Christmas Lights
One of the great traditions around Christmas is putting up the Christmas lights. Depending on your tastes and family traditions you may put up so many lights you can see your home from space! Or maybe you're more reserved so there are just a few lights here and there. Either way, I've always thought it interesting that this is something that we do. The idea of putting light on Christmas trees started in the 18th century in Germany. The idea really took off though, with the discovery of electricity. Thomas Edison first used lights at Christmas as much for publicity and marketing as anything else, in 1880. Several years later, a colleague of Edison's, Edward Johnson, used the electric lights on his Christmas tree, ( more details here ). The rest, as they say, is history. Interesting history indeed, but I see something more symbolic going on. While I know that there are probably non-Christians who put up Christmas lights, one would suspect that when you drive by a ho...