Edison and Santa Claus.

Thomas Edison gets a lot of flak these days, mostly I think from people who identify with Nikola Tesla. It's true that Tesla got the high hat from Edison when he worked for the man, but most people did. Most people did from anyone they worked for back then. Edison was also mostly deaf (probably due to scarlet fever) and so would have been a lousy communicator anyway. Plus, Tesla was a very strange man, and put off a lot of people.

In a way, Tesla won, with the help of George Westinghouse. Both of them believed in the utility of alternating current over direct current -- Edison's direct current generators would have required far more and smaller generating stations than alternating current, which made A/C perfect for Westinghouse's Niagara generator and for electrifying the White City, the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, as well as for major metropolitan installations. 

Well, Edison just had to resign himself to his million other inventions -- and dollars. 

But I'm not looking to criticize Edison today. I want to give him the ho-ho-holiday thumb's-up for his work with that other bulky gray-haired legend, Santa Claus. 

First, Edison's workable lightbulb was a wonder, and with it and his partner and friend Edward H. Johnson he created the first string of electrical Christmas lights in 1880. At first these lights were not practical for home use, requiring professional installation, and the public was understandably nervous about electricity. But Edison's company General Electric was first out with a Christmas light set in 1903, and over time they became more popular. 

They certainly are pretty. I always am especially saddened, of course, when I hear about dangerous mishaps with these Christmas lights -- people lose homes and even lives when electric decorations are misused or faulty, but imagine what was happening when people put actual candles on their trees. (I always refer people to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's safety tips on how not to electrocute or burn anyone or anything with electrical decorations. I assume their advice for putting lit candles on trees is: Don't.) 

Edison also helped Jolly Old St. Nick more personally when his movie studio released a short film called "The Night Before Christmas" in 1905: 

It was the first film version of the famous poem "A Visit from Saint Nicholas," but not the first live-action film of Santa; that was done in Britain in 1898. (An interesting run-down of the first 10 Christmas films ever can be found at the Reel Rundown site here.)  

Of course sound film had not yet been invented, but Joseph Miller, who posted the Edison film on YouTube, says that the music heard on this reel was "added some time later which appears to be cylinder recordings from about the same time period, with the exception of 'It Came Upon A Midnight Clear.'" 

I like all the business about Santa getting the team ready to ride.

Edison himself may not have been very jolly, but he helped make the celebration of Christmas an expression of civic joy as we know it today. As we wait for the capital-L Light in the Darkness to shine, we can have some cheer from the small-l lights at Christmastime.