Christmas tree lights were invented by Edward Johnson in 1882, just 3 years after Edison invented the bulb.
Johnson was Vice-President of the Edison Electric Light Company. The bulbs were custom made for him. He proudly displayed his Christmas tree — hand-wired with 80 red, white, and blue electric light bulbs the size of walnuts — on December 22, 1882, at his home in New York City.
Johnson was fortunate to have lived in one of the first areas of New York City wired for electric service.
In 1895, U.S. President Grover Cleveland proudly sponsored the first electrically lit Christmas tree in the White House, featuring more than a hundred multicolored lights.
The first commercially produced Christmas tree lamps were manufactured in strings of nine sockets by the Edison General Electric Co. of Harrison, New Jersey.
Read factlets by:
RSS feed
Email feed
