Who doesn’t like twinkling lights on a tree?

Tinsel and lights are the norms for today. But getting a tree to sparkle and shine in the old days was dangerous and expensive.

The first tinsel was made of thin strips of silver hanging on tree limbs.

The invention of plastic made tinsel cheaper and much lighter.

We have the blessing of electric strings of lights to make our trees, but if all you have are candles, it’s a bit more complicated.

When a Chicago hospital burned down in 1885, the culprit was Christmas tree candles.

Insurance companies tried to get a law passed in 1908 to ban Christmas tree candles because of the multitude of house fires. Christmas sparkle was costing them too much money.

Edward Johnson, Edison’s colleague, supposedly helped create the idea of electric lights in 1882. He hung 80 red and blue bulbs on his tree with more hung from his ceiling.

Renting lights in 1900 cost $300 per tree - over $2,000 in today’s money. Consumers paid $12 for a string of 24 lights in 1903.

President Grover Cleveland had a lighted tree in the White House in 1895, and the National Christmas tree tradition started with President Calvin Coolidge in 1923.

From candles to lights, we now have the new LED lights to make our tree sparkle and shine and make the season more beautiful.

I just hope the lights in the attic still work from last year. If not, it will be a Walmart Christmas adventure to get more.