While the earliest origins of celebratory lighting during winter festivals predate Christianity, it’s the European, and later North American partly secularized traditions associated with Christmas which are now commonly recognized and enjoyed as festive Christmas Lights.

“Don’t you celebrate on your birthday?” Luberto asks. “Well, this is Jesus’ birthday. It
should be the biggest celebration of all.” Photo Paul Keleher

In December the town of Medellin in Colombia transforms into
a glowing hub of Christmas cheer. Photo Getty

The city is adorned with thousand of colorful lights and designs that attract national
and international visitors. Photo Getty

The tradition is over 40 years old with the lights switching on amid a big party
on December 8. Photo Getty

Annual displays in city centers are adored by the public and have been erected for decades. It’s a popular pastime to drive or walk around neighborhoods in the evening to see the incredibly ornate lights displayed, which can take weeks to construct.

Some have made it to the Extreme Christmas TV specials shown on HGTV, even requiring a generator or separate electrical service to supply the amount of electrical power needed to juice the thousands of lights.

The house of Alex Goodwind in Melksham, England. Goodwind starts planning his lights
in July and this year has spent £3,000 on them. Photo Getty

Last Christmas his electricity bill was £700 and the house had to have an upgraded electricity supply installed to cope with the additional power needed. Donations from visitors to his home have in the past raised over £2,000 for a local hospice. Photo Getty

Home of John Scott in Northumberland. Rising energy costs and the credit crunch have contributed to cutbacks in seasonal Christmas light displays in homes. Photo North News

And this was how John’s home looks this Christmas. He admits it’s now too expensive
to continue his annual lights display. Photo North News

Barry “Mad Dog” Gottlieb organized the “Tacky Xmas Decoration Contest and Grand Highly Illuminated House Tour” with a tour of decorated homes in Richmond, Virginia in 1986. Since then, people either sign up for a tour or drive around to find houses that are the tackiest, and a growing number of cities have adopted this family Christmas tradition.

Public displays of Christmas lights play an ubiquitous role in the annual celebration of the season, utilizing lights on a broad array, including decking towering Christmas trees in public squares, street trees and park trees, adorning lampposts, decorating significant buildings such as town halls and department stores, and lighting up popular tourist attractions such as the Eiffel Tower and the Sydney Opera House.

House covered in Christmas lights in Mandaluyong City, eastern Manila. Photo EPA

The neighborhood decided to make their celebration more festive by decorating their houses
with lights. Photo EPA

It has now become a tourist attraction. Photo EPA

The Philippines has earned the distinction of celebrating the world’s longest Christmas season. Christmas carols are heard as early as September and the season lasts right up until Epiphany. Photo EPA

History of Christmas Lights
During the medieval period, special candles were often lit at Christmas, symbolic of Jesus’ role as the light of the world. The phenomena of the Christingle is also closely related.

The illuminated Christmas tree, which is considered by many to be the start of the development of modern Christmas lighting traditions, is commonly associated with Martin Luther, and became part of a European Christmas from his time.

A 3 meter Christmas tree forms the centerpiece of the Phillips family Christmas
decorations on Dalmeny Road, Carshalton, London. Photo PA

It’s adorned with over 170 Teletubby toys. Photo PA

Photo Mykl Roventine

The illuminated Christmas tree became established in the United Kingdom during Queen Victoria’s reign, and through emigration spread to North America and Australia. Until the development of inexpensive electrical power in the mid-19th century, miniature candles were commonly — and in some cultures still are — used.

The first known electrically illuminated Christmas tree was the creation of Edward H. Johnson — an associate of inventor Thomas Edison — who had Christmas tree light bulbs especially made for him while he was vice president of the Edison Electric Light Company, which were displayed on his Christmas tree on December 22, 1882. Johnson became widely regarded as the Father of Electric Christmas Tree Lights.

In 1895, U.S. President Grover Cleveland proudly sponsored a huge specimen of the first electrically lit Christmas tree in the White House.

Boston, MA. Photo B Rosen

Lausanne, Switzerland. Photo M Claire

Photo Goodnight Photography

Shiodome, Tokyo Japan. Photo OiMax

By 1900, businesses started stringing up Christmas lights behind their windows. Since the lights were too expensive for the average person, electric Christmas lights didn’t become the majority replacement for candles until 1930.

The first commercially produced Christmas tree lamps were manufactured in strings by the General Electric Co. of Harrison, New Jersey.

From that point forward, electrically illuminated indoor Christmas trees grew with mounting enthusiasm in the U.S. and elsewhere. San Diego in 1904 and New York City in 1912 were the first recorded instances of the use of Christmas lights outside.

Santa’s Merry-go-round at Gore Park. Photo Inuyasha Izayoi

Photo Inuyasha Izayoi

Photo Inuyasha Izayoi

McAdenville North Carolina claims to have been the first for inventing “the tradition of decorating evergreen trees with Christmas lights in 1956, when the McAdenville Men’s Club conceived of the idea of decorating a few trees around the McAdenville Community Center.

However, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree has had “lights” since 1931, when a tree was adorned with 700 lights and placed in front of the RCA building, but did not have real electric lights until 1956.

Philadelphia’s Christmas Light Show and Disney’s Christmas Tree also began in 1956. While General Electric sponsored community lighting competitions during the 1920’s, it wasn’t until the mid 1950’s that they began to be adopted by average households.

200,000 Christmas lights in Richmond, Virginia. Photo Terren in Virginia

New York nature. Photo 416style

Partecita park in Gothenburg with more than 4,000,000 lights. Photo Danuqui

Over time, strings of Christmas lights made their way into use in places other than Christmas trees, with strings of lights adorning mantles and other areas inside and outside of homes, businesses and even city skyscrapers, activated in Grand Illumination ceremonies.

The annual lighting ceremony of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree has become a TV special watched from coast to coast in North America. For more information on the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, visit NJ.com.

The Marshall, Texas courthouse outlined in Christmas lights. Photo Hephaestos

In the lake of Adventkranz, Velden, Worthersee. Photo Annia

Paulista, Brazil. Photo Pedro Angelini

Photo Sister72

Photo Sister72

Palácio Avenida. Christmas in the enchanted palace is a spectacular public concert in this beautifully lit HSBC historic bank building in downtown Curitba, Brazil, with children in costumes singing out of every window. Photo Kah Zanon

Berlin. Photo Jule Berlin

Kansas City, Missouri. Photo Brian Progressive Spin

Rio de Janeiro Brazil. Photo Rodrigo Soldon

Photo SqueakyMarmot

Dragon at the castle, River of Lights, Albuquerque, NM. Photo S Burke

Paulista Avenue, San Paulo.SP.Brazil. Photo Denise Mayumi

Pinocchio with star snow sculpture. Photo Clairity

Manchester’s Xmas decoration, likened to Zippy the puppet from Rainbow.
Photo WakaJawaka

Methuen Riverwalk. Photo J Godsey

Photo Krisdecurtis

Photo Krisdecurtis

Christmas elves. Photo Krisdecurtis

85°F Christmas at Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua. Photo Chadh

Colosseum of Rome. Photo MK Media Productions

Tree design was the one inspired by Japanese cut glass technique, Kiriko.
Photo Tanakawho

Tree made entirely of Swarovski. Photo Tanakawho

Shiodome, Tokyo Japan. Photo OiMax

Photo Joelf

Place Ville Marie. Photo Aschaf

Christmas tree with 55m and a hundred illuminated balls in Parque do Ibirapuera -
Sao Paulo.SP.Brazil . Photo Denise Mayumi

Photo Paul Davidson

Electric snowman. Photo Terren in Virginia

Storefront on Cookman Avenue in Asbury Park, NJ. Photo Sister72

Photo Sister72

Santa’s sleigh at Glasgow. Photo DeclanTM

Santa’s reindeer at Glasgow. Photo DeclanTM

Santa. Photo Krisdecurtis

Christmas Nativity scene at “Miller Place” – 32 Miller Farms Drive. Photo Joe Shlabotnik

This home has 60,000 blinking lights, glowing plastic figures, lilting carolers and a 6-foot-high robotic Nativity scene, a toyland of 50 soldiers, 24 large and 20 small choirboys, 3 trains, a castle, a gingerbread house, 2 fireplaces, a cement truck with a rotating drum, the Old Woman in the Show, more than 60 plastic Santas and snowmen. Collection by the homeowner benefits diabetes research.