Holiday Lights (Entire Midwest)

Is there anything better than checking out Holiday lights on a snowy night in the Midwest?! It’s definitely the most beautiful time of year with holiday lights lining everything from Christmas trees to rooftops to bridges. Large cities and small towns alike add multi-colored lights and marvelous holiday displays and ornaments to 50-foot evergreen trees, store fronts, and public parks. It’s such a sight to see! But do you know who invented holiday lights? Come along as I share a brief history on holiday lights and beautiful sights I’ve come upon this holiday season!

In December 1848, the royal family (Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and their children) gathered around the Christmas tree at Windsor Castle, introducing the idea to Britain. The German custom of bringing a tree into the house and decorating it with candles and gifts was observed enthusiastically by the royal family. The idea spread and in the United States, President Franklin Pierce put up a lit Christmas tree at the White House in 1856, and by the 1870’s fresh-cut trees were being sold at Washington Square Park, and pretty ornaments at Macy’s. But what really made a tree a Christmas tree were the candles, and while flickering flames were festive, they were often dangerous and led to many home fires.

Thomas Edison, the inventor of the first successful practical light bulb, created the very first strand of electric lights. During the Christmas season of 1880, these strands were strung around the outside of his Menlo Park Laboratory. Railroad passengers traveling by the laboratory got their first look at an electrical light display. Then in 1882, Edward H. Johnson, Thomas Edison’s friend and partner in the Edison’s Illumination Company, put the very first string of electric Christmas tree lights together. He hand-wired 80 red, white, and blue light bulbs and wound them around his Christmas tree.

During that time however, there was a great mistrust of electricity, and it would take many years before decorating Christmas trees and homes with electric lights caught on. In 1895, President Cleveland requested that the White House family Christmas tree be illuminated by hundreds of multi-colored electric light bulbs, which may have encouraged the acceptance of indoor electric Christmas lights.

Until 1903, when General Electric began to offer pre-assembled kits of holiday lights, stringed lights were reserved for the wealthy. The wiring of electric lights was very expensive and required the services of a wireman, what we know today as an electrician. In 1900, a string of 16 vaguely flame-shaped bulbs sitting in brass sockets the size of shot glasses sold for a pricey $12 (about $350 in today’s money and $2,000 to decorate the entire Christmas tree).

Then in 1917, a teenager by the name of Albert Sadacca, whose family owned a novelty lighting company, suggested that its store offer brightly colored strands of holiday lights to the public. By the 1930s, colored bulbs were everywhere. Today an estimated 150 million light sets are sold in America each year, lighting 80 million homes, and consuming six percent of the nation’s electrical load each December. And it all started with Thomas Edison and Edward H. Johnson!

Today we see holiday lights everywhere, and I’m not sure about you but it brings me such great joy! It adds to the excitement of the season! In the Midwest there is still plenty of time for family and friends to go out and see some beautiful displays. Check out these Great Places to See Midwest Holiday Lights for displays in your state!

If you live in my hometown state of Minnesota, check out these Twin Cities Drive Thru Christmas Events and Walking Tours of 2022. On the way back to the Twin Cities from our Christmas in Milltown, WI (near Luck, WI), my family and I drove through Stillwater, MN to view the holiday lights on main street. They were so beautiful, and because there was less traffic going through town we could go a little slower to enjoy them! There are so many other events happening, and I hope to check out a few more this coming week!

I hope you all are enjoying this holiday season, and you have a chance to check out some holiday displays in your Midwest state!