Chandeliers of Hope (#88)
Christmas lights, keep shining on. Plus, photos from a recent uptown walking tour.
Up above candles on air flicker
Oh, they flicker, and they flow
And I'm up here holding onto
All those chandeliers of hope
“Christmas Lights”, Coldplay
If I had to name a favourite dressing of Christmas tradition, it would hands-down be the lights.
I love the millions of tiny sparkles that line windows, doors, and trees. In the darkest days of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the glow warms all the frosty corners of our houses and hearts. (Maybe I’m predisposed to liking it, since the Solstice and its shortest day of the year usually lands on my birthday.)
It’s hard to imagine Christmas without the lights. Once they were invented in 1882 by a colleague of Edison’s (Edward Johnson)1, it still took a few more decades before they were more widely available and did not require a visit from the electrician to wire them up (and about $2,000 in today’s dollars).2 If you do more than lighting a tree, and venture into home decoration, it can still feel like you need the services of an electrician. (Despite being married to an electrical engineer, we usually stick to minimal outdoor decoration - which, on writing, now feels rather selfish, given how much joy I take from others’ handiwork.)
I miss the chunky glass bulbs and incandescent lights of my youth; their tack-sharp vibrancy and candy-coloured hues, produced by a filament inside the glass that was heated enough to glow.3 The light felt warmer as a result. Now, we’ve migrated many lights to energy-efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs), lit by principles of particle physics (two semiconductors that emit electrons and electron “holes” across a gap that smash into each other and release a photon of light that we then see and enjoy).4
I’m not a purist, though. I still delight in seeing their sparkle.
Is this annual joy nostalgia? Is it the colours and lights triggering dopamine release during minimal daylight hours?5
Probably both, but I also think the lights “hit different”6 with the especially dark past few years7; Christmas lights - whether they fall under electromagnetism or molecular physics - remind me that there’s a filament inside of me, and inside of us all, that can spark and glow, too. They give me warmth and remind me to think of ways to tend that little spark, so it can shine brighter for myself and others.
They remind me that we are truly made of star stuff and need to find ways to still shine all year round.
Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS). (22 Dec 2020). The Science of Why Holiday Lights Bring Us Joy.
Library of Congress. (n.d.) Who Invented Electric Christmas Lights?
US Department of Energy. (16 Dec 2015). How Do Holiday Lights Work?
Ibid.
CORDIS, 2020.
As the youths would say.
I could list all the shit things that we have all witnessed and experienced locally and globally in the political, environmental, social, and technological spheres, but 1) why steal thunder from the inevitable “Year in Review” news programs we’ll all soon see, and 2) it’s too early for an airing of grievances.
YES LIGHTS
Christmas lights are one of the things made better by my corneal disease- without correction, the lights are all smeared together in my vision like beautiful glowing rainbows. I love it. Thank you for these gorgeous examples of excellent lights!