, you know, early on in electricity were still a little freaked out by it and weren't sure it was super safe. So it's not like it spread like Gangbusters right away. I think it was nineteen fourteen is when the light price really came down. It was still like fifty bucks in today's dollars, which ain't cheap, but more affordable than three hundred and seventy five. So you know, more and more people started buying them, and by the nineteen thirties is when they became cheap enough to where they were kind of went really mainstream.
Yeah. And by then, you know, city councils, local communities, government buildings, like they had enough money to adorn like the town square by then. Yeah, But it wasn't until the thirties that people started adding like they were affordable enough for the average home to deck out their own place or their own Christmas tree. But they caught on really quick, in part because in the twenties, I think General Electrics started sponsoring Christmas light competitions.
Yeah.
Yeah, and then between the thirties and the fifties, people started buying more and more and more. And by the fifties was when you started to like you could go down a street and like almost every house was lit with Christmas lights.
Yeah. In the seventies is when the many white lights came out and a lot of people went to those. We still use the white lights on our tree. It's a do half twinkle half plane, so tasteful, and I like it. It's a nice looking tree. I do have a soft spot for colored light trees, especially the blues, but we don't use those ourselves, but I really like those as well, Chuck.
We do our whole house in blue lights. The outside so pretty. I'm so so beloved of it.
You know who else did that?
Who?
Elvis? Oh?
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, grace Land was blue for sure, I forgot. Yeah, blue light is nice at Christmas. I like it.
Yeah. My favorite though, and I've probably said this one hundred times by now, are the big bat colored bulbs.
Yeah.
Those are hands down the best. They can bring me to my knees and make me weep with nostalgia every time I see them.
Is that what you use on your tree? Yes, the big daddies?
Yeah? I mean what else are you use?
What else are you gonna use?
I know, I'll just I used the many white ones. No, those are good too. We did get a I can't remember where we got it from, but it's like an artificial tree that kind of like flocking that's pre lit, and that has the white lights in like installed, And I'm quite sure you would be perfectly happy if we just left it at that, but I'm like, no, I need some fat bolts, so I add those on.
You were not alone, because apparently sixteen percent of Americans, according to a Today's Homeowner survey from twenty twenty three, prefer the colored lights. Twenty two percent use the white, which I think is down. I think those were much more in fashion, probably, you know, fifteen ten, fifteen years ago.
Oh yeah, they seem like.
I feel like the white lights used to be more popular.
Think they were kind of a nineties thing.
Yeah maybe, huh.
I didn't know.
I'm a nineties kind of guy, though, sure you are. And it's you know, Christmas tree lights don't use the most energy, but they definitely use extra energy, you know, there's no getting around it. I think seven point eight billion dollars per year is what people spend on them, and then they light them to the tune of six point six three billion kilowatt hours extra kilowatt hours.
So granted that's a twenty eleven statistic, it's probably gone way down since the advent of led Christmas lights which used way less power.
Yeah. I tried to find stats, and I did find some that were really low, but like the one I found that was low was not a trustworthy thing. And it was only for the month of December, and that discounts like you know, usually there's like a week on either side of December that people are lighting things up to.
Yeah, but suffice to say that back then, before the LED lights, we in the United States alone used more electricity than countries like Tanzania and El Salvador used the entire year just the later Christmas lights, and even that was just a small middling portion of the total electricity in the United States uses that same year. In twenty eleven, that six point sixty three billion kilowot hours to like Christmas lights represented zero point two percent of America's total electricity usage.
Yeah, there you go, So light up your Christmas tree, have a little fun for a month.
There you go, especially if they're led right.
Yeah, And you know what I want to shout out, friend of stuff you should know comedian and actor and author Casey Wilson. Because Casey Wilson has six Christmas trees in her house. She's Christmas nuts and they're beautiful and wonderful. She has one in her bedroom. She loves Christmas and Christmas trees and Casey's awesome. You should read her book, The Wreckage of My Presence Nice.
Thanks a lot for that. That was a good, good way to point people. Yeah, and also thanks again to Daniel Montgomery for sending this in. And everybody Merry Christmas. Will see you at the Christmas Special Extravaganza coming up tomorrow. I think should be and short Stuff is out.
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