Talk:Christmas lights

message: This article is full of things that are completely debatable, for instance the part about how many Christmas lights should be used per foot on a Christmas tree, or the part where we're told what the best part of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is. It needs more all-encompassing, global facts and less one-sided irrelevance.Tomsintown 11:52, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Facts? 

message: I do not doubt that they are called fairy lights, but I sure would like to know where they're called fairy lights.
Thanks!
That's certainly true where I grew up in the UK, I'm not sure about anywhere else.--Stronimo 20:06, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: They are normally called fairy lights here in Pennsylvania, USA, especially when they are used in the summer to illuminate patios, camping trailers, and cabins and what not, apart from Christmas decorations. I purpose to remove all indications in the article that "fairly lights" is peculiar to the UK. Rwflammang (talk) 00:47, 2 January 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Fairy Lights 

message: what's the current wattage of christmas lights?
Yes and also this page could use a critisism section... Lots of critique out there of our massive energy burning habit in December...
:Minilights usually run about 150ma. Strings of 50 (in 120VAC countries) use 2.5V lamps for 375mW each. Strings of 20 are about 1W each.  Larger lights of C7 and C9 shape were 7.5W and 9.25W originally, but I believe are a little less now.  I am not so sure what 220VAC countries do.  Some that I have from NZ run on lower voltages through a wall plug adapter. Gah4 (talk) 21:52, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  wattage 

message: Does everyone believe the following links are acceptable?  I find their inclusion questionable as Wikipedia is not a directory.
*Tacky Light Tour - The Best Blinkin Light Website
*100 Miles of Lights
The other links I think are a good fit, at least from the title.  I say that as they enhance the encyclopedia part of Wikipedia.
Will (Talk - contribs) 03:33, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Are these links acceptable? 

message: (Good article!)
For traditional and current common incandescent bulbs, what is the voltage, current, wattage, lumens, and lumens per watt?
For current common LED bulbs, what is the voltage, current, wattage, lumens, and lumens per watt?  How do they compare, exactly and technically, with the older incandescent, in energy efficiency?-69.87.203.131 12:15, 16 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: For 120VAC countries, the usual mini-light strings are 20, 35, and 50 lamps in series, so 6V, 3.5V and 2.5V.  (100 and 150 lamp strings have multiple 50 lamp series circuits).  Larger lamps, C7 about 7W and C9 about 9W, 120V each.  Lumens/watt depends a lot on the color.  Gah4 (talk) 21:55, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Efficiency 

message: The sentence on troubleshooting parallel strings of bulbs, though accurate, is misleading. The notable feature of parallel strings is that one dead bulb typically does NOT cause the whole string to fail. --Peter Pascal (talk) 09:13, 24 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Troubleshooting 

message: some of the points are not necessary; could be misleading to readers.
For example, lumens, and lumens-per-watt would be important factors for household or commercial lighting, they do not matter when it comes to decorative light strings for a couple reasons: 
1) the lights do not need to provide any more light than to be seen at night, whereas a 75 watt bulb or 40 watt fluorescent tube is commonly used both in daytime and night.
2) comparing incandescent to LED holiday light strings on these two factors would mislead the readers into thinking LEDs are not efficient--or sufficient. This is because both lumens and lumens-per-watt are much lower with LED lights. But when used in light strings, people commonly perceive LED lights to be brighter (when in fact they are not).
Regarding voltage and wattage, these can be fairly addressed, but would be a lengthy article since every style/size of bulb has its own specification, and different manufacturers will have different specs, too.
Then, one must account for "regular" and "super-bright" sets, the latter consuming more energy.
Regarding LEDs, some bulbs have just one small LED inside, while others may have up to five inside each bulb. To add to the confusion, LEDs come in differing power ratings, too.
Finally, each LED color has different power requirements. Generally speaking, red uses the least and cool white and warm white use the greatest.
Here is an example of why it’s hard to accurately compare holiday light strings and bulbs, based on my tests outlined below. I used a common Kill-A-Watt meter to attain the figures listed. All tests were done at approx. 121-124 volts ac. Our power here generally fluctuates within this range, while most people’s power in the USA is between 110-120 v. The following is from memory, but accurate enough to make my point:
Test 1: New, 2006 model store brand C7 Incandescent bulb, "cool burning" type. One bulb uses approx. 4 watts. 25 bulbs uses about 100 watts.
Test 2: New, 2006 model Forever Bright(tm) C7 LED light string, 25 bulbs. Entire string would not register a single watt. (the Kill-A-Watt device does not measure fractional watts)
Test 3: New, 2006 model ColorSwap(tm) C7 LED bulb. One bulb did not even register on the Kill-A-Watt meter. This bulb has three LEDs inside.
Test 4: New, 2006 model ColorSwap(tm) C7 LED string. I plugged in an empty string and kept screwing in bulbs, one at a time, until the Kill-A-Watt registered one watt. It took nine LED bulbs to get one watt. Each of these bulbs has three LEDs inside.
Test 5: New, 2006 model GKI ™ C7 LED string of 25. The entire string would not register a single watt.
GeneralTsao 01:00, 19 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Addressing the above questions,  

message: ...seems like a good idea to me. This page is pretty big. OhNoitsJamie Talk 23:30, 23 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I've also attempted to re-work some sections, to make this article focus on the traditons/history rather than the technology. For example there was, (until I added it) no mention of the use of Christmas Candales in the Medival period. It would be greatly appreciated if someone could do further research on this.. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 00:05, 24 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Moving light technology to sep. page

message: I was wondering if anyone knew if there was a connection with the early Christian practice of putting a candle in the window with the Jewish practice of putting Hanukkah candles in the window and then the later practice of Christmas lights. There was a lot of examples of borrowing traditions from each other and I am yet to find evidence that it is the case here but I wonder if anyone else has because it seems likely. Valley2city‽ 00:11, 25 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Connection with Hanukkah lights? 

message: How come there is no negative view on christmas lights in this article. AKA, That normal lights are intended to produce light to see, where as christmas lights produce lights for decorative reasons, and thus waste electricity and increase pollution. It is a non-essential use of electricity. Surely this needs to be added to the article. IAmTheCoinMan (talk) 14:46, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Bias?

message: I think there must be a discussion in the article about the legend of Martin Luther creating the custom of lightning the Tree with candles. --Nazroon (talk) 03:28, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Martin Luther and Tree candles 

message: Fire due to christmas lights is a major important area on this topic that should be discussed in the article.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.63.172.56 (talk) 15:46, 17 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Fire hazard, and historically significant fires caused by christmas lights 

message: We have already a picture of lights of  Champs Elysees. in the article. 
Hafspajen (talk) 15:09, 13 December 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Move [[Champs Elysees]] to Champs Elysees

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Christmas lights. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20061026010222/http://www.historymatters.appstate.edu:80/documents/christmaslights.pdf to http://www.historymatters.appstate.edu/documents/christmaslights.pdf
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 04:39, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified  on Christmas lights. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090116205252/http://www.christmastree.org/famous.cfm to http://www.christmastree.org/famous.cfm
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 02:18, 11 November 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: I deleted the story of the etymology of the term "fairy lights". The only sources I've seen are here and here. Neither cites any sources of it's own. Doing some research fails to turn up the usage of fairy lights in the modern sense until well into the 20th century (as opposed to the claimed late 19th century etymology). The true etymology almost certainly derives from the popular item in the late 19th century, Clarke's fairy lamp, which are candle-powered lights. Some quick research shows "fairy lights" being used in the 1930s to describe small electric bulbs, likely evolving to the modern usage. This is either in reference to the previous candle-powered lights (whose trademark I supposed no longer applied) or is just a reference to the size. Anyone with a reliable reference of the etymology is welcome to add it in.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.52.167.217 (talk) 04:44, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Fairy Lights Etymology