That string of multi-colored Christmas lights wrapped around your tree (or your house) is far more influential to American history than you might think.
The first electric Christmas lights debuted in 1882, shortly after the invention of the incandescent light bulb itself, in the New York home of a Thomas Edison employee. They quickly became a vehicle for electric companies to tout the magic of electrical power.
In the process, they helped secularize very basic symbols of the Christmas season. In this episode, find out how the invention of whimsical colored lights helped redefine the holiday and create comfort and unity for millions of Americans.
PLUS: The origin story of those 'classy' lights you see wrapped around trees and lampposts on respectable urban avenues.
The First Apartment Building in America (A Stuyvesant Story)
The Lost Highway: America's First Cross Country Road
The Plant Doctor: The Extraordinary George Washington Carver
The Real Housewives of Early America: The Story of the First American Cookbook
The Rebel: America's Founding Inventor
Lightning Strikes: Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia Experiment
Franklin Gothic: The Invention of Benjamin Franklin
The Secret History of Soft Drinks: A Tale In Four Flavors
The Devil and The First Broadway Musical
The Bowery Wizards: A History of Early American Tattoos
The First Song Ever Recorded
Josephine and the Dish-Washing Machine
Nikola Tesla and the Wireless World
The Big Story of Old Bet: The First Circus Elephant
Unimate and the Rise of the Robots
The Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Revolution: The Story of the First Bikini
This Morbid Invention: The First Electric Chair
The Cow and The Country Boy (The First Vaccine)
Making the Pledge of Allegiance
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