If you’ve been out an about over the past few weeks you’ll notice the gorgeous illuminated transformation on Chestermere streets. You would be hard pressed to find a street that didn’t have at least a couple of houses decorated…..if not most of them.
Everything from simple peaceful strands to nothing short of the holiday favourite Griswold house, Chestermere residents go all out in lighting up their homes for the holidays.
But why do we do this? How did that first conversation come about with regards to exterior holiday lighting? Here’s some interesting history.
Wikipedia tell us that “Christmas lights (also known informally as fairy lights) are lights used for decoration in preparation for Christmas and for display throughout Christmastide. The custom goes back to the use of candles to decorate the Christmas tree in Christian homes in early modern Germany. Christmas trees displayed publicly and illuminated with electric lights became popular in the early 20th century. By the mid-20th century, it became customary to display strings of electric lights as along streets and on buildings Christmas decorations detached from the Christmas tree itself. In the United States, it became popular to outline private homes with such Christmas lights in tract housing beginning in the 1960s. By the late 20th century, the custom had also been adopted in non-western countries, notably in Japan and Hong Kong.
In many countries, such as Sweden, people start to set up their Christmas lights, as well as other Christmas decorations, on the first day of Advent. In the Western Christian world, the two traditional days when Christmas lights are removed are Twelfth Night and Candlemas, the latter of which ends the Christmas-Epiphany season in some denominations. Leaving the decorations up beyond Candlemas is historically considered to be inauspicious”.
Originally, when it came to lighting up Christmas trees, candles for the tree were glued with melted wax to a tree branch or attached by pins. Around 1890, candleholders were first used for Christmas candles. Between 1902 and 1914, small lanterns and glass balls to hold the candles started to be used. Early electric Christmas lights were introduced with electrification, beginning in the 1880s. Thankfully, we’ve come a long way in holiday lighting and none of us would even considering gluing a candle to a Christmas tree. Chestermere Fire Service can all take a sigh of relief.
Over time strings of Christmas lights found their way into use in places other than Christmas trees. Soon, strings of lights adorned mantles and doorways inside homes, and ran along the rafters, roof lines, and porch railings of homes and businesses. In recent times, many city skyscrapers are decorated with long mostly-vertical strings of a common theme, and are activated simultaneously in Grand Illumination ceremonies.
Some people take their Christmas lights pretty seriously. Just last month in Australia, David Richards – known locally in Canberra as ‘Christmas Lights Man’ – orchestrated the world’s Largest display of Christmas lights on an artificial tree with 518,838 individual lights to earn himself a spot in the record books. The Christmas tree is decorated with baubles, flashing presents and is topped by a 1.5-metre star containing 12,000 bulbs.
A display of this kind was no overnight job and, with the leadership of Richards and an enormous undertaking involving architects, electrical and civil engineers, designers, and an army of SIDS and Kids ACT volunteers, 518,838 lights was more than enough to beat the previous record of 374,280 by Universal Studios Japan in October 2015.
But whether you decorate your tree, your house or your entire property, there is something to be said about the joy and peace that Christmas lights bring. A white snowy street with homes beautifully lit is a sight that warms the heart with the holiday spirit. Merry Christmas Chestermere!
