Christmas Tree Lights

Edward H. Johnson, who worked for Thomas Edison’s Illumination Company, used 80 small red, white, and blue electric bulbs, strung together along a single power cord, to light the Christmas tree in his New York home in 1882. Some sources credit Edison with being the first to use electric lights as Christmas decorations, when he strung them around his laboratory in 1880. It was three years after Edison had demonstrated that light bulbs were practical.

Christmas 1882

Edward Johnson, who worked at Edison Illumination Company, finds an application for electric lights and becomes the first person to use them as Christmas tree decorations.

He used 80 small red, white and blue electric bulbs, strung together along a single power cord, to light the Christmas tree in his New York home.