On 22nd December 1882 Edward  Johnson hand-wired 80 red, white, and blue light bulbs and strung them together around a tree in front of the street-side window of his parlour. A generator powered the lights and the tree’s revolving pedestal.

Edward Johnson, was the friend and business associate of Thomas Edison at the Edison Electric Light Company. In 1880 Thomas Edison created a string of electric lights in his laboratory and hung them outside in Meno Park, New Jersey.

Up until this point people used candles on Christmas trees which was a bit of a fire hazard.

The electrifying display drew a crowd, and Johnson was compelled to turn his creation into a tradition – every year, he added more bulbs to the tree. He featured 120 bulbs in 1884, according to The New York Times. At that time, electricity was not yet widely available and light bulbs were very expensive, so families didn’t start using electric Christmas lights right away. In 1895, President Grover Cleveland placed multi-colored electric lights on the White House tree.

Until 1903, when General Electric began to offer affordable pre-assembled kits of Christmas lights, string lights were reserved for the wealthy and electrically savvy. Before 1903, the wiring of electric lights had cost about $300, which is about $2,000 in today’s dollars, and would require the service of an electrician.

On Christmas Eve in 1923, President Calvin Coolidge began the country’s celebration of Christmas. – Who invented Electric Christmas Lights?

The strings of electric lights were very expensive and required an electrician to set them up. In 1903, General Electric in the USA began to offer preassembled kits of stringed Christmas lights, making their use more affordable.

In 1917 teenager Albert Sadacca whose family made novelty wicker bird cages that lit up thought of using the lights in long strings and also suggested painting the bulbs bright colours like red and green. In the following years, he and his brothers formed the NOMA Electric Company, which became a very famous name in Christmas lights, making them cheaper and affordable for thousands of people.

In London, the famous ‘shopping’ Christmas lights started in 1954 in Regent Street with lights on Oxford Street starting in 1959.