Christmas lights

Christmas lights are also known as fairy lights and holiday lights and are made up of tiny light bulbs that are strung together and used to decorate homes, trees and public places for the celebration of the festive season .These Christmas lights are often mounted on frames in various shapes and are used as a decorative element in the illuminated Christmas display. Christmas lights may be used for decorating a location for many other occasions as well and in countries like India they are also used to in elaborate displays made forwedding ceremonies etc.

The origin of decorating a tree with Christmas lights can be traced back to Edward H Johnson who was an associate of the renowned inventor Thomas Edison and the Vice President of the Edison Electric Light Company. He had Christmas lights specially made up for his Christmas tree which was then illuminated with red, blue and white incandescent light bulbs and proudly displayed at his home on located on tony Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Christmas lights can be of various different types and they often use different technologies to illuminate their bulbs. The most common types of Christmas lights which have been used over the years use incandescent light bulbs. These incandescent light bulbs emit a broad spectrum white light which is displayed as a colored light by coating the glass envelope that encloses the bulb with a transparent paint which acts like a color filter. The paint used to color the glass envelope is prone to flaking and fading and these lights when taken down have to be stored correctly. Christmas lights which are manufactured in this way are usually cheaper to produce as compared to those which use colored glass for the glass envelopes.

However in recent times incandescent bulbs have fallen out of favor because they consume a lot of power and they also generate a lot of heat due to the power they consume. Light Emitting Diodes are the newer kind of Christmas lights which are becoming more popular nowadays. Often called Green Christmas Lights, they use about one tenth of the energy that is used by incandescent bulbs. They are also more durable and require less maintenance than the incandescent varieties.

Annual displays of streets illuminated with various displays of Christmas lights are also a popular tourist attraction in places like London's Oxford Street and Singapore's Orchard Street. Both these streets are the main shopping destinations of these two cities and they are splendidly illuminated with Christmas lights every year. Often these displays are sponsored by companies like Nokia etc. Apart from these commercial displays several individuals also take great pains to create innovative Christmas displays with Christmas lights and these displays are often a popular neighborhood attraction during the Christmas season.