Christmas Décor

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Frye and I'm Tracey V. Wilson. It's Christmas. U huh.
So Happy Christmas to all who celebrate. If you don't
happy winter or holiday, you do, enjoy. Honkah begins tonight

(00:24):
as we publish this, So if you're into that, you're
doing hanikh. I hope it's a great one. Yeah uh.
But today we're going to talk about Christmas decor specifically
through history, including trees, glass ornaments, and Christmas lights. And
that comes with just a little heads up because there's
some sad stuff in this one. So if that's something

(00:46):
you just don't want to hear at the holidays, I
get it. Just skip the last segment. That's where it
all is and you can come back to that later
if you want to hear it. We will also remind
you when we get to that segment, so if you
get caught up hearing about other things, you know when
to like peace out, sure and you can just have
the more fun parts. Yeah. So the Christmas song Oh Tannenbaum,

(01:07):
sung in the United States usually as old Christmas Tree
was written in Leipzig, Germany in eighteen twenty four by
Ernst On Shoots, but Christmas trees had already been around
for at least two hundred years at that point, and
they are believed to have originated in Germany. Trees were
used as part of various religious practices long before that point,

(01:30):
but in terms of a tree being specifically used as
part of Christmas decor and tradition, Germany probably gets the credit.
We say probably because in terms of documentation there's not
a lot, and there are plenty of myths and legends
about it. One is that in the eighth century, Saint

(01:51):
Boniface came upon some pagans using an oak tree as
part of a human sacrifice ritual, and Boniface cut down
the tree to stop the proceedings. There are some versions
of the story where he burned their tree, and then
a fir tree grew from the stump of the ashes
and was interpreted as a representation of Christ and his truth. Obviously,

(02:12):
this story is unsubstantiated, but in terms of evergreen specifically,
we do know that they popped up sometime in the
Middle Ages in Christian German households and they were meant
to represent the garden of Eden. These early trees were
decorated with apples and were part of the Catholic feast
day of Adam and Eve, which fell on December twenty fourth.

(02:35):
So if you've ever been like, why the tree, that's why.
In this context these trees were called paradise trees, and
that practice became so popular in the fourteen hundreds that
there was actually a pretty real danger of people overcutting.
Branches from pine trees were vanishing in degrees and amounts

(02:57):
that were damaging to the trees as people went out
to just their own. So in the Alsace region laws
were implemented to prevent that you were not allowed to
cut your own branch whenever you wanted to, and only
one tree was allowed per home. Martin Luther is sometimes
credited with the invention of Christmas trees in the sixteenth century,

(03:18):
in a story that's pretty poetic. It involves him looking
up at the trees while walking through a forest in
winter and marveling at the beauty of the moonlight reflecting
off of the icicles and frost on the branches of
the firs, and then wanting to replicate that effect at
home that does not really hold water. Though, because we

(03:39):
know about those earlier trees and their uses, he may
have initiated the practice of adding lights to the tree
by placing candles on the boughs. And we will be
coming back to those candles feelings about candles. In sixteen
oh five, so about fifty years after Martin Luther's death,
we have the first written record of Christmas trees in

(04:02):
use in the homes of Strasbourg, decorated with apples, paper roses,
gold foil candies and wafers. The earliest recorded sales of
cut trees intended specifically for Christmas tree use dates back
to the seventeenth century in Strasburg. By the end of
the eighteenth century, the practice of decorating a Christmas tree

(04:24):
was completely established in Germany, as was described by Samuel
Taylor Coleridge in a letter to his wife Sarah in
seventeen ninety nine while visiting the German Duchy of Mecklenburg Streuditz. Quote. Then,
on the evening before Christmas Day, one of the parlors
is lighted up by the children, into which the parents

(04:44):
must not go. A great u bow is fastened on
the table at a little distance from the wall. A
multitude of little tapers are fastened in the bow, but
not so as to burn it, till they are nearly
burnt out and colored. Et cetera. Hangs and flutters from
the twigs. Under this bow. The children lay out in

(05:06):
great neatness the presence they mean for their parents, still
concealing in their pockets what they intend for each other.
So as that mentions, and as we alluded to a
moment ago, in some cases people would not do a
whole tree, but they would just do like a single bow,
or a couple of bows, tied and hung or displayed
on a table. We know that Christmas trees were in

(05:29):
use in England in the seventeen nineties or early eighteen hundreds,
and possibly earlier, and that is because George the Third's wife, Charlotte,
who was born in Mecklenburg Streilitz, brought the tradition with
her to England when she became queen. She actually arrived
in England in seventeen sixty one, so it's very likely
there were Christmas trees in the royal residences before one

(05:50):
appears in written record. She incorporated the Christmas tree into
celebrations shared with the rest of the royal family and
its visitors, and this popularized the practice to a degree
with the aristocracy. Then at the end of the century,
it's written that she had a u tree put up
in the Queen's lodge at Windsor for the holidays, with
full decorations. This was intended to be a centerpiece for

(06:14):
a party she was planning for the children of the
royals and the nobility, and the kids got to pluck
sweets from the branches to eat and after this, which
was not a public event but still a very big spectacle.
Most nobles with children are said to have adopted the
Christmas tree as part of their home celebrations, and a
lot of municipalities started making a practice of putting up

(06:37):
large public trees for the children of the community to enjoy.
We've talked on the show before about how Christmas trees
became hugely popular during Queen Victoria's reign. As we noted earlier,
they did exist well before that, but an engraving of
her and the royal family with a Christmas tree was
published in the eighteen forties and that made the practice

(07:00):
of putting up the tree vogue. That exact engraving was
republished in the United States with tiny little alterations to
make it look less obviously like royals. That became a
standard for most households that celebrate Christmas because of that
huge surge in popularity. The use of Christmas trees by

(07:20):
Victoria's court certainly built upon the trend that Queen Charlotte
had started, but Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, also from Germany,
also contributed to the expansion of the Christmas trees use.
In eighteen forty he had Christmas trees imported from Cobourg
for the royal residences. Because Victoria and Albert were just

(07:42):
ceaselessly fascinating to the press, their Christmas trees were covered
extensively every year. One detailed example appeared in the Morning
Post of London on December twenty eighth, eighteen forty eight,
and it reads, in part quote, a Christmas tree is
annual prepared by Her Majesty's command for the Royal children.

(08:04):
The tree employed for this festive purpose is a young
fur about eight feet high, and has six tiers of branches.
On each tier or branch are arranged a dozen wax
tapers pendant from the branches are elegant trays, basket, bonbonnier,
and other receptacles for sweetmeats of the most varied kind

(08:25):
and of all forms, colors and degrees of beauty. Fancy cakes,
gilt gingerbread, and eggs filled with sweetmeats are also suspended
by variously colored ribands from the branches. The tree, which
stands upon a table covered with white damask, is supported
at the root by piles of sweets of a larger kind,

(08:45):
and by toys and dolls of all descriptions suited to
the youthful fancy, and to the several ages of the
scions of royalty, for whose gratification they are displayed. The
name of each recipient is affixed to the doll, bonbon
or other present intended for it, so that no differences
of opinion in the choice of dainties may arise to

(09:07):
disturb the equanimity of the illustrious juveniles. On the summit
of the tree stands the small figure of an angel
with outstretched wings, holding in each hand a wreath. That
article goes on to mention that there are similar trees
throughout the various living quarters of the castle. That write
up also denotes the timeline of the Christmas tree's use

(09:30):
and who is responsible for each quote. These trees are
objects of much interest to all visitors at the castle,
from Christmas Eve, when they are first set up, until
twelve night, when they are finally removed. They are not
accessible to the curiosity of the public, but Her Majesty's
visitors accompany the Queen from room to room to inspect
them when they are illuminated. Her Majesty's tree is furnished

(09:53):
by His Royal Highness, Prince Albert, whilst that of the
Prince is furnished according to the taste of her magic.
The other trees are jointly provided by Her Majesty and
the Prince, who plan and arrange the gifts of the table.
So there was a shorter window for the trees than
most homes might have today. There was a degree to

(10:14):
which the trees themselves were sort of presents, at least
within the royal family. Trees were also given by royals
to various charity causes. A rite up from early eighteen
forty eight described the Duke of Cambridge visiting the German
hospital of Dalston and giving gifts to the patients there,
and then completing the visit by lighting up a German

(10:35):
Christmas tree. Coming up, we will talk about the Christmas
tree tradition making its way to North America, but first
we will hear from our sponsors. Just as movement from
Germany to England and other European countries spread the Christmas

(10:59):
tree tradition, movement to North America by Germans and other
Europeans brought the practice of tree traditions with them. The
first mention of a Christmas tree in the US is
actually pretty early. It's in the late seventeen hundreds, and
their popularity quickly spread from there. The White House first
had a Christmas tree in eighteen fifty six, during the

(11:19):
administration of President Franklin Pierce. Jumping ahead a bit, in
nineteen twenty three, the first national Christmas tree was lit
on the White House lawn. The Christmas Eve event, which
was segregated and left the Black choir in attendance to
sing late at night after the White carollers were done,
was the idea of Herbert Hoover's assistant, Frederick Piker, and

(11:42):
there was a very specific goal for these festivities. At
the time, Hoover was the Secretary of Commerce and Fiker
was well connected to the world of electricity, having formally
worked for General Electric during World War One. The Society
for Electrical Development had formed and they were looking for
ways to promote the safety and capability of electricity. So

(12:05):
what better way than to show off an enormous Christmas
tree covered in electric lights. The White House had been
using electric lights on the indoor Christmas trees for several years,
but this was to be a large scale public tree
and ceremony. Fiker described his idea in a letter later quote,
the Society for Electrical Development was interested to have as

(12:28):
many people use electric lights at Christmas time as possible,
So I thought of this idea of having the national
Christmas Tree at Washington, which would stimulate other people to
have outdoor Christmas trees. In order to get this started,
we had to get the President of the United States
to light the tree. If you get the President of
the United States two years in succession to do a thing,

(12:49):
he will always do it. The effort paid off for
Fiker and cementing his reputation in Washington, and he was
eventually made Director of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce.
I love that whole If you get a president to
do something twice. It's a tradition. Tell that to FDR
and moving the date of Thanksgiving, which I I guess

(13:11):
he did try to keep doing forever until Congress was
like stop that. Right. One of the most famous public
tree traditions in the US, and that's the giant Tree
at Rockefeller Center, began in nineteen thirty one, and that was,
of course, right in the middle of the Great Depression.
Rockefeller Center was not finished yet, and the construction workers

(13:33):
who were employed to build it were also the ones
tasked with erecting the twenty foot tall tree. This is
actually a little detail that gets told slightly differently because
some accounts will say that they paid for the tree,
but I think it's a little more likely that they
had to put it up. The construction work at Rockefeller
was really important. It was keeping a lot of people

(13:54):
afloat during the recession, and that tree came to symbolize
that sustaining nature of this one big construction project. To
a degree, that symbolism was aided by the fact that
holiday Czechs were distributed at the base of the tree
in nineteen thirty one, and the whole thing brought a
lot of good publicity and resulting goodwill for the Rockefeller Project.

(14:17):
In nineteen sixty four, the fake tree made it splash
thanks to inventor Cy Spiegel. Size life story is fantastic
in its own right. He was born in New York
in nineteen twenty four, and during World War II he
served in the military. Initially, he was assigned to aircraft
mechanics school, which he was not really enthusiastic about, as

(14:38):
he told to New York Times journalist Lori Gwin Shapiro quote,
how would I fight Hitler with a wrench? He managed
to finagle his way into the army's pilot training and
participated in several bombing raids during the war. He was
flying on a bombing raid in Berlin that went awry
when his B seventeen got shot by German fire eagle,

(15:00):
who was Jewish, did not want to go down in
Germany and he was in rough shape, but he managed
to make an emergency landing and Allied territory. He had
instructed the men aboard to jettison any extra weight so
they could make it there. There's more to this story.
It's really just to set up what an eventful life
this man had and how unlikely it was that he

(15:21):
would even survive the war, let alone go on to
revolutionize Christmas. Yeah, he was in a lot of scrapes.
He has a great life story. There are several New
York Times articles about him because he's fascinating and survived
a long time and told a lot of great stories.
But after his military service, Spiegel started working as a

(15:44):
machinist for a company that manufactured machines that made brushes,
and at one point higher ups in the company thought
of the idea to use the brush making machines to
manufacture artificial Christmas trees, which the company did, but those
trees were not very appealing and sales were really slow

(16:04):
to non existent. When people got fake trees, they were
usually getting those foil ones that we think of as
being very like mid century modern. But Syot sent to
the facility where they were making these brush trees with
a mandate that he had to shut it down. But
when he got there, he realized there was actually still
a lot of potential in the idea of an artificial tree,

(16:25):
and he told his bosses that he really thought they
could make money if they created fake pines, and his
bosses trusted his instinct. So they formed a new division
called American Tree and Wreath and they put him in
charge of it. Spiegel tweaked the process they had been using,
and he used real trees as models for the designs
that the companies produced. Once his division was able to

(16:48):
produce fake trees that looked more or less like real ones,
business picked up, and it did so quickly. In the
nineteen seventies, sy realized just how big the market for
artificial trees could be, and he started his own company,
which eventually made him a very wealthy man. Spiegel died
recently in early twenty twenty four, at the age of

(17:09):
ninety nine, and he had lived long enough to see
his work completely change the holiday landscape. It's estimated that
ten million artificial trees are purchased in the US every year.
As Christmas trees were growing in popularity, so were their decorations.
Of course, while there were a variety of items that
were used to decorate them in their early days, it

(17:31):
wasn't until the sixteenth century that glass bobbles purpose made
to be Christmas tree decorations made their first appearance. Those
glass blown ornaments were the work of Hans Griner, who
lived in the town of Laosia in the sixteenth century.
Griner was born in fifteen fifty and his partner Christuph

(17:52):
Mueller opened to glass works in fifteen ninety seven. They
produced a variety of items like beads and drinking vessels.
Griner didn't only make glass ornaments, he also made ornaments
out of ten The Grinder glass Works also produced glass
beads on strings. Glass bead garlands continued to be popular

(18:12):
through the Victorian era, well after Grinder's death in sixteen
oh nine. One reason for the bead garlands to stay
popular was that, unlike tensil, which was originally made of silver,
the glass beads would not tarnish, and they could be
used for years while still looking very shiny. The explosion
of interest in Christmas trees that happened in the mid

(18:32):
nineteenth century meant that there was also a huge uptick
in the desire for Christmas ornaments. The Griner family had
stayed in the glass business and several generations after Hans.
In eighteen forty seven, another Hans Griner, one of his descendants,
started making glass ornaments in new shapes and designs. So

(18:55):
prior to the nineteenth century, most glass ornaments were orbs
or kind of elongated sept They might have a range
of sparkly finishes, but the shape stayed fairly consistent. But
over time there started to be more elaborate shapes, and
ornaments started to be designed to look like various objects,
like fruit or animals. If you've ever seen a bird

(19:16):
ornament that can be clipped onto a tree branch, that
harkens back to some of those early forays beyond round
shapes and into representative ornament designs. Unlike earlier glass ornaments,
which were handblown into spheres, the new designs required a
new approach. Hand blowing was still used, but it was

(19:37):
combined with molds, with the glass being carefully blown into
the molds to shape to them into the inside of
the mold. Once they were shaped and cooled, the inside
of the glass was coated with a silver finish. Several
different materials were used for the silver coating over the years,
from mercury to lead to a process developed by scientists

(20:00):
Baron Justus von Leibig that combined silver, nitrate, ammonia and sugars,
which was a lot safer than the other methods. These
new ornament styles had great timing. They came into being
just as Victoria and Albert were making Christmas trees ultra popular,
and that meant that the Grinder family just kept making
glass ornaments. Frank Winfield Woolworth founded his first two stores

(20:24):
in eighteen seventy nine in Utica, New York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
And when he visited Germany in the eighteen eighties, he
saw the Grinder ornaments and he loved them, and he
thought that his customers would love them too, and he
was correct. He started importing them for sale in his stores,
and he made a lot of money through ornament sales.

(20:46):
One figure I saw was more than twenty five million dollars,
which you know, we're talking about the eighteen eighties, so
a lot. His success got other merchants interested, and soon
ornament import deals were being cut with other store chains
to meet the demand. The number of glass works in
Laosha continued to grow. If you're wondering why that one

(21:07):
town became the center of glasswork ornaments, the Financial Times
noted in twenty fourteen that it had all the ingredients
to be the best place for that kind of work.
Its elevation is great. It has sand and limestone, and
because it's in a forest, there's wood around to fuel
the fires that would be needed for glass blowing. But

(21:27):
mass production also began in the United States, so there
were a lot of ornaments available at a wide variety
of price points. Yeah, Laosha continued to be the main
place they came from for a long time. Uh okay,
it is time to talk about candles and lights. But
before we do that, we're going to take a little
sponsor break. All right, heads up, we promised we would

(21:57):
let you know when the sad stuff is coming, and
it's now. This section has some depressing things. So if
you don't want that, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and we'll
see you when you're ready for it. So we're gonna
start by talking about tree candles. And this comes with
a slight confession. This is a thing that has always
fascinated and terrified me for a long time. Anytime I

(22:23):
saw an image of a Christmas tree with actual lit
candles on its branches, it seemed so dangerous to me
that I believe that that was the use of artistic
license and could not possibly have been an actual way
people decorated. Like when I read older children's books. As
a kid, I was like, I guess they didn't want
to draw light bulbs like I don't. I just could

(22:47):
not conceive that you would have so much open flame
around a tree that is presumably dead progressively becoming drier
and drier. Yes, but they won one hundred percent did
and some people still do put lit candles on trees.
So these little candles were normally held in place with

(23:08):
little clip on candle holders, and the candles themselves were
either made of beeswax, which smelled very lovely, or tallow.
Tallow candles were less expensive, and because they're made of
animal fat, they were also less pleasant smelling. Unless you
wanted a meaty smelling tree. These candles were incredibly dangerous.
There are so many newspaper mentions of fires caused by

(23:32):
Christmas tree candles. Some of them are relatively benign, like
this one from January ninth, eighteen ninety two in the
Jersey City News. Quote, A Christmas tree candle set fire
to some curtains in the house of William Hoffman Bergenline Avenue,
Union Hill yesterday. The flames spread and before they were extinguished,

(23:54):
the damage was five hundred dollars. That was a lot
in eighteen ninety two, but it does not sound like
anyone died. Another non tragic one. From the Courier Journal
of Louisville, Kentucky, on January fifth, nineteen oh nine, read quote,
candles on a Christmas tree at the home of T. H.
Furta at two eight one for Montgomery Street set it

(24:15):
a fire, causing an alarm to be turned on from
box one thirty six at six o'clock last night. Members
of the family threw the blazing tree into the yard
and when firemen arrived, they found that their services were
not needed. Quick thinking, I presume there was snow on
the ground and it just sputtered out. Uh. Not all incidents, though,

(24:38):
had such fortunate outcomes. In nineteen twenty four, which surprised
me with how late it was, a particularly tragic fire
in Hobart, Oklahoma, made national news on Christmas Eve. The
Baba Switch School, which was seven miles outside of any
major town, had a Christmas party that involved a program
of entertainment was to culminate in Santa Claus giving out

(25:02):
gifts to the kids. But as Santa was starting his
segment of the evening, one of the candles on the
tree high at the top burned down and it caught
the branch where it was clipped on fire. One of
the organizers tried to climb the tree to put out
the fire, but then the tree fell with from his
weight and the wrapped presence below it, and some of

(25:23):
the attendees close caught fire. A stampede started as people panicked.
More than twenty people were injured and several dozen dyed,
many of them children. These fires were not outliers at all.
Christmas tree candle fires were so common that on December
twenty eighth, nineteen twenty one, the Alton Evening Telegraph of Alton,

(25:47):
Illinois reported on a story about there not being any
fires caused by tree candles thus far that year. It
opens with quote, Alton is close to a record this time.
It is a record, which means something. Up to noon today,
no calls had been made to the fire department to
extinguish a blaze resulting from Christmas tree candles. The article

(26:11):
quotes the local fire chief, whose name was Feldwitch, is saying, quote,
it is true that the Christmas season is not over,
and that trees probably will be kept up and lighted
for a few days more, But In the past, most
fires have been on Christmas Day or the day following.
The chances for such fires are, of course, far less
now than at the opening of the Christmas season. The

(26:34):
article cites the adoption of electric lights over candles as
the likely reason for the lack of fires, But electric
lights also scared people. An item in the Daily Plainsman
of her On, South Dakota on December twelfth, nineteen twenty nine,
read quote A few years ago the caution was watch
the Christmas tree candles. Fires cost many thousands of dollars

(26:56):
at this time of the year, but now when a
few dollars will buy a set of electric candles that
is all off, it would be well to see that
great care is used in setting up the electric Christmas
tree strings. However, faulty connections might cause short circuits, and
what chance would a dry Christmas tree have. But electric

(27:17):
tree lights were invented long before that nineteen twenty nine
caution item was printed, and this one ties to Thomas
Edison and a man who started out as his boss
but then became his assistant. Bat man was Edward Hibbert Johnson,
who was working for Automatic Telegraph Company in eighteen seventy
one when he hired twenty four year old Thomas Edison

(27:38):
as a contract consultant for the company. Edison's drive impressed Johnson,
and when the inventor cut ties with automatic telegraph to
go his own way, Johnson went with him, working as
sort of a promoter and sometimes investing his own money
into Edison's business ventures. I feel like we should have
an aside to say, yes, we know Thomas Edison is

(28:00):
incredibly complicated and problematic, and that's outside the scope of
this particular episode. I just didn't want anybody to be like, wow,
they talked about Edison and didn't mention what a jerky
was at all. We know this isn't really germane to
Christmas lights, because we're going to give this to Johnson.
After Edison's invention of the light bulb and it's patent

(28:22):
in eighteen eighty, Johnson quickly started thinking about how that
technology could be used to put an end to the
all too familiar news stories about homes burning due to
Christmas tree candles. Working with Edison, Johnson had become really
adept at showing off ideas to get people interested in them,
and so in the winter of eighteen eighty two, he

(28:44):
invited a member of the press to his home to
see something he had been working on. When journalist William
Augustus Crawfitt arrived, he saw quite a spectacle, which was
the first electrically illuminated Christmas tree. Crowfett wrote to the scene, quote,
There at the rear of the beautiful parlors was a
large Christmas tree presenting a most picturesque and uncanny aspect

(29:06):
that was brilliantly lighted with many colored globes, about as
large as an English walnut, and was turning some six
times a minute on a little pine box. There were
eighty lights, all encased in these dainty glass eggs, and
about equally divided between white, red, and blue. As the
tree turned, the colors alternated, all the lamps going out

(29:29):
and being re lit at every revolution. The result was
a continuous twinkling of dancing colors, red, white, and blue
all evening. That was just the beginning, though. Johnson built
on that idea, and he continued to invite press to
his home at Christmas in subsequent years. Here's how the
New York Times described the Johnson Christmas Tree of eighteen

(29:51):
eighty four quote a pretty as well as novel Christmas
tree was shown to a few friends by mister E. H. Johnson,
president of the Edison Company for electric lighting, last evening
in his residence number one thirty nine East thirty sixth Street.
The tree was lighted by electricity, and children never beheld
a brighter tree or one more highly colored than the

(30:13):
children of mister Johnson when the current was turned on
and the tree began to revolve. Mister Johnson has been
experimenting with house lighting by electricity for some time past,
and he determined that his children should have a novel
Christmas tree. So that New York Times article goes on
to describe how the tree was six feet tall and
had one hundred and twenty lights, and how the tinsel

(30:36):
and other ornaments quote appeared to their best advantage thanks
to those new lights. It also described the Edison motor
that was enabling the tree to rotate, and this eighteen
eighty four version of the electrically lit tree also featured
lights that shifted color, and that was an invention that
Johnson had just patented. As much as people marveled at

(30:58):
Johnson's electric decoration, it wasn't as though those news ride
ups caused an instant run on electric Christmas lights. Even
if people wanted them, there were still some obstacles. For
one thing, they were expensive. Early strings, which only had
sixteen lights, cost the equivalent of several hundred dollars in
today's money, way out of the price range of most

(31:19):
people at the end of the nineteenth century. And for another,
most houses didn't have electricity at that point. If they
wanted lights like the ones Johnson had been showcasing, they'd
have to invest in running wiring. Of course, those problems
would eventually be overcome. By the nineteeneen string lights had
dropped significantly in price to less than one sixth of

(31:41):
what they had cost in the eighteen eighties. Despite the
concerns some had about the dangers of electric light strings,
once electric string lights became affordable, they also became very popular,
and they quickly replaced candles in most homes. That is
not to say there have not been fires caused by
electric lights. There absolutely have been, and there have been fatalities,

(32:04):
but the numbers of holiday decor fires have lowered considerably
thanks to electric lights, and as safety science and regulations
have been implemented, that danger has continued to shrink. According
to Smithsonian Online. In twenty sixteen, it was estimated that
one hundred and fifty million sets of lights were being
sold annually in the US, and holiday lights accounted for

(32:26):
six percent of the energy use in the United States
during the month of December. In the US, demand for
Christmas decorations has steadily risen since the end of World
War Two, going to a mid twentieth century boom and
home ownership and the ever growing mass production both in
North America and abroad. US residents spend six billion dollars

(32:48):
on Christmas decorations every year. Christmas dec I will tell
you my ridiculous thing that I recently did. Okay, we
talk on Friday. In the meantime, I have a story
from our listener, Susan that is two stories in one

(33:10):
great one. Hearkens back to our discussion of ghosts at Halloween.
I also like to think ghosts are very Christmas y
because we have a lot of Christmas ghost stories. Yeah,
so it seemed like a good one to use. Susan writes, Hi, Tracy,
and Holly. I have a story about a fake ghost
that I've been meaning to share with you. I attended
a Catholic school. From kindergarten through eighth grade. There was

(33:33):
a tradition of having a sleepover for all of the
girls in the summer before we entered sixth grade. The
sleepover was held at the school, parts of which date
back to eighteen thirty five. One of the big events
associated with the annual sleepover was the sighting of the
headless Nun. The story about the headless Nun was that
she was vain and wanted to wear makeup. As a

(33:53):
result of for vanity, she cut off her own head.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some details. This was thirty six
years ago. I'm not kidding when I tell you that
it was a dark and stormy night. I can remember
as we walked through the old, creaky hallway hand in hand.
This was a hallway that was normally off limits to us.
We could see a door up ahead with a strange

(34:13):
greenish light coming out of the room. As soon as
each girl passed the door, they screamed. When it was
my chance, I steeled myself to look in. There it
was a mannequin in nun's clothing, minus the head. I
believe the moral of the story was to convince us
not to want to wear makeup, lest we end up
like this poor soul and cut off our own head.

(34:34):
Even as an adult, I can still be gullible, but
at eleven I rolled my eyes. I don't know if
this tradition continues. I hope you find this story as
amusing as I do. I do. She's the Louise Belcher
of her of her group, where she's like, what it's mannequin?
I love it for pet tax. Here's the other great story. Uh,
I am attaching a picture of marshmallow. I teach at

(34:54):
a middle school sidebar. Thank you for being an educator.
Last week, our head secretary greeted me as as I
came into school with you have to go to Laura's room.
She has a dog she found on the side of
the road. No need to tell me more. I get
down there and see a great Pyrenees on the floor
in the lap of a sixth grade girl. He was
showing us all his belly. He was such a sweetheart.

(35:15):
He had a GPS tracker that kept going off. My
friend Laura was at her computer trying to figure out
how to track the owner through the tracker. She asked
me if she was crazy for rescuing the dog from
the side of the road. I said, absolutely not. The
road she takes to school is a country road with
a forty five mile per hour speed limit. Fast forward
an hour. The owner calls our school and says, I

(35:36):
own a nursery by the river. Do you happen to
have my dog? When he came up to school to
claim Marshmallow, he brought a lovely plant for the office.
I was told that Marshmellow kept looking over his shoulder
as if he didn't want to leave the kids. I
was thinking how Marshmallow's story would be a nice pet tax,
and then I remembered I wanted to also share my
fake ghost story with you. Thank you for your hard

(35:56):
work on the podcast. I enjoy learning about aspects of
history that I'm normally wouldn't come across. I appreciate you
broadening my horizon. Susan, I love this story so much. Marshmallows,
she sent a picture, is very cute. I love a
big fluffy pooch and he's great. And I love that
you found his owner and that you got some you know,
beautiful flora out of the deal. So thank you for

(36:19):
rescuing dogs. Everybody that picks up an animal on the
side of the road. You're a hero and thank you
for sharing this very funny story of a less than
scary non Manicut. If you would like to share a
story with us, or tell us about Christmas decor in
your household, or anything else, you can do that at

(36:40):
History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You can also subscribe
to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you
listen to your favorite shows. Stuff you Missed in History
Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from
heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

(37:03):
you listen to your favorite shows.

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Holly Frey

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