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The very first fairy lights in the UK were developed for the Savoy Theatre in 1882. Sir Joseph Swan, the pioneer of incandescent light bulbs, supplied the theatre for the opening night of Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera Iolanthe. They have been a common sight in the UK ever since.
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The first Christmas tree decorated with electric lights was commissioned by Edward H Johnson, Vice President of the Edison Electric Light Company in 1882. His tree consisted of 80 hand-wired red, white and blue incandescent bulbs and was proudly displayed at his home on Fifth Avenue, New York. Johnson is widely known as the ‘Father of Christmas Tree Lights’.
- General Electric started to commercially produce the first pre wired Christmas light kits in 1903. It consisted of a string of 8 sockets, with each socket capable of holding two carbon filament lamps.
- It wasn’t until the mid 1950’s that the average household began to embrace Christmas lights. Since then, lights have appeared on rafters, roofs, homes and gardens across the world.
- In 2011 a couple in Canberra, Australia decorated their home with over 502,000 lights, breaking the world record! The pair has previously set two Guinness World Record titles: one for the most Christmas lights on an artificial tree, and the second for the largest image made of LED lights – raising thousands of dollars for various charities.
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Technological advances have meant that energy efficient LED Christmas lights are now affordable for all. Unlike the old incandescent lamps, LEDs stay cool when on, saving energy and giving them an extended life span of up to 100,000 hours. The Rockefeller Centre in New York switched to all LED lights back 2007.
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The world capital for recycling Christmas light is in Shijiao, China. Nine million kilos of Christmas lights are shipped here every year to be broken down. Modern techniques in recycling mean that every component can be reused.
