Holiday cheer, our colorfully lit gift to you

December 22, 2008

Little known fact. Holiday lights were first created in 1880 when Thomas Edison decided to string a strand of electric lights outside of his Menlo Park Laboratory for the nearby railroad passengers. In what was surely a holiday miracle, the laboratory never caught on fire from the crude technology, and ever since GE has helped spread cheer across the globe with its holiday lighting.
Little known fact. Holiday lights were first created in 1880 when Thomas Edison decided to string a strand of electric lights outside of his Menlo Park Laboratory for the nearby railroad passengers. In what was surely a holiday miracle, the laboratory never caught on fire from the crude technology and ever since GE holiday lighting has helped spread cheer across the globe.

Here’s a quick look at how we’re helping to make this holiday season a little brighter (and in some cases more energy efficient) than ever before.

The much-adored U.S. National Christmas Tree in Washington D.C., will be 50 percent more energy efficient than last year’s display thanks to ornaments and strands made with GE light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

Green Garland: This year, GE won’t just be trimming the U.S. National Christmas Tree, it will be trimming the nation’s energy bill, too, with the most energy-efficient holiday display in U.S. history. (Photo provided by: National Park Foundation)
Across the pond in France, the posh, world-renowned Champs Elysees is being illuminated by more than one million GE CMH Constant Color line bulbs.

In the Niskayuna, NY, GE technologists are tinkering with future lighting technologies to light up our global research labs. Using OLEDs — thin, organic materials sandwiched between two electrodes, which illuminate when an electrical charge is applied – the GE OLED team recently lit up the first-ever OLED Christmas tree in full yuletide grandeur. See a video of the festivities below.

* Trimming the Tree, Trimming the Costs (U.S. National Christmas Tree)

* GE Scientists Display First-Ever OLED Christmas Tree


This entry was posted in Ecomagination, Global, Global Research, Innovation, Lighting, Other and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.
  • Gheorghe Curelet-Balan

    For your convenience… read more about the fascinating OLEDs world (and their potential applications) in the OLEDs section of GE Global Research blog From Edison’s Desk.

  • shawn k

    hey… LEDs are great!. how come they dont have them for headlights in cars. and can u make C7 net lights for christmas lights?

  • Ralph And Carolyn

    Happy Holidays

  • SSubbio

    We are on our second GE Pre Lit Christmas Tree in three years and both trees have had lighting problems. in both trees sections of the tree would just not light and and having to search through every bulb to find which is defective is difficult and time consuming. I would hate to throw out another tree that was purchased this eason and $200+. Is anyone else having issues or an easier solution to fix the lights?

  • danderson

    This is only our second christmas with our tree and the part of the top of the tree went out. We tried bulbs, fuses and it still won’t work. paid over $200 too. Is there anything else we can do? It’s only 2 weeks until Christmas…

  • Jimmie Pendergraft

    I’m looking for someone to help me find a way to get another power pack for some Christmas light that quit working. Or maybe a web site.