The festive season is fast approaching and once again, buyers of novelty Christmas lights are flooding the shops to find unique decorative festive lights for the Christmas season.

Decorating our households with novelty Christmas lights has been a long standing tradition in many Christian homes and cultures. It has been known as a secular practice in a number non-Christian cultures as well.

Novelty Christmas lights display is highly diverse and it ranges from simple light strands called fairy lights, to full blown animated tableaux lights which have intricate and complex illuminated animatronics, figurines and ornamental statues.

Basically, all novelty Christmas lights come in a dazzling array of configurations and colours.

NOVELTY CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Novelty Christmas lights are also referred to as: 

• twinkle lights,
• holiday lights
• mini lights
• fairy lights

They usually come in form of strands of electric lights used to decorate homes, commercial and public buildings, offices and recreational areas.

Adorning Christmas trees with novelty Christmas lights during the festive season of Christmas, are amongst the most recognized form of Christmas lighting.

Usually, having the perfect Christmas light decorating can be a daunting task for any homeowner, because everyone wants to have a beautiful display, but no one wants to deal with the hassle involved.

Popular amongst many people are novelty Christmas lights that are stringers, because of their versatility. Mainly battery operated, they can be used in many applications.

There are various types available, but the most popular ones are:

• Globe bulbs
• Teardrop bulbs
• Rice lights ( the smallest kind of novelty Christmas lights with tiny points of light)
• Net lights (used for outdoors light decorations)
• Trunk wraps ( appropriate for decoration of shrubs and trees)
• Light curtains ( outdoor lights with bright luminance)
• Icicle lights (can hang vertically from roofs  edges and doorways)
• Lighted Christmas stars
• Lantern lights
• Starlight spheres
• Mini light strands
• Commercial Christmas lights ( great for malls and businesses).  They feature bows, wreaths, festoons, giant candy canes, Christmas topiary, and even life-size figures, to name a few.

These novelty Christmas lights are holiday decorating favourites that always enthral and amaze both neighbours and passers-by alike.

Novelty Christmas lights were first made available for sale in 1890. Before this time, households generally used candles to create the decorative ambience of Christmas light decoration.

Christmas lights were so expensive that most people could not afford them and they were a symbol of status among the wealthy and affluent, even though many of them rented the lights instead of buying them. 

However, by the 1930's, novelty Christmas lights become affordable for the average family.  And by this time, not only homes were decorated with electric lights, but it spread to stores, community Christmas trees, and government buildings where these decorative lights adorned the streets.

By the 1950's it was common to see rows of houses lit on the outside with these novelty lights. 

And today, you will find novelty Christmas lights in numerous places, almost in every nook and corner of the worlds great cities and even towns, and the variety of lights available are more numerous than can be imagined.

The people of the 21st century now use novelty Christmas lights in many ways and for many events, even apart from Christmas.

You will now find Christmas lights decking towering Christmas trees in public squares, street trees and park trees including lampposts and other similar elements and structures.

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