The Evolution and History of Fairy Lights

HomeDecorations

  • Author Kathryn Dawson
  • Published May 12, 2011
  • Word count 702

Before Christmas fairy lights were even invented, many people around the world were using candles as a way to celebrate and help spread the Christmas cheer. These candles created a festive glow that people of all ages could enjoy and respect. There were no battery fairy lights back then, so people had to use what they had at their disposal to help show their holiday joy. Candles were even used as ornaments on trees back then, which is an obvious fire hazard. This became especially hazardous to the surrounding people when the Christmas trees would start to dry out. This made the trees much more flammable and created a huge amount of danger whenever fire was close by. Nowadays, we do not have to worry about flammable candle decorations because we have LED battery lights and other rope lights available that do not pose any serious threat to becoming a fire hazard. In the early days of Christmas lighting, only the wealthy could afford candles, so it was something only done by the rich and famous. We now live in a time where almost anyone can easily celebrate the holidays with some readily available Christmas decorations.

Small glass lanterns were eventually used to help increase safety standards around the house and help prevent fires from breaking out during the holiday season. An assistant of Thomas Edison was actually one of the first individuals to create a strand of Christmas lights. It was about eighty lights long and was able to spread Christmas joy for the first time through the use of electricity. In 1917, there was a terrible fire that ended up leading Albert Sadecca to creating safety lights for the holidays. These would turn out to be a much safer option when trying to celebrate Christmas and led to the creation of the largest lighting company in the world, NOMA Electric Company. Since these new lights were safe and powered by electricity, they were the first lights that began to be used outdoors for decoration. Candles could not be used outside because they could start an outdoor fire or they would go out when it began to rain. These new safety lights started to appear all over the place. Rooftops, shrubbery, and trees all started to get covered with this Christmas decor, which made all the neighborhoods much more festive than they had ever been before. Light bulbs had originally been large and huge consumers of energy, but these smaller safety lights offered an option for those less fortunate who could not afford the larger lights used by the more wealthy individuals around the neighborhood.

Colour trends have definitely changed and evolved in the world of Christmas lights over the course of their short history. In the early days, fairy lights were made of mixed colours and the bulbs started out much larger than the ones we normally see today. Blue and white have been the two most popular colours for Christmas lights over the years. Single color strands of lights are the most popular, but mixed color lights are still available for those looking for something different. Net lights for shrubbery were the next innovation, which made decorating any trees or bushes much easier than it had ever been before. After that, light icicles were created to place hanging from the roofs of homes all across the land. The icicles are a very popular form of Christmas lighting to this day and are often used to help light up a home in Christmas joy. The latest innovation in Christmas lighting has been LED lighting. These lights help conserve more energy while still emitting a hot white light.

Fairy lights have come a long way from their roots, and everyone should be very thankful for the things we have today. Instead of using hazardous candles, we can now use battery fairy lights to light up the inside or outside of a home. LED battery lights are the latest piece of Christmas light technology, but they surely will not be the last. Christmas lights will continue to evolve, just like everything else in the world. It will be interesting to see what the next step in the world of Christmas lights will be.

Kathryn Dawson writes about the leading supplier of durable, reliable and safe fairy lights and battery fairy lights in the UK.

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