There’s nothing like Christmas lights to cheer up the longest, coldest nights of the year. Just when everything starts getting gloomy out there, along comes a holiday, a celebration of the arrival of a little baby that came for the hope of peace on Earth and good will toward all people.
It’s the birthday of Baby Jesus, both the example for and the exception of how we’re supposed to love … but unfortunately fall short throughout the year. But at Christmastime, with a focus on his lessons of love, we all get a little bit nicer to each other. Usually. And each of the traditions that are part of this season are reminders of the history of the nativity. And the lights, well, light the way.
A bit carried away
As with a lot of things in modern culture, the tradition becomes a thing unto itself and unless we keep our focus on the meaning of the season, things can get a bit carried away. This time of year I see the TV shows about families and neighborhoods that go all out on oneupsmanship on the house light display.
The TV crew arrives with the semi-celebrity host, and the neighbors come out to cheer the contestants on. I’m a fan of Christmas lights, but more and more I see the houses are just doing displays with Christmas lights instead of displays about Christmas. There are dinosaurs and spaceships and abstract light patterns that are just there for impact.
This year’s winner on one of the Christmas light TV shows was based on video games and unless you looked really closely you would miss Santa and some figures that were supposed to be carolers (I think) and some gingerbread men. There was a large cone of lights that represented a Christmas tree (sort of), but if you didn’t know anything about Christmas you wouldn’t walk away from the impressive show any the wiser. The homeowner even included a football putdown to the Dallas Cowboys as part of the show. This kind of decor is I think the equivalent to having a Fourth of July celebration where you serve up 14 kinds of potato salad and have nothing else tied into America’s birthday.
A blaze of light in the night
The lights tying into Christmas come from the fact that there was the Star of Bethlehem shining over the manger (a kind of livestock feed area) where Jesus was born, illuminating the way to the baby. And, nearby, in fields where they lay, shepherds were visited by the heralding angels in a blaze of light in the night. And there is the idea of a halo glowing around the heads of those who are truly holy, so add that subtle, but illuminating, light to the occasion. All of these are metaphors for Jesus Christ as the “light of the world” in matters eternal.
In many cultures and throughout history, in colder climes, the evergreen tree has represented life going on when all the rest of the world is leafless and seemingly lifeless. With the advent of Christmas, the pines were adopted to keep eyes on the coming spring and the rebirth of life. Leave it to humans to add art and crafts to the holiday to make it even more merry.
The idea of Christmas lights born
The story I’ve heard is that in the 1500s in Germany famous church leader Martin Luther was walking at night and saw the stars twinkling between the branches of the pines. He wanted to share it with his family and at that time people in that area were already having decorated Christmas trees in their house. Luther added candles, and the idea of Christmas lights was born. In the Victorian Era, Queen Victoria and her husband Albert popularized Christmas trees in Britain and from there to other countries outside the German states.
Until the late 1800s candles were used to light the Christmas trees. They both served to remind folks of the light of Christ in the world and also to illuminate the decorations.
Usually the tree wasn’t decorated or revealed until Christmas Eve or Christmas night, and if a tree was up and decorated for longer than just the Christmas party or service the candles were only lit for a short time. I can just imagine the children waiting an entire year to see the beauty of a candlelit Christmas tree again.
Initially the candles were held in place by dripping wax on the end of the branches and sticking the candles on there, or by pinning them to the end of the branches. Eventually, candle holders were designed to clip on to the ends of the branches. I’ve seen these in antique stores in our area. They look to hold a candle slightly larger than what we use on birthday cakes these days, which seems fitting since Christmas is a birthday celebration.
Looking at the candle holders, if you put them on the tips of the branches and the tree was fresh, green and well watered, I think you could light the candles, sing carols and have your Christmas party that one night without too much of a danger of burning your house down.
With technological advances, it didn’t take long between the invention of the light strand (1880 by Thomas Edison) to the invention of Christmas tree lights. Actually, only two years, in 1882, by one of Edison’s employees, who decorated his Christmas tree in red, white and blue lights and put the tree on a rotating stand to add to the wow factor. His name was Edward Johnson and his 80-light strand was the first electric Christmas tree lights. And in 1894, President Cleveland used electric lights on the White House Christmas tree which made the national and international news. Now there are about 150 million strands of lights sold each year.
When I was a kid the lights were of all colors and the bulbs were pretty big and could get pretty hot. Apart from the Christmas tree lights inside, my grandparents had a tall, cedary-type tree growing next to the porch. They would decorate it as well with big, clip-on colored lights. As bulbs got smaller and less expensive you could put more and more lights on there.
My house for several years in the 1960s had two Christmas trees, the traditional evergreen in the den, but in a window next to the front door we had a silver/aluminum Christmas tree that was illuminated by a lamp on the floor that shined up on it and had a rotating color wheel so the tree gradually changed colors. Yes, it was exactly the kind of Christmas tree they made fun of in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” but as a kid it was space-age cool.
One of the greatest innovations in Christmas lights was when they figured out how to have a light bulb burn out in the strand and yet all the other lights stayed lit. Prior to that, if you lost one light you lost the whole kit and caboodle. With the strands so small and delicate now, you can still lose half a strand if the wire itself breaks, so wind them carefully when it’s time to stow them for the year.
There have been some variations on the regular bulbs, one of them being the “bubbling” Christmas lights. These are shaped with a small base and then the light sticks up like a candle and bubbles go up through the glass shaft. Bubble lights are made with methylene chloride which A) has a very low boiling point so the lights are literally boiling the liquid in the bulbs, and B) it’s poisonous, so don’t mix it in your eggnog. And with LED lights, which are smaller and cooler, I’ve seen where they now have bulbs that look like snow globes and are lit from inside. I’ve seen them with snowmen in them as well as Christmas trees in them. Just think, the Christmas tree lights on your Christmas tree can have Christmas trees in them.
And with all the electronics we have now, Christmas lights can be programmed to flash in programmed order and in sync to music to put on an impressive show. Of course, that’s what’s led to those less-than-Christmasy TV Christmas light shows. And so what was once just for the Christmas trees has found their way onto the eves of the house, around the garage and out in the yard, shining bright enough that I wonder if the astronauts on the space station can look down and see them. Add to the outside display projected lights and you can have sparkles all over your house or even giant snowflakes seemingly falling into your yard. Every night can be a “white Christmas” night even if you live in Miami.
Remember the point
Americans like to take things to extremes and as far as they can go, and so, regardless of how flashy, blinky or sparkly the lights may be this Christmas season, remember, the point is to celebrate a baby who brought a hope and a promise to Earth, illuminated by a single star.
Mark Hannah, a Dalton native, works in video and film production.