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