the Realist

LEARN HOW TO hang Christmas lights like the pros at realsimple. com/lights.

LET THERE BE LIGHTS

Written by Liz Loerke Photograph by Danny Kim

45,000

HOW MANY LED LIGHTS ADORNEDTHE 78-FOOT NORWAY SPRUCE IN NEWYORK CITY’S ROCKEFELLER CENTERIN 2015.

’TWAS A FEW NIGHTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS, 1882, when Edward Johnson, the vice president of Thomas Edison’s Electric Company, had a bright idea. Instead of using precarious and dangerous candles to illuminate his Christmas tree, why not use electric bulbs? Equipped with the know-how and a nearby electric plant, Johnson created a display to remember. People passing by his midtown Manhattan townhouse on December 22 were treated to an eyeful in the parlor window: Johnson’s tree stood atop a revolving stand and twinkled with 80 red, white, and blue bulbs. “I need not tell you that the scintillating evergreen was a pretty sight,” raved William Augustus Croffut, a reporter for the Detroit Post and Tribune. For those not, um, connected, holiday lights were prohibitively expensive (about $2,000 in today’s currency) and remained out of reach until 1903. That’s when General Electric began selling sets of 24 lights for $12—and the annual tradition of untangling them began.