LIGHT UP THE NIGHT Why Do We Hang Christmas Lights? 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?
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.” 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 tradition of hanging lights on the tree originally started with candles. Because this posed an immense fire hazard, Edward Hibberd
Take a Break!
Cranberry Gingerbread
Inspired by TwoHealthyKitchens.com
Ingredients
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1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped 2 cups all-purpose flour
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1/2 cup canola oil, plus more for greasing 3/4 cup unsulphured molasses
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2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
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2 large eggs
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Directions 1. Heat oven to 350 F. 2. Grease a loaf pan with canola oil.
3. In a large mixing bowl, mix together 1/2 cup canola oil, molasses, brown sugar, eggs, ginger, and cranberries. In a separate bowl, sift and combine flour with baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients until blended.
4. Scrape batter into loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes. 5. Transfer to a rack, let cool for 20 minutes, slice, and serve.
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