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The first electric Christmas lights
- Edward Hibberd Johnson hired Edison in 1871, and later invested in Edison's Lamp Company to sell bulbs, even though widespread electrification was still decades away.
- In 1882, in New York City, Edward Hibberd Johnson had an idea. While flickering flames were festive on a Christmas tree, they were also a fire hazard.
- He strung 80 red, white and blue light bulbs together around a tree that he set up by the street-side window of his parlour. He then placed the trunk on a revolving pedestal and powered it all with a generator.
- Then he called a reporter.
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Turning an idea into a tradition
- Reporters described the electric lights on Edward Hibberd Johnson's Christmas tree as "a most picturesque and uncanny aspect." "It was brilliantly lighted... One can hardly imagine anything prettier."
- Johnson turned his stunt into a tradition, doing more each year.
- By 1894, President Cleveland put electric lights on the White House tree, and by the 1930s, coloured bulbs and cones were everywhere.
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The Precursor To The Christmas Tree
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The Origins of Christmas Trees
In Germany, "Paradise Plays" were performed to celebrate the feast day of Adam and Eve, which was on Christmas Eve. A tree of knowledge was represented by an evergreen fir with apples tied to its branches.
In 1419, a guild in Freiburg put up a tree decorated with apples, wafers, tinsel and gingerbread.
The Oldest Christmas Tree Markets
- They were in present-day France and sold unadorned Christmas trees during the 17th century.
- The first decorated indoor tree was recorded in 1605, in Strasbourg, decorated with roses, apples, wafers and other sweets.
- Demand for Christmas trees grew so high in the 15th century that laws were passed in Strasbourg to prevent people from cutting pine branches.
- In the 1530s, the region of Alsace was limited to one tree per household.
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The Twelve Days of Christmas
The first verse of the Christmas carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas, evolved as a festive memory game. The list of objects or animals builds with each verse and forfeits are impos...
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
This carol reveals customs. Under the Tudor monarchs, wassailing and mumming were still practised, with carollers and players performing from door to door.
It was bad luck not to reward their efforts with food and drink, including the 'figgy pudding,' or Christmas pudding.
Deck the Halls
A favourite Welsh folk song during the 16th century we know today as Deck the Halls only acquired Christmassy words in the 19th century.
Deck the Halls had words that would not have suited the prim Victorians. In the 1860s, Thomas Oliphant changed the lines to suit the dancing melody and lively 'fa la la' chorus for the celebration of Christmas preparations.
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Hill was a charlatan
Napoleon Hill was said to be an advisor to two presidents: Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
In fact, there’s no evidence whatsoever outside of Hill’s own writings that Hill ...
Hill and Carnegie
Napoleon Hill’s most infamous claim was that he met and interviewed at length the industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1908.
Andrew Carnegie's biographer David Nasaw found no evidence of any sort that Carnegie and Hill ever met.
Serial swindler
Napoleon Hill tried his hand at a number of businesses. But at every turn, there was some kind of shady dealing that would cause his business ventures to crumble.
Promoters of Hill claim that it was all a matter of bad luck, and Hill's naivety. However, there are only so many times that a man can be arrested for the sale of unlicensed stock, altering checks, and outright theft, before you have to question the official history.