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HOLIDAY LIGHTING GUIDE |
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1000bulbs.com is proud to present our holiday lighting guide. This guide has been prepared by our lighting professionals to help you get the most out of your decorating this holiday season. This guide is full of useful information related to choosing the best lighting for your project, basic lighting maintenance, and decorating options. |
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Getting Started |
Decorating |
Maintenance |
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Christmas Lights
Christmas lights have been one of the most popular Christmas decorations for the past century. In 1882, three years after Edison invented the first sensible light bulb, Edward Johnson created the first Christmas lights in his home in New York City. The tree was hand-wired and lit with 80 red, white, and blue globes. The lights blinked and twinkled while the tree slowly revolved.
Christmas lights were first made available for sale in 1890, but they were so expensive that most people could not afford them. They were a symbol of status among the wealthy and many of them rented the lights instead of buying them. In 1903, one set of 24 Christmas lights was sold for $12.00. Considering the average person made about $9 a week, this was far too extravagant for the normal family. In addition to the cost of the lights, the services of a wireman were required and, if the house was not electrically powered, they also needed a generator.
Christmas lights did not become practical for the average family until the 1930s. By this time, not only homes were decorated with electric lights. Stores, community Christmas trees, and government buildings were adorned with the twinkling lamps. General Electric began to sponsor community lighting competitions in the 1920s, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that it was common to see rows of houses lit on the outside. Now, the places you find the lights are as numerous as the types of lights available.
The most popular Christmas lights are mini-light stringers because of their versatility. Battery-powered mini-lights can be used in even more applications. Globes and Teardrop bulbs are a stylish alternative to indoor lighting. They are available in a large variety of sizes including globe lights G8, G23, G25, G28, and G40. Rice lights are the smallest Christmas lights and tiny points of light for smaller decorations. C7 & C9 bulbs are the most prominent outdoor lights because of their larger size and greater luminescence, along with net lights and trunk wraps as an easy way to decorate bushes and trees. Light curtains and icicle lights are mini-light strands that hang vertically from either a roof or doorway. Lighted Christmas Stars, lantern lights, and starlight spheres are holiday decorating favorites that always please both neighbors and passersby. LED Christmas lights are an energy-efficient alternative to incandescent lights. They can be found as LED C6, LED C7, LED C9, LED Wide Angle, and LED icicle stringers . Commercial decorations are perfect for stores, malls, and businesses and feature bows, wreaths, festoons, giant candy canes, Christmas topiary, and even life-size figures.
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