The ‘40s saw a craze of Bubble Lites, shaped like the candles families used to light their trees with. The heat from the bulb in each light would boil a liquid inside the candle-shaped plastic ...

Then, the metal ends of the lights are cut and shaped. Like the string ... they're finally ready to be hung up on a Christmas tree.

When Edison patented the light bulb in 1880 ... had introduced Britain to the Teutonic tannenbaum—the Christmas tree—and the idea spread. In the States, President Franklin Pierce put one ...