Talk:Christmas lights

Facts?

This article is full of things that are completely debatable, for instance the part about how many Christmas lights should be used per foot on a Christmas tree, or the part where we're told what the best part of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is. It needs more all-encompassing, global facts and less one-sided irrelevance.Tomsintown 11:52, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

The discussion of when there first were outdoor trees with electric lights is very strange. 1956? are you kidding? and some obscure town in NC? I don't think this makes much sense, especially since the sentences immediately preceding these establish that other cities had electrically lighted, outdoor Christmas trees in the early years of the 20th century. The article cited for the North Carolina town, if read carefully, really only states that the tradition of having outdoor lighted trees IN THAT SPECIFIC TOWN began in 1956, not that the town claims it was the first place to have such trees. I am old enough to have been around in 1956 (though I was a small boy) and I can tell you that we and our neighbors in Southern California had lighted, outdoor trees prior to 1956, and no one thought it remarkable or unusual. The history here is questionable, to say the least. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.119.68.249 (talk) 19:08, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

The movie, Its a Wonderful Life, 1946 or 1947, shows Christmas lights on the outside of a house-well before the 1960's. If they appear, seemingly incidentally, on the house of the owner of the tree that George Bailey crashed into, I assume the practice was common by then (?) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.211.73.127 (talk) 19:44, 22 December 2013 (UTC)

Fairy Lights

I do not doubt that they are called fairy lights, but I sure would like to know where they're called fairy lights. Thanks!

That's certainly true where I grew up in the UK, I'm not sure about anywhere else.--Stronimo 20:06, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

They certainly aren't normally called "Fairy Lights" in the US. I'm fine with a merge, but we need a more neutral name such as "Holiday Lights". The parallel for "fairy lights" in the US would be "mini-lights", but "Christmas Lights" encompasses many other styles (C7/C9, LED, bubble lights, etc.) --Rehcsif 05:19, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

They are normally called fairy lights here in Pennsylvania, USA, especially when they are used in the summer to illuminate patios, camping trailers, and cabins and what not, apart from Christmas decorations. I purpose to remove all indications in the article that "fairly lights" is peculiar to the UK. Rwflammang (talk) 00:47, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

wattage

what's the current wattage of christmas lights?

Yes and also this page could use a critisism section... Lots of critique out there of our massive energy burning habit in December...

Minilights usually run about 150ma. Strings of 50 (in 120VAC countries) use 2.5V lamps for 375mW each. Strings of 20 are about 1W each. Larger lights of C7 and C9 shape were 7.5W and 9.25W originally, but I believe are a little less now. I am not so sure what 220VAC countries do. Some that I have from NZ run on lower voltages through a wall plug adapter. Gah4 (talk) 21:52, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

Reply to wattage

it depends on the lights.

Are these links acceptable?

Does everyone believe the following links are acceptable? I find their inclusion questionable as Wikipedia is not a directory.

• Tacky Light Tour - The Best Blinkin Light Website
• 100 Miles of Lights

The other links I think are a good fit, at least from the title. I say that as they enhance the encyclopedia part of Wikipedia. Will (Talk - contribs) 03:33, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

The related links seemed Directory-like enough that I attempted to add inappropriate Directory -style links to the link (and was promptly corrected). Should the links be limited to events explicitly referenced in the article? (If the UK charity site is deemed appropriate, then it is as appropriate to list other charity holiday lights events?)--Cthulhia 05:53, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

Efficiency

(Good article!)

For traditional and current common incandescent bulbs, what is the voltage, current, wattage, lumens, and lumens per watt?

For current common LED bulbs, what is the voltage, current, wattage, lumens, and lumens per watt? How do they compare, exactly and technically, with the older incandescent, in energy efficiency?-69.87.203.131 12:15, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

For 120VAC countries, the usual mini-light strings are 20, 35, and 50 lamps in series, so 6V, 3.5V and 2.5V. (100 and 150 lamp strings have multiple 50 lamp series circuits). Larger lamps, C7 about 7W and C9 about 9W, 120V each. Lumens/watt depends a lot on the color. Gah4 (talk) 21:55, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

Troubleshooting

The sentence on troubleshooting parallel strings of bulbs, though accurate, is misleading. The notable feature of parallel strings is that one dead bulb typically does NOT cause the whole string to fail. --Peter Pascal (talk) 09:13, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Addressing the above questions,

some of the points are not necessary; could be misleading to readers.

For example, lumens, and lumens-per-watt would be important factors for household or commercial lighting, they do not matter when it comes to decorative light strings for a couple reasons:

1) the lights do not need to provide any more light than to be seen at night, whereas a 75 watt bulb or 40 watt fluorescent tube is commonly used both in daytime and night.

2) comparing incandescent to LED holiday light strings on these two factors would mislead the readers into thinking LEDs are not efficient--or sufficient. This is because both lumens and lumens-per-watt are much lower with LED lights. But when used in light strings, people commonly perceive LED lights to be brighter (when in fact they are not).

Regarding voltage and wattage, these can be fairly addressed, but would be a lengthy article since every style/size of bulb has its own specification, and different manufacturers will have different specs, too.

Then, one must account for "regular" and "super-bright" sets, the latter consuming more energy.

Regarding LEDs, some bulbs have just one small LED inside, while others may have up to five inside each bulb. To add to the confusion, LEDs come in differing power ratings, too.

Finally, each LED color has different power requirements. Generally speaking, red uses the least and cool white and warm white use the greatest.

Here is an example of why it’s hard to accurately compare holiday light strings and bulbs, based on my tests outlined below. I used a common Kill-A-Watt meter to attain the figures listed. All tests were done at approx. 121-124 volts ac. Our power here generally fluctuates within this range, while most people’s power in the USA is between 110-120 v. The following is from memory, but accurate enough to make my point:

Test 1: New, 2006 model store brand C7 Incandescent bulb, "cool burning" type. One bulb uses approx. 4 watts. 25 bulbs uses about 100 watts.

Test 2: New, 2006 model Forever Bright(tm) C7 LED light string, 25 bulbs. Entire string would not register a single watt. (the Kill-A-Watt device does not measure fractional watts)

Test 3: New, 2006 model ColorSwap(tm) C7 LED bulb. One bulb did not even register on the Kill-A-Watt meter. This bulb has three LEDs inside.

Test 4: New, 2006 model ColorSwap(tm) C7 LED string. I plugged in an empty string and kept screwing in bulbs, one at a time, until the Kill-A-Watt registered one watt. It took nine LED bulbs to get one watt. Each of these bulbs has three LEDs inside.

Test 5: New, 2006 model GKI ™ C7 LED string of 25. The entire string would not register a single watt.

GeneralTsao 01:00, 19 May 2007 (UTC)GeneralTsaoGeneralTsao 01:00, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Moving light technology to sep. page

...seems like a good idea to me. This page is pretty big. OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 23:30, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

I've also attempted to re-work some sections, to make this article focus on the traditons/history rather than the technology. For example there was, (until I added it) no mention of the use of Christmas Candales in the Medival period. It would be greatly appreciated if someone could do further research on this.. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 00:05, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Connection with Hanukkah lights?

I was wondering if anyone knew if there was a connection with the early Christian practice of putting a candle in the window with the Jewish practice of putting Hanukkah candles in the window and then the later practice of Christmas lights. There was a lot of examples of borrowing traditions from each other and I am yet to find evidence that it is the case here but I wonder if anyone else has because it seems likely. Valley2city^‽ 00:11, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Yeah at the very least here in the united states, some jewish families deck the house out in blue and white and stars of david.Especially in neighborhoods where everyone has christmas lights or the neighborhood is known for it. This is pretty common in neighborhoods here in texas, rather than abstaining and seeming like a scrooge, they decorate for hanukkah. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.11.37.254 (talk) 01:04, 20 October 2011 (UTC)

References

Bias?

How come there is no negative view on christmas lights in this article. AKA, That normal lights are intended to produce light to see, where as christmas lights produce lights for decorative reasons, and thus waste electricity and increase pollution. It is a non-essential use of electricity. Surely this needs to be added to the article. IAmTheCoinMan (talk) 14:46, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: page moved. Vegaswikian (talk) 23:29, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

---

Christmas lights (decoration) → Christmas lights — Move back to the original page. The decoration is by far the main topic, and the other topics at the disambiguation page (which I've already moved from Christmas lights to Christmas lights (disambiguation)) are themselves based on the decoration of Christmas lights. — CIS ^(talk | stalk) 22:35, 10 December 2010 (UTC)

• Support. Neither the show nor the song could come close to challenging the decoration to be the primary topic. I've not looked for evidence but is it really needed? Andrewa (talk) 04:53, 11 December 2010 (UTC)
• Support. Although the new song is getting many times the pageviews of the decorations, the song's title is a proper noun that should be at Christmas Lights, with this article at the lower-case Christmas lights, each with a hatnote to the other. There's no conflict between the two. Station1 (talk) 02:06, 12 December 2010 (UTC)
• Support with possibility of a hatnote that includes the Coldplay song Purplebackpack89 00:56, 13 December 2010 (UTC)
• Support. The decoration is the primary use of the term, and other uses are derivative of it.--Srleffler (talk) 01:16, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Martin Luther and Tree candles

I think there must be a discussion in the article about the legend of Martin Luther creating the custom of lightning the Tree with candles. --Nazroon (talk) 03:28, 17 November 2011 (UTC)

Fire hazard, and historically significant fires caused by christmas lights

Fire due to christmas lights is a major important area on this topic that should be discussed in the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.63.172.56 (talk) 15:46, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Move Champs Elysees to Champs Elysees

We have already a picture of lights of Champs Elysees. in the article. Hafspajen (talk) 15:09, 13 December 2014 (UTC) This image File:Champs Elysees Paris Wikimedia Commons.jpg is now used at Champs-Élysées, Landmarks in Paris and Timeline of Paris. Hafspajen (talk) 05:57, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

External links modified

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Fairy Lights Etymology

I deleted the story of the etymology of the term "fairy lights". The only sources I've seen are here and here. Neither cites any sources of it's own. Doing some research fails to turn up the usage of fairy lights in the modern sense until well into the 20th century (as opposed to the claimed late 19th century etymology). The true etymology almost certainly derives from the popular item in the late 19th century, Clarke's fairy lamp, which are candle-powered lights. Some quick research shows "fairy lights" being used in the 1930s to describe small electric bulbs, likely evolving to the modern usage. This is either in reference to the previous candle-powered lights (whose trademark I supposed no longer applied) or is just a reference to the size. Anyone with a reliable reference of the etymology is welcome to add it in. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.52.167.217 (talk) 04:44, 9 December 2020 (UTC)