What would Christmas be without the twinkle of tiny bulbs adorning homes and Christmas trees and pretty much any other freestanding object? A little friendly competition between neighbors is marked by who gets their lights up first and has the best display. And, we can thank Thomas Edison for all the merriment. As the creator of the first successful practical light bulb, it makes sense that the wizard of Menlo Park also created the very first strand of electric lights. During the Christmas season of 1880, these strands were strung around the outside of his laboratory. However, it would take almost 40 years for electric Christmas lights to become the tradition that we all know and love. At the time, there was a great mistrust of electricity, and stringed lights were usually reserved for the wealth and electrically savvy.

Before electric Christmas lights, families would use candles to light up their Christmas trees – a dangerous practice that often led to home fires.

While Thomas Edison and Edward H. Johnson may have been the first to create electric strands of light in 1880/1882, it was Albert Sadacca who saw a future in selling electric Christmas lights. By the 1920s, Albert and his brothers organized the National Outfit Manufacturers Association (NOMA), later becoming NOMA Electric Co., which cornered the Christmas light market until the 1960s.

This mystery is just one of many explained as part of the Science, Technology and Business Division presentation of “Everyday Mysteries.” These mysteries deal with everyday phenomena that often are taken for granted but can be explained scientifically.