Super Historical Site Has Returned!

I couldn't get to The Antique Christmas Lights Site all during the Christmas season, which I found strange, as updates were published in November and December. However, creator and webmaster George Nelson says he did a major upgrade in November; perhaps that was the problem.

This is a fabulous site about the origins of Christmas tree lights and their history from 1900 through 1950. Mr. Nelson collects antique sets (not for sale!) and the site includes photos of the original wooden boxed sets with fabric cord and ceramic bases through the cardboard box era, from the original "light bulb" type lamps to the "big lights," the C-7 nightlight-sized bulbs of my childhood.

He even has photos of the C-6 "cone" bulbs which were also used in Christmas tree light strings (called "festoons" back then), but which I remember using for our window "candoliers." We had two eight-candle candoliers that took the ribbed bulbs shown. According to Nelson, there were also plain bulbs in this size, which I never saw; I remember instead versions which had a twisted ribbing on them, presumably to make the bulb look more like a flame.

Oh, those beautiful old candoliers! They were made of heavy plastic that you didn't worry about falling off the windowsill, and the "candles" themselves, complete with fake "drips" near the top, were slimmer, graceful versions of the modern chunky candoliers (when you can find them), looking more like the taper candles they were mimicking. The C-6 bulbs looked more like flames as well, and many of the older people kept the look by using only the yellow (they were sometimes closer to orange) bulbs in their windows. We used all four colors (yellow, red, blue and green) in pairs, but the yellows were the most popular back then. Red was also used a lot to imitate candles.

I think Mom still has them in her attic, although we had to stop using them long ago (the fat five-unit candoliers we bought as replacements were never the same). Probably they still work fine, but they quit selling the replacement bulbs long ago and we eventually didn't have 16 lamps that still worked.

Upcoming: www.oldchristmaslights.org, to debut sometime in 2005, about Christmas lights from 1950 onward, with sections about bubble lights and aluminum Christmas trees.