Everyone likes Christmas lights, but have you ever wondered how they were invented? Well, someone at Gizmodo sure did. They have an extensive post detailing how the world went from the first electric light bulb to the first Christmas lights setup.

In the olden days, people used candles but that was before Thomas Edison came along. As one of the pioneers of electricity and light bulbs (plus a bit of talent for showmanship) he was the perfect guy to kickstart the whole Christmas light decoration thing.

Anyway, Gizmodo’s article traces the story of the little joy bringing lights from the dark ages, through the first ad for Christmas trees and finally arriving at the most popular types of lights available today.
And to finish things off, here’s a video that demonstrates what happens when you take a nice, simple concept and decide to turbo charge it.
Yep, it’s a giant house with eyes or maybe some guy really wanted to turn his house into a giant pinball machine.
Anyway, here’s the Gizmodo article. When you plug in the lights this Christmas, you’d be satisfied to know how they came about.