In all that time, we have kept this interview available by linking to Yahoo's "picks" program. However, in 2013, this article "timed out" and became unavailable. We feel strongly that the information below should be retained for its historical importance, however, so we have restored the article.

2007 Interview with George Nelson, Curator of the online Antique Christmas Lights Museum

Thanksgiving's behind us, the end of the week brings December, and from there it's a straight shot to Christmas. For enthusiasts of fir tree decoration, the time has arrived. Haul out the ornaments, unbox the tinsel, and, most importantly, release the twinkling lights.

Since 1999, The Antique Christmas Lights Museum has chronicled the luminous history of how Americans have bedecked and brightened their Christmas trees using electricity. [Yahoo] . . . wrote about the site back in 2000, when the webpage was called "Bill's Antique Christmas Lights Site." Now retitled, the site continues to cast an incandescent light across the Web.

When we emailed the museum's curator, George Nelson, he talked to us about how September 11 effected the site, what's the most outlandish tree lighting of all, and how he illuminates his own tree...

Hey George! In 2000, we listed your site in the Yahoo! Directory as "Bill's Antique Christmas Lights Site." Now it's called "The Antiques Christmas Lights Museum." Why the name change??”and who is Bill?

Bill is my deceased brother, who originally started the site. I took it over, and expanded the site, including many updates that Bill was going to upload before his passing. I have become just as hooked on the old lights as Bill was, and it has now become one of my many obsessions. The name change reflects the intention and purpose of the site, which is to share America's electrical Christmas heritage.

How have peoples' responses to the site surprised you??”if at all?

I'm constantly amazed at the amount of e-mails and letters I get from the site. Many are requests for help in finding some lights remembered from childhood, while others are simple notes of thanks for sparking a memory or bringing back the "old days." Surprisingly few people write to ask the value of their lights, as most site visitors pick up on the fact that I collect and share for the historical and information value, not for making a buck.

After 9/11, the site was flooded with e-mails from people desperate to find light sets from their childhood. It was a trying time for everyone, and a very dark time in our nation's history. People wanted the comfort and safety of home, and wanted to be reminded of simpler times when they saw the world through the eyes of their youth. From October through December of that year, more than 4,300 e-mails were received.

Some of the more interesting e-mails, especially memories of Christmas past, are shared with site visitors on the Christmas Memories page.

We loved browsing the colored lights from the 1920s. What's your favorite Yuletide illumination?

By far, my favorite lights are those from the earliest days: 1903-1918. Light bulbs from that era used carbon filaments, and burn with a warm, homey orange glow. It amazes me that so many of these light bulbs, some now over 100 years old, continue to shine and illuminate our Christmas just as they did those many years ago when the use of electricity was new.

What about the most outlandish Christmas lighting of all? The bubble light?

Indeed, the bubbling lights are the ones that fit the bill! Many people don't realize it, but the lights were originally intended to simulate candles, and the addition of the bubbling fluid was an indicator of the times in which they were manufactured. After World War II, a war-weary public was looking for something new and different, especially after having to make their old light sets last through the materials shortages of the war years.

The now-famous Wurlitzer Model 1015 jukebox from 1946 contained bubble tubes which worked on the same principle as did the NOMA Bubble Lites. In postwar America, glitz, glitter, a myriad of sometimes non-complimentary color combinations were all the rage, and Christmas light manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon with the bubbling lights.

As for the most outlandish electrical Christmas decoration, it has to be the Keydel/Propp Electric Angel Chimes. The unit perched atop the Christmas tree, rotating noisily while little hammers struck three silvered bells. A light bulb on the top of the unit rotated as well. The primitive electric motor caused the lights on the tree to flicker as the motor struggled to play the bells.

A modern 1970s incarnation of the rotating light tree topper was the very popular Bradford Celestial Tree Topper, essentially a treetop light that gave off an effect quite similar to the dreaded disco mirrored ball. I get MANY requests for leads on finding them, and genuine 1970s models can easily sell for more than $200 today. They originally sold for $6.95.

You provide some incredibly useful information on repairing vintage lights or rewiring old sockets. Have you always been a tinkerer, able to fix things??”or is that something that you learned over time?

I have always been a tinkerer. As a child in the 1950s, I took apart my father's brand new stereophonic console phonograph to see how it worked. Much to his horror, it just would not go back together. (Something trivial like some missing small parts and cut wires). Once the dust settled over that unfortunate episode, I used the motor and amplifier from the stereo to experiment, eventually turning the amplifier into a PA system for our 4H Club, and using the motor on an experimental potato peeler project for school. The potato peeler worked, by the way, especially on knuckles...

Ouchers! Hopefully the Christmas lights aren't doing any scraping... How much time does the site take up?

Site maintenance and updates normally take three or four hours a week. Due to a few health issues this year, I'm a bit behind on updates, but now that all is well, there are a bunch of things about to be posted.

What can we expect to see soon on The Collector's Notebook?

I have acquired some new lighting outfits for the collection, as well as more research information. I hope to add these to the site soon. In addition, it's about time to start adding some lighting outfits from the 1950s, '60s and '70s. I get quite a few requests for information on sets from those decades. I have resisted the additions for too long, and it is now time to get to work!

What's your day job?

I work as a District Trainer for The Home Depot in The Knoxville, Tennessee area. We have twelve stores in the district, which keeps me hoppin'.

What do you think of how people decorate their trees today? What does your tree look like?

Twenty-first century lights and decorations do not usually suit my tastes. Today's lights are necessarily energy saving electronic versions of the lights from times past, but their glow is quite different. Current trends in decorations also do not suit my tastes. I prefer simple glass balls, not flashing angels, tweeting plastic birds and glittered Styrofoam

For our family tree, people are surprised to learn that it is simply decorated with several strands of lights from around 1910, and glass icicles. We have four dogs, and we learned long ago that too many decorations on a tree result in an expensive trip to the Emergency Animal Clinic late on Christmas Eve.

My wife grew up with an aluminum Christmas tree, so we set that up in the guest room. It's decorated with colored glass balls from the 60s, and is lit with a vintage color wheel from the same decade. In the dining room, we have an antique feather tree in a rotating musical base from the late 1800s. It is decorated with antique glass ornaments, beeswax candles, and an antique angel for the top.

They sound lovely. Thank you, George!