Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: Christmas Lights

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

Just three years after the lightbulb was invented a compadre of Thomas Edison thought to use them to decorate his Christmas tree. It set off a sensation that’s gotten more popular each year since.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Walter Isaacson set out to write about a world-changing genius in Elon Musk and found a man addicted to chaos and conspiracy. I'm thinking it's idiotic to buy Twitter because he doesn't have a fingertip feel for social, emotional, networks. The book launched a thousand hot takes, so I sat down with Isaacson to try to get past the noise. I like the fact that people who say I'm not as tough on Musk as I should be are always using anecdotes from my book to show why we should be tough on musk. Join me, Evan Ratliffe, for on musk with Walter Isaacson. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, and welcome to the short stuff.

I'm Josh, there's Chuck, Jerry's here too. We're feeling all jingly and belly, because this is the pre- to the short stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck, Jerry's here too. We're feeling all jingly and belly because this is the pre-Christmas short stuff. Maybe the best short stuff of the year. That's right, and we wanna thank Daniel Montgomery, listener, for sending this idea in. Indeed. As well as our various sources on this,

and this could have been a thousand sources because this story is everywhere. Yeah. But Saturday evening posts, LOC, Fizz, org, are various sources on this and this could have been a thousand sources because this story is everywhere. Yeah. But Saturday evening posts, L.O.C. Fizz, org, Smithsonian, 1000Bulbs.com. Yeah, I love that one. That's a good one.

Yeah, and we're talking about the advent of Christmas lights, which are, they came surprisingly quickly after the invention of the light bulb itself, after Edison invented the light bulb, and it was actually an Edison of Files, a guy named Edward H. Johnson, who was in Edison's circle, who came up with the idea of using these new electrical bulbs to decorate his Christmas tree. That's right. Edward Johnson was an inventor and a businessman and he actually hired Edison when Edison was But 24 years old because he was like this kid is going places and they ended up working together

You know kind of for the rest of their lives in different ways. He Johnson ended up as the VP of Edison Electric light company which proceeded con Ed and Just three years after that light bulb came around, he said, you know what, it would look great on a Christmas tree and not burn it down like the live candles that they've been using in Germany is like an electric Christmas light. Yes. So let's touch on those live candles. We've mentioned it before in some past Christmas extravaganza.

Oh, yeah. But Martin Luther, the Protestant dude, who is often given credit for coming up with the idea of putting candles on Christmas trees. Christmas trees are very, very old in the tutonic area. And they were introduced to the Victorians in England by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, who was from Germany. That's right. And so the Christmas tree itself wasn't all that old as a tradition by the time Edward Johnson put lights on the Christmas tree.

But people had been putting open candles on their Christmas tree. It's still just crazy to think about. The fire hazard is just through the root, right? So his idea, as sketchy as electricity was back then, was an actual improvement as far as safety was concerned. Yeah, I can't. There aren't many things that are more flammable than a two-week-old Christmas tree. I know. I mean, you can just look at it and hear the sound, you know? I can't, there aren't many things that are more flammable than a two week old Christmas tree.

I know. It's, I mean, you can just look at it and hear the sound, you know? Yeah. We collect them, our friends all donate them to the camp. And we throw those things on the fire at the end of a, a big night. And it's scary and amazing how, you know, like we're talking 15 foot flames up in the air. I know it's really thrilling. It's also scary. It is scary. In fact, we did that when Hodgman went camping with us at the camp on this last trip

through Atlanta when he did a show here. And when I brought that tree out at the end of the night and threw it on, everyone else knows the deal. I think Hodgman was a little bit like, what's going on down here in Georgia? Oh really? Like what do you people do here? Right. I mean, where are you looking at him and pointing and saying, you? No, he loved it actually. Excellent.

So long story short, Edward Johnson lives at 136 East, 36th Street in New York. And he handwires a Christmas tree with 80 red, white, and blue lights. Apparently they were like egg-shaped and the tree itself revolved and as it revolved the colors alternated. So they would light up red then light up white or not all of them, but you know that section would light up red then white then blue as it spun. That's so cool I mean this guy like knocked it out of the park first try Heck yeah, we're got out pretty quickly in part because he started calling reporters But the Detroit post-tribune sent a reporter a veteran even not even a cover reporter to go check this out

Because people were starting to like line up on the street to peek through the window to see this Christmas tree in Ever Johnson's parlor and the veteran reporter w a Crawford wrote this is great. I'm just going to say the whole thing. Yeah. It was brilliantly lighted with 80 lights and all in case then these dainty glass eggs his his words, and about equally divided between white, red, and blue. One can hardly imagine anything prettier. I love that book. I'm amazed that he was able to get these things

to turn off and on as they rotated. That's, I mean, in the early days of hand-wiring, something like that, that's the most impressive thing to me. Yeah, I'm not sure how to do that. It's hard enough as it is today. Yeah, so should we take a break? I think we should take a break, Chuck. All right, we'll come right back and tell you where things went from there, right after this. Tune in to the new podcast, Stories from the Village of Nothing Much, like Easy Listening, but Perfection.

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When Walter Isaacson set out to write his biography of Elon Musk, he believed he was taking on a world-changing figure. That night, he was deciding whether or not to allow Starlink to be enabled to allow a sneak attack on Crimea. What he got was a subject who also sowed chaos and conspiracy. I'm thinking it's idiotic to buy Twitter because he doesn't have a fingertip feel for

social emotional networks. And when I sat down with Isaacs in five weeks ago, he told me how he captured it all. They had Kansas spray paint and they're just putting big axes on machines and it's almost like kids playing on the playground, just choose them up left, right, and center. And then like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he doesn't even remember it, getting the bars, done, excuse being a total f***.

But I want the reader to see it in action. My name is Evan Ratliffe, and this is On Musk with Walter Isaacson. Join us in this four-part series as Isaacson breaks down how he captured a vivid portrait of a polarizing genius. Listen to On Musk on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, so Johnson has lit up that first Christmas tree.

Everyone is astounded. He immediately starts one-uping himself year by year. And I think in 1884, the New York Times says they're now 120 bulbs. So the tradition of kind of, you know, one-uping yourself or even your neighbor, that started with the very first lit Christmas tree. And all of a sudden in 1890, you can finally buy Christmas lights if you have a lot of money. I mean a lot of money. So a string of 16 Christmas lights that were available for sale in 1890 would have run you $375 in today's money, $12 back then. The average person made about $9 a week back then, at least according to 1000 bulbs.com.

So it was cost prohibitive. Like you had to be extraordinarily wealthy. plus you had some other obstacles to overcome Your house might not be wired for electricity So you need a generator to run your Christmas lights that cost again $375 for one sixteen bulb string You needed a professional wireman in electrician to come out and wire this stuff up for you because you should not be doing it yourself. And I think there is an estimate from the Library of Congress that said lighting your Christmas

tree around this time would have cost you about $2,000. Yeah, that was in 1903 and that's the year that GE started selling these pre-assembled kits, but like you said, a full tree, two grand. And also, you know, not only was expensive, but electricity was still new. And people at the time, you know, early on in electricity, were still a little freaked out by it. Right.

And weren't sure it was super safe. So it's not like it spread like gangbusters right away. I think it was 1914, is when the light price really came down. It was still like 50 bucks in today's dollars, which ain't cheap, but more affordable than 375. So, you know, more and more people started buying them. And by the 1930s is when they became cheap enough to where they were kind of went really mainstream. Yeah, and by then, you know, city councils, local communities, government buildings, like they had enough money to adorn like the town square by then. But it wasn't until the 30s that people started adding, like they were affordable enough for

the average home to deck out their own place or their own Christmas tree, but they caught on really quick. In part because in the 20s, I think general electric started sponsoring Christmas-like competitions. Yeah. Yeah. And then between the 30s and the 50s, people started buying more and more and more. And by the 50s was when you started to like, you could go down a street and like almost every house was lit with Christmas lights. Yeah, in the 70s, this one, the mini white lights came out and a lot of people went to those. We still use the white lights on our tree.

It's a do half twinkle, half plain. So tasteful. And I like it, it's a nice looking tree. I do have a soft spot for colored light trees, especially the blues. But we don't use those ourselves, but I really like those as well. Chuck, we do our whole house in blue lights, the outside.

Oh, no. It's amazing. So pretty. I'm so beloved of it. You know who else did that? Elvis. Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, Graceland was blue.

For sure. I forgot about that. Blue light is nice at Christmas, I like right. Yeah, Graceland was blue. For sure. I forgot. Yeah, blue light is nicer Christmas. I like it. Yeah, my favorite though, and I've probably said this 100 times by now, are the big, fat colored bulbs. Yeah, those are hands down the best. They can bring me to my knees and make me weep with nostalgia every time I see them. Is that what you use on your tree? Yes. The big daddies. Yeah, I mean, what else you can use? What else are you gonna use? I know, I'll just teach you.

I use the many white ones. No, those are good too. We did get a, I can't remember where we got it from, but it's like an artificial tree that kind of like flocking that's prelit and that has the white lights and like installed. And I'm quite sure you and me would be perfectly happy if we just left it with that, but I'm like, no And I'm quite sure Yumi would be perfectly happy if we just left it with that,

but I'm like, no, I need some fat bolts. So I add those on. You were not alone because apparently 16% of Americans according to a today's homeowner survey from 2023, prefer the colored lights, 22% use the white, which I think is down. I think those were much more in fashion, probably you know, 15, 10, 15 years ago. Oh, yeah. They seem like I feel like the white lights used to be more popular. I think they were kind of a 90s thing.

Yeah, maybe. I didn't know the 90s kind of guy though. Sure you are. And it's, you know, Christmas tree lights don't use the most energy, but they definitely use extra energy, you know, there's no getting around it. I think $7.8 billion per year is what people spend on them, and then they light them to the tune of 6.63 billion kilowatt hours, extra kilowatt hours. So granted that's a 2011 statistic, it's probably gone way down since the advent of LED Christmas lights, which use way less power.

Yeah, I tried to find stats and I did find some that were really low, but like, the one I found that was low was not a trustworthy thing, and it was only for the month of December, and that discounts like, you know, usually there's like a week on either side of December that people are lighting things up to. Yeah, but suffice to say that back then before the LED lights, in the United States alone, used more electricity than countries like Tanzania and El Salvador used the entire year, just to light our Christmas lights. And even that was just a small

middling portion of the total electricity in the United States uses that same year in 2011, that 6.63 billion kilowatt hours to light Christmas lights represented just 0.2% of America's total electricity usage. Yeah, there you go. So light up your Christmas tree. Have a little fun for a month. There you go, especially if they're LED, right? Yeah, and you know what, I want to shout out to a friend of stuff you should know. A comedian and actor and author, Casey Wilson, because Casey Wilson has six Christmas trees in her house. She's Christmas nuts and they're beautiful and wonderful. She has one in her bedroom. She loves Christmas and Christmas trees. In case he's awesome, you should read

her book The Reckage of My Presence. Nice. Thanks a lot for that. That was a good good way to point people. Yeah. And also thanks again to Daniel Mark Gummary for sending this in and everybody. Mary Christmas will see you at the Christmas special extravaganza coming up tomorrow I think. It should be. And short stuff is out. Stuff you should know is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts to my heart radio, visit the I Heart Radio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows. at Radio F. Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.