Eversole Law Firm - December 2019

Why Do We Hang Christmas Lights? Light Up the Night

Johnson continued this tradition, increasing the number of lights each year and eventually putting them up outside. But because electricity was still a new concept, many years passed before the fad took off for regular Americans. In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge began the tradition of lighting the National Christmas Tree, which spurred the idea of selling stringed lights commercially. By the 1930s, families everywhere were buying boxes of bulbs by the dozen. Today, an estimated 150 million Christmas lights are sold in America each year, decorating 80 million homes and consuming 6% of the nation’s electricity every December. Whether you’ll be putting up your own lights or appreciating the most impressive light displays in your neighborhood or town, let the glow fill you with joy this season. Just don’t leave them up until February!

The first string of twinkling lights illuminating your

neighbor’s house is always a telltale sign of the upcoming seasonal festivities. Christmas lights are a holiday staple, but have you ever wondered where this beloved tradition started?

The tradition of hanging lights on the tree originally started with candles. Because this posed an immense fire hazard, Edward Hibberd Johnson, a close friend of Thomas Edison and vice president of the Edison Electric Light Company, vowed to find a better way to decorate Christmas trees with light. In December 1882, three years after Edison’s invention of the lightbulb in November 1879, Johnson hand-wired 80 red, white, and blue lightbulbs together and wound them around a Christmas tree in his parlor window. A passing reporter saw the spectacle and declared in the Detroit Post and Tribune, “One can hardly imagine anything prettier.”

Meet Kirsten Campbell

Legal Assistant

Throughout her early schooling, she kept those words in mind, and when presented with the opportunity, she jumped at it. “When the office manager asked if I wanted to start here at Eversole Law, I knew it was a good road to go down,” she says. “The work here is encouraging and motivating; I love everything we do, and I’ve learned so much from everyone. Alysoun is an amazing attorney and has been a role model for me since I started here. The best part about what I do is that feeling of accomplishment at the end of a busy day.” When Kirsten isn’t busy in the office or building her business, she enjoys relaxing with her friends. “I really like getting outside and walking downtown or spending some time at the beach, at least when it’s warmer.”

Eversole Law Firm wants to highlight our hardworking legal assistant, Kirsten Campbell, in our newsletter this month! Kirsten has been working in our office building for the past two years and recently joined our firm as an employee. We’re all immensely proud of the care she shows for her work, for our clients, and for the team atmosphere. Before she joined our team, Kirsten often thought about becoming a lawyer, but she was never sure how to get started down that path. “Growing up, I always thought I’d become a lawyer later in life, but I never thought too hard about it. I didn’t have any lawyers in the family who I looked up to, but I always thought it was an interesting subject. I was also told I was good at making arguments and that I had a good poker face.”

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