Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, there's
Speaker 1: Chuck Jerry's here too. We're feeling all jingly and belly
Speaker 1: because this is the pre Christmas short stuff, maybe the
Speaker 1: best short stuff of the year.
Speaker 2: That's right. And we want to thank Daniel Montgomery listener
Speaker 2: for sending this idea in indeed, as well as our
Speaker 2: various sources on this. And this could have been a
Speaker 2: thousand sources because this story is everywhere. Yeah, but Saturday
Speaker 2: evening posts, loc fizz Org, Smithsonian one thousand bulbs dot com.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that one.
Speaker 2: That's a good one.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And we're talking about the advent of Christmas lights,
Speaker 1: which are They came surprisingly quickly after the invention of
Speaker 1: the light bulb itself, after Edison invented the light bulb,
Speaker 1: and it was actually in edison a file a guy
Speaker 1: named Edward H. Johnson who was in Edison's circle, who
Speaker 1: came out with the idea of using these new electrical
Speaker 1: bulbs to decorate his Christmas tree.
Speaker 2: That's right. Edward Johnson was an inventor and a businessman
Speaker 2: and he actually hired Edison when Edison was but twenty
Speaker 2: four years old because he was like this kid is
Speaker 2: going places, and they ended up working together, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of for the rest of their lives in different ways.
Speaker 2: Johnson ended up as the VP of Edison Electric Light Company,
Speaker 2: which preceded con Ed and just three years after that
Speaker 2: light bulb came around, he said, you know what would
Speaker 2: look great on a Christmas tree and not burn it
Speaker 2: down like the live candles that they've been using in Germany.
Speaker 2: Is like an electric Christmas light.
Speaker 1: Yes, so let's touch on those live candles. We've mentioned
Speaker 1: it before in some past Christmas extravaganza. Oh yeah, but
Speaker 1: Martin Luther, the Protestant dude who is often given credit
Speaker 1: for coming up with the idea of putting candles on
Speaker 1: Christmas trees. Christmas trees are very very old in the
Speaker 1: Teutonic area, and they were introduced to the Victorians in
Speaker 1: England by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, who was from Germany.
Speaker 1: And so the Christmas tree itself wasn't all that old
Speaker 1: as a tradition by the time Edward Johnson put lights
Speaker 1: on the Christmas tree. But people had been putting open
Speaker 1: candles on their Christmas tree inside. Yes, the fire hazard
Speaker 1: is just through the roof, right, So his idea. As
Speaker 1: sketchy as electricity was back then, was an actual improvement
Speaker 1: as far as safety was concerned.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't. There aren't many things that are more
Speaker 2: flammable than a two week old Christmas tree.
Speaker 1: I know, it's I mean, you can just look at
Speaker 1: it and hear the sound, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah. We collect them, our friends all donate them to
Speaker 2: the camp and we throw those things on the fire
Speaker 2: the end of a big night. And it's scary and amazing,
Speaker 2: how you know, Like we're talking fifteen foot flames up
Speaker 2: in the air.
Speaker 1: I know, it's really thrilling. It's also scary.
Speaker 2: It is scary. In fact, we did that when Hodgman
Speaker 2: went camping with us at the camp on this last
Speaker 2: trip through Atlanta, when he did a show here, and
Speaker 2: when I brought that tree out at the end of
Speaker 2: the night and threw it on everyone else knows the deal.
Speaker 2: I think Hodgman was a little bit like, what's going
Speaker 2: on down here in Georgia?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Really, like, what are you people doing here? Me? Brady?
Speaker 1: Were you looking at him and pointing and saying you No?
Speaker 2: He loved it. Actually, so long story short. Edward Johnson
Speaker 2: lives at one thirty six East thirty sixth Street in
Speaker 2: New York, and he hand wires a Christmas tree with
Speaker 2: eighty red, white, and blue lights. Apparently they were like
Speaker 2: egg shaped, and the tree itself revolved, and as it
Speaker 2: revolved the colors all so they would light up red
Speaker 2: then light up white or not all of them, but
Speaker 2: you know that section would light up red then white
Speaker 2: than blue as it's spun.
Speaker 1: That's so cool. I mean, this guy like knocked it
Speaker 1: out of the park first try. Heck yeah, work got
Speaker 1: out pretty quickly, in part because he started calling reporters.
Speaker 1: But the Detroit Post Tribune sent a reporter, a veteran
Speaker 1: even not even a cub reporter, to go check this
Speaker 1: out because people were starting to like line up on
Speaker 1: the street to peek through the window to see this
Speaker 1: Christmas tree in Edward Johnson's parlor. And the veteran reporter W. A.
Speaker 1: Crowfoot wrote, this is great quote. I'm just gonna say
Speaker 1: the whole thing, Okay, Yeah, it was brilliantly lighted with
Speaker 1: eighty lights in all encase. Then these dainty glass eggs
Speaker 1: his his words, and about equally divided between white, red,
Speaker 1: and blue. One can hardly imagine anything prettier. I love that.
Speaker 2: I'm amazed that he was able to get these things
Speaker 2: to turn off and on as they rotated. That's I mean,
Speaker 2: in the early days of handwiring something like that, that's
Speaker 2: the most impressive thing to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not sure how to do that. It's hard
Speaker 1: enough as it is today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So should we take a break.
Speaker 1: I think we should take a break, Chuck, all.
Speaker 2: Right, we'll come right back and tell you where things
Speaker 2: went from there right after this. All right, So Johnson
Speaker 2: has lit up that first Christmas tree. Everyone is astounded.
Speaker 2: He immediately starts one up himself year by year, and
Speaker 2: I think in eighteen eighty four the New York Times
Speaker 2: says there are now one hundred and twenty bulbs. So
Speaker 2: the tradition of kind of you know, one upping yourself
Speaker 2: or even your neighbor, that started with the very first
Speaker 2: lit Christmas tree, and all of a sudden, in eighteen ninety,
Speaker 2: you can finally buy Christmas lights if you have a
Speaker 2: lot of money.
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of money. So a string of
Speaker 1: sixteen Christmas lights that were available for sale in eighteen
Speaker 1: ninety would have run you three hundred and seventy five
Speaker 1: dollars in today's money twelve dollars back then. The average
Speaker 1: person made about nine dollars a week back then, at
Speaker 1: least according to one thousand bulbs dot com. So it
Speaker 1: was cost prohibitive, like you had to be extraordinarily wealthy.
Speaker 1: Plus you had some other obstacles to overcome. Your house
Speaker 1: might not be wired for electricity, so you need a
Speaker 1: generator to run your Christmas lights. That cost again three
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five dollars for one sixteen buolb string.
Speaker 1: Did a professional wireman an electrician to come out and
Speaker 1: wire this stuff up for you because you should not
Speaker 1: be doing it yourself. And I think there is an
Speaker 1: estimate from the Library of Congress that said lighting your
Speaker 1: Christmas tree around this time would have cost you about
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was in nineteen oh three, and that's the
Speaker 2: year that ge started selling these pre assembled kits. But
Speaker 2: like you said, a full tree two grand. And also,
Speaker 2: you know, not only was expensive, but electricity was still
Speaker 2: new and people at the time, you know, early on
Speaker 2: in electricity were still a little freaked out by it
Speaker 2: and weren't sure it was super safe. So it's not
Speaker 2: like it spread like Gangbusters right away. I think it
Speaker 2: was nineteen fourteen is when the light price really came down.
Speaker 2: It was still like fifty bucks in today's dollars, which
Speaker 2: ain't cheap, but more affordable than three hundred and seventy five.
Speaker 2: So you know, more and more people started buying them,
Speaker 2: and by the nineteen thirties is when they became cheap
Speaker 2: enough to where they were kind of went really mainstream.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And by then, you know, city councils, local communities,
Speaker 1: government buildings, like they had enough money to adorn like
Speaker 1: the town square by then. Yeah, But it wasn't until
Speaker 1: the thirties that people started adding like they were affordable
Speaker 1: enough for the average home to deck out their own
Speaker 1: place or their own Christmas tree. But they caught on
Speaker 1: really quick, in part because in the twenties, I think
Speaker 1: General Electrics started sponsoring Christmas light competitions.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then between the thirties and the fifties, people
Speaker 1: started buying more and more and more. And by the
Speaker 1: fifties was when you started to like you could go
Speaker 1: down a street and like almost every house was lit
Speaker 1: with Christmas lights.
Speaker 2: Yeah. In the seventies is when the many white lights
Speaker 2: came out and a lot of people went to those.
Speaker 2: We still use the white lights on our tree. It's
Speaker 2: a do half twinkle half plane, so tasteful, and I
Speaker 2: like it. It's a nice looking tree. I do have
Speaker 2: a soft spot for colored light trees, especially the blues,
Speaker 2: but we don't use those ourselves, but I really like
Speaker 2: those as well, Chuck.
Speaker 1: We do our whole house in blue lights. The outside
Speaker 1: so pretty. I'm so so beloved of it.
Speaker 2: You know who else did that?
Speaker 1: Who?
Speaker 2: Elvis? Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, grace Land was blue for sure, I forgot. Yeah,
Speaker 2: blue light is nice at Christmas. I like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. My favorite though, and I've probably said this one
Speaker 1: hundred times by now, are the big bat colored bulbs.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Those are hands down the best. They can bring me
Speaker 1: to my knees and make me weep with nostalgia every
Speaker 1: time I see them.
Speaker 2: Is that what you use on your tree? Yes, the
Speaker 2: big daddies?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean what else are you use?
Speaker 2: What else are you gonna use?
Speaker 1: I know, I'll just I used the many white ones. No,
Speaker 1: those are good too. We did get a I can't
Speaker 1: remember where we got it from, but it's like an
Speaker 1: artificial tree that kind of like flocking that's pre lit,
Speaker 1: and that has the white lights in like installed, And
Speaker 1: I'm quite sure you would be perfectly happy if we
Speaker 1: just left it at that, but I'm like, no, I
Speaker 1: need some fat bolts, so I add those on.
Speaker 2: You were not alone, because apparently sixteen percent of Americans,
Speaker 2: according to a Today's Homeowner survey from twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: prefer the colored lights. Twenty two percent use the white,
Speaker 2: which I think is down. I think those were much
Speaker 2: more in fashion, probably, you know, fifteen ten, fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they seem like.
Speaker 2: I feel like the white lights used to be more popular.
Speaker 1: Think they were kind of a nineties thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah maybe, huh.
Speaker 1: I didn't know.
Speaker 2: I'm a nineties kind of guy, though, sure you are.
Speaker 2: And it's you know, Christmas tree lights don't use the
Speaker 2: most energy, but they definitely use extra energy, you know,
Speaker 2: there's no getting around it. I think seven point eight
Speaker 2: billion dollars per year is what people spend on them,
Speaker 2: and then they light them to the tune of six
Speaker 2: point six three billion kilowatt hours extra kilowatt hours.
Speaker 1: So granted that's a twenty eleven statistic, it's probably gone
Speaker 1: way down since the advent of led Christmas lights which
Speaker 1: used way less power.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I tried to find stats, and I did find
Speaker 2: some that were really low, but like the one I
Speaker 2: found that was low was not a trustworthy thing. And
Speaker 2: it was only for the month of December, and that
Speaker 2: discounts like you know, usually there's like a week on
Speaker 2: either side of December that people are lighting things up to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but suffice to say that back then, before the
Speaker 1: LED lights, we in the United States alone used more
Speaker 1: electricity than countries like Tanzania and El Salvador used the
Speaker 1: entire year just the later Christmas lights, and even that
Speaker 1: was just a small middling portion of the total electricity
Speaker 1: in the United States uses that same year. In twenty eleven,
Speaker 1: that six point sixty three billion kilowot hours to like
Speaker 1: Christmas lights represented zero point two percent of America's total
Speaker 1: electricity usage.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go, So light up your Christmas tree,
Speaker 2: have a little fun for a month.
Speaker 1: There you go, especially if they're led right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know what I want to shout out,
Speaker 2: friend of stuff you should know comedian and actor and
Speaker 2: author Casey Wilson. Because Casey Wilson has six Christmas trees
Speaker 2: in her house. She's Christmas nuts and they're beautiful and wonderful.
Speaker 2: She has one in her bedroom. She loves Christmas and
Speaker 2: Christmas trees and Casey's awesome. You should read her book,
Speaker 2: The Wreckage of My Presence Nice.
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot for that. That was a good, good
Speaker 1: way to point people. Yeah, and also thanks again to
Speaker 1: Daniel Montgomery for sending this in. And everybody Merry Christmas.
Speaker 1: Will see you at the Christmas Special Extravaganza coming up tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I think should be and short Stuff is out.
Speaker 2: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts, my heart Radio xit, the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.