A Brief History of Electric Christmas Lighting in America

The world's first practical light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison in 1879, and a mere three years later in 1882 an associate of his, one Edward Johnson, electrically lit a Christmas tree for the first time. The tree was in the parlor of Johnson's New York City home, located in the first section of that city to be wired for electricity. The display created quite a stir, and was recorded by a visiting reporter named Croffut in the Detroit Post and Tribune:     

"Last evening I walked over beyond Fifth Avenue and called at the residence of Edward H. Johnson, vice-president of Edison's electric company. There, at the rear of the beautiful parlors, was a large Christmas tree presenting a most picturesque and uncanny aspect. It was brilliantly lighted with many colored globes about as large as an English walnut and was turning some six times a minute on a little pine box. There were eighty lights in all encased in these dainty glass eggs, and about equally divided between white, red and blue. As the tree turned, the colors alternated, all the lamps going out and being relit at every revolution. The result was a continuous twinkling of dancing colors, red, white, blue, white, red, blue---all evening. 

I need not tell you that the scintillating evergreen was a pretty sight---one can hardly imagine anything prettier. The ceiling was crossed obliquely with two wires on which hung 28 more of the tiny lights; and all the lights and the fantastic tree itself with its starry fruit were kept going by the slight electric current brought from the main office on a filmy wire. The tree was kept revolving by a little hidden crank below the floor which was turned by electricity.  It was a superb exhibition."

As a side note here, let me address a question that I often get about the first electrically lit Christmas tree. A story is frequently told that credits Ralph Morris as the inventor of electric Christmas lights. The story goes that Ralph, seeing his son push a candle over on a Christmas tree, nearly set the tree and house on fire. He came up with the idea of pulling the lights from an old telephone switchboard and wiring them on a tree, thusly "inventing" the electric Christmas tree lights. This incident is actually true, but it happened in 1908. Up until the early 1930s, Mr. Morris' family truly believed he had invented electric lighting for trees, totally unaware of Edward Johnson and his parlor tree. I have seen this story, in various versions, presented on the Internet and in published works as the origin of electrically lighted trees. But this incident happened more than 25 years after Edward Johnson displayed his tree.   Ralph Morris' hand-wired feather tree from 1908. Note the painted green base and the added square of wood at the bottom to stabilize the tree A close-up of the uppermost lamp, showing the interesting looped carbon filament of the salvaged telephone switchboard lamp. By a strange twist of fate, Mr. Morris' tree has joined the collection. Purchased from a friend who originally obtained it on eBay, this tree was earlier pictured on another part of this web site. A Morris family member recently wrote to this collector, identifying it as Ralph's original and happy to see the tree on the site for public viewing. The family member told of how her grandmother hated the fact that Ralph painted the base of the tree enamel green, and thought it made the whole thing hideous. Feather tree base as it would have originally appeared. This collector surmises that Ralph added the small square of wood at the bottom to stabilize the tree, which was now top-heavy due to the weight of the wires and lights. In an effort to make the original round base and the new, square piece look the same, Ralph used what appears to be enamel kitchen cabinet paint. A similar color can be found in an insert in the Fall issue of the Sears, Roebuck and Company's 1907 catalog. In fact, upon close inspection, it appears that the tree itself could well have come from Sears. Their catalogs from the 1900-1910 time period show a feather tree identical to the one pictured here, with the round base painted white with a Christmas-type decal applied to it. The catalogs specify German origin, and when the added stabilizing base is removed from the tree pictured here, "Made in Germany" can be easily seen stamped in faded blue ink on the original base. I would personally like to thank my friend, Chris Cuff, who kindly and lovingly restored the electrical connections and lamps to working condition. Most of the lights on the tree are original, and still shine as brightly today as they did in 1908, some 97 years ago. The few  replacement lamps are of the same vintage as the originals, and were also made for use in a telephone switchboard.

Edison's tree was of course quite a novelty for the time, and I suspect a bit of a publicity stunt as well. (It is interesting to note that none of the local New York City papers seemed to have reported on the display). Rare were homes wired for electricity, and those that were commonly had but a single ceiling light fixture in each room. Few people had the knowledge or resources to duplicate Johnson's display in their own homes.

In 1890, Edison published a small, 28 page promotional brochure/catalog that included within its pages what might well be the first commercial mention of the use of electrically lighting a Christmas tree. On page 14, the catalog reads:

"There are few forms of decoration more beautiful and pleasing than miniature incandescent lamps placed among flowers, or interwoven in garlands or festoons; for decorating Christmas trees or conservatories..."

By 1900, Edison was advertising miniature versions of his electric light bulb for use on trees in popular magazines. The following advertisement appeared in the November 28, 1900 edition of Scientific American Magazine. Notice that Edison's advertising offered to rent the light bulbs for Christmastime use!
 

As I mentioned earlier, public distribution of electricity was not yet common, those living outside of a major city who desired one of these wonderful trees had to supply their own electric power, typically from household generators. In addition, the services of a "wireman" had to be obtained, as few people were willing or even able to undertake the job of hand wiring all of the lights on the tree themselves. Electric socket outfits had not been invented, and it was a tedious task at best to wire all of the lights necessary to illuminate a room sized tree. At this point, electrically lighted trees were a novelty for the rich, and, although intrigued, the public was not yet convinced of the true practicality of electric trees.

In 1895, President Cleveland proudly sponsored the first electrically lit Christmas tree in the White House. It was a huge specimen, featuring more than a hundred multicolored lights. The country took notice, and by the next Christmas members of "high society" were hosting Christmas Tree parties. They were grand events indeed, as a typical lighted tree of the early 1900s cost upwards of $300 (more than $2000 in today's dollars), including the generator and wireman's services.

Still out of range for the average American family, smaller and less expensive battery-operated lighting strings were decorating the trees of those adventurous enough to do the wiring. In fact, an article in Popular Electricity Magazine had a piece for children, explaining how to light the family tree with battery-powered electric lights. The back pages had instructions on ordering the necessary wire, sockets and light bulbs. 

1901 GE Advertisement, promoting sale or rental of Christmas light bulbs, from the
November, 1901 issue of McClure's Magazine. The ad refers to a leaflet published
by the company which included instructions on hand wiring a tree for lights.

Electric tree lighting was not to be truly practical until the first sets of pre-wired sockets, then called festoons, were introduced to the public in 1903. There is a bit of a controversy as to who actually introduced this first string of lights-- General Electric or the American Ever Ready Company. This collector believes that it  was General Electric for several reasons; among the most compelling is the fact that prior to 1906, The American Ever Ready Company Company was called The American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Company. Since several pieces of dated General Electric literature refer to Christmas lighting festoons before the 1906 date, it seems logical to assume that GE was the first company to actually sell the lighting festoons. To date, this collector knows of no lighting outfits known to exist that bear the American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Company name. Additionally, many examples of American Electrical Novelty company catalogs exist, with none showing Christmas lighting outfits until 1912.

The General Electric Company tried to patent the idea of a Christmas lighting festoon, but the patent was refused. The courts decided that the idea was actually based on knowledge that "any ordinary wireman" possessed, and therefore not patentable.  (The General Electric box is pictured below). The critical point in all of this is that when General Electric failed to patent the festoon itself, the market was suddenly wide open. Almost immediately, any company was free to manufacture and sell Christmas tree lighting strings. Many companies did just that, and the American Christmas lighting industry was born.

The cost of General Electric's first offering of Christmas lights was $12.00 for a set of 24 lights, enough to light a medium sized table-top tree. This was considered extremely expensive in 1903, as the average wage for the time was a mere 22? per hour, which equaled a weekly paycheck of about $13.20. (Remember that in 1903, an average work week was six 10 hour days).

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