Have you have started putting up Christmas lights yet? Every year about this time, you see people on ladders hanging up Christmas lights around the exterior of their homes. People begin carrying boxes and bins of Christmas lights in from the garage or attic to decorate the interior of their house. And if you haven’t already, most of you will soon be participating in the beloved tradition of stringing hundreds of lights around your Christmas tree. But have you ever wondered how this tradition began?
The Tradition of Christmas Lights
The tradition of putting up Christmas lights began about 500 years ago. One cold December night, Martin Luther went for a walk through the German woods, and when he looked up at the sky, he was enthralled with the way the starlight filtered through the branches of the evergreen trees. At that moment, he felt as if the hand of God had touched his soul and had allowed him to see the world in a different way. Stopping on a snow-covered knoll, he studied the scene for some time. Its tranquil beauty and the soft light gave him a sense of hope.
Determined to duplicate the atmosphere of that outdoor scene inside his own home, Luther attached candle holders to the tree’s limbs and mesmerized his family and friends with the first lit Christmas tree. From this humble beginning, the custom of putting candles on Christmas Trees swept across Germany. Craftsman began to produce ornate candleholders that were specially designed for tree limbs and the use of multicolored candles soon followed. By the mid-1800’s, a beautiful fir tree, trimmed with ornaments and lit by scores of candles, became a staple Christmas symbol. It was pictured over and over again by illustrations in magazines, books, newspapers, and Christmas cards.
But as you can imagine, live burning candles on an evergreen tree was a dangerous fire hazard. Countless trees were set ablaze, thousands of homes were burned to the ground annually, and hundreds of people died every year when the flames ignited the tree limbs. Yet the beautiful glow of candlelight, even if it was a major fire risk, meant so much to people that the concerned firemen could not convince even their own families to give up using these fiery decorations. It would take both time and technology to blow out the Christmas-tree candles.
In 1879 Thomas Edison changed the way America illuminated houses, with his invention of the light bulb. Three years later, one of his employees, Edward Johnson, decided to apply this new invention to the Christmas tree.
As had become their family custom, the Johnson’s had purchased an evergreen and put it in the parlor of the family’s New York home. As they decorated the newly cut tree, Johnson was stuck by an idea. Using the process of the Edison laboratories, Johnson produced a string of eight small and brightly colored electric light bulbs. Much brighter than the light of a similar number of candles, the bulbs gave off a constant and compelling glow. Johnson took them home and strung them around his Christmas tree. As the lights lit up the room and shone through the large picture window, neighbors began to walk by the house and marvel at what they saw. As most people did not have electricity in those days, the sight of a green tree illumined by light bulbs seemed almost magical. Yet even more incredible was that Johnson’s lights didn’t just glow; they flashed off and on.
Even in a city the size of New York City, the Edison employee’s inventive decorations created a great stir. A parade of people walked by Johnson’s home, and scores of people knocked on the door, asking to see the tree up close. Newspapers from around the country began calling Johnson’s home to report on these new electric Christmas lights.
Even though the lights made news across the land, Edison did not jump on the bandwagon and create Christmas lights for commercial sale. That would have been putting the cart before the horse, as most Americans did not have electric power in their homes for years. As time went on and electricity expanded even to the rural part of the country, several companies investigated mass producing Christmas lights, but the stumbling block was always the expense. A sting of bulbs like Johnson had created for his tree cost over $100 in materials alone. Many Americans didn’t make that much money in a year.
Also, as screw-in sockets had yet to be invented, each bulb had to be wired individually. When the bulbs burned out or were broken, an electrician would have to be called to replace them. But even in the face of these problems, Edison and others convinced at least the wealthy that Christmas lights were the best way to illuminate their homes for the Christmas season.
Within five years, many members of the social elite in New York had spent as much as $3000 per tree to compete with their neighbor’s evergreen. Then, in 1910, General Electric introduced a string of eight lights that cost $12. The price was still beyond the reach of most consumers, so the lights were mostly used in store windows. Finally, in 1924, GE and Westinghouse introduced a new set of Christmas lights that would become the industry standard for the next fifty years. These multicolored long-lasting bulbs were inexpensive enough that almost anyone could afford them.
Almost five centuries ago, Martin Luther taught his children that the candles that burned on the Christmas tree stood for the light that Jesus brought into the world. As electricity changed and expanded the use of lights at Christmas, the simple meaning that Luther first observed in the starlit woods was obscured and replaced by the often blinding glow of millions of light bulbs that turns the night into day. Yet the glow that drew people to Martin Luther’s and Edward Johnson’s trees still beckons people of all ages today. (Adapted from Ace Collins Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas p. 118-124)
Jesus, the Light of the World (Isaiah 9:1-2)
Light has been associated with Christmas long before Martin Luther put candles on his Christmas tree. Light has been linked with Christmas even before Christmas ever happened. Actually, light has been connected with Christmas for 700 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. You ask, “How can that be?” The prophet Isaiah spoke of the light of Christmas when he prophesied about the birth of the Messiah in the seventh century before Christ. In Isaiah 9:1-2, he says:
Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan—The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.
This prophecy of hope emerges from a dark period in Israel’s history. The northern kingdom of Israel, which encompassed the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali, had turned its back on God. The people had rejected God’s word and the prophets who preached it. Instead, they were engaging in the pagan practices of witchcraft and were seeking counsel from mediums and spiritists. As a result of their decision to walk in spiritual darkness, God was going to judge them. He was going to raise up the Assyrian Empire to conquer and enslave Israel. As God always does, when people stray from him, he sends adversity to humble them and bring them back. Spiritual darkness is always followed by physical darkness, and Israel would experience both.
But following this judgment, which will bring gloom and anguish to the land, there will be glory. Isaiah even pinpoints the region where the Light will dawn. It would not be in Jerusalem, where one might expect, but rather far to the north, in a region called Galilee. The lands of Zebulun and Naphtali would eventually become the land of Galilee, where Jesus spent most of his life and began his public ministry.
The idea of Jesus as the Light shining forth in the darkness is an appropriate description of the Savior and His gospel. The apostle John tells us that the Light is Jesus; that He is the True Light which comes into the world (John 1:9-13) but that many loved the darkness rather than the light (John 3:19-21) and thus reject God’s light, the new spiritual birth into God’s family, and eternal life.
Indeed, God would one day deliver Israel from spiritual and physical darkness. Jesus would be the light that dawns on the land of the shadow of death. Jesus is the light who would bring hope to Israel. He is the light who endured the darkness of the cross to bring light to the world today.
Two thousand years ago, Christ was born into a dark world that would be dramatically changed by his life and death. When he rose from the dead and ascended back into heaven, he left the earth a much brighter place.
In a very real sense, the glow of billions of electric Christmas lights reinforces just how deeply the babe in the manger has changed and is still changing the world. Martin Luther would have liked that! Every time you look at a Christmas light, it ought to remind you that Jesus is the true light who brings hope to the world!