Lights, Christmas Style

The AZ Republic has an article touting some neighborhoods' light displays in Gilbert:

Santa will have no trouble spotting several Gilbert neighborhoods from his sleigh this year.

The Christmas light displays will guide his way.

Several neighborhoods in Gilbert are known for their spectacular lighted displays of holiday cheer.

Val Vista Lakes' clubhouse is a sparkling gem visible driving south on Val Vista Drive from Baseline Road. Residents go all out, too, decorating the front and lake-facing backs of homes.

The Islands' waterfront light displays near Warner and McQueen roads add holiday sparkle to the community.

But for sheer size, it's hard to top Gilbert's Circle G Ranches near Lindsay Road and Houston Avenue.

Most of the houses are 5,000 square feet or larger, leaving plenty of roof space and eaves to deck with lights.

They also give the link to a printable map of the valley's largest light displays: http://www.az central.com/families/holiday/lights/.

I have to say that the neighborhood I drive through daily, Higley Groves West, is quite pleasantly lighted for the season. As a matter of fact, I noticed that every house save one on my own street is lighted. I was wondering where the tradition of lighting up our houses came from, and I found one explanation here:

True outdoor Christmas lights were not introduced to the public until 1927-1928, almost 45 years after the first electric tree lights were demonstrated. There were sets offered for sale as safe to use outside before1927, but they were small, dangerous and extremely impractical for the average family.

In 1927, General Electric first used the large, intermediate size base for their new outdoor Christmas light bulbs. The outfits that were sold consisted of 7 lamps, and were wired in parallel so that the failure of a single lamp would not affect the rest. The earliest of these lights are round, but by1928 they were the familiar swirled or flame shape. Also, the early lamps were painted on the outside, but later issues feature a scratchproof inside color. These lamps are still made today, although they are once again smooth rather than textured, and the color is again on the outside. It is interesting to note that General Electric and the various Edison Electric distribution companies sponsored many neighborhood "decorating with color-light" contests in an effort to induce sales of the new outfits. Their strategy worked quite well, as within several years communities all over the United States held friendly decorating competitions at Christmastime.

So there you have it; good old-fashioned American capitalism and ingenuity! Whatever started it, I'm glad for it; I think it's very cheerful, and I like to see the different styles of decorating. Well done.