Holiday Decorations Around Town

By Shuangwen Yang, Design Education Fellow

7 Min Read Landscape Architect, Shuangwen Yang, shares the history of holiday decorations, why we do it, and what the impacts are. With Christmas around the corner, festive lights, and decorations are up in almost every city and every neighborhood across the US. While our cities are lit up every night to spread the holiday spirit, many people fail to realize the negative impact these decorations may bring. Read through to understand the implications of community holiday lights and how we may advocate for something more sustainable.

A BRIEF HISTORY ON HOLIDAY DECORATIONS 

The idea of hanging up decorations in the wintertime is older than Christmas itself. The oldest decorations were thought to have originated in the 5th century BC. Nature, of course, plays a big role in what materials are selected for the decorations. In cold regions where deciduous plants are limited in winter, the plants that are available – holly, mistletoe, spruce, fir, and many other evergreen species are common choices for decorations.

Centuries later, the German tradition of the decorated Christmas tree started to have rising popularity in England and throughout the US using mainly candles and homemade food and sweets.

After American entrepreneur F.W. Woolworth discovered German Christmas products during his visit to Germany in the 1880s, he decided to import large quantities of glass baubles and stars from Europe, which played a major role in creating and spreading affordable holiday decorations in the US. Later arrived in the country were paper garlands, decorative Christmas stockings, and painted tin toys.

Of course, with the arrival of electric lighting in the 1890s, the invention of fairy lights was widely adapted. Today, holiday lights are probably one of most common decorations- string lights, tree lights, icicle lights – you name it. 

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF HOLIDAY DECORATIONS?

Placemaking

Columns lit up like candy canes are used to create a playful atmosphere and guide paths for visitors

With the ongoing global pandemic, it made a lot of us realize how underused outdoor spaces may have been and how much more they can provide. Lighting is often an important component when it comes to activating outdoor spaces in the nighttime. Good lighting not only creates a sense of safety, but also helps define distinct boundaries and atmospheres with colors, gradients, and brightness. Light shows have always been a popular event that people of all ages enjoy during the holiday season.

Especially in places with cold winters, many botanical gardens and zoos take advantage of this seasonal event to keep their programs running all year long. Every year starting in late November, a self-guided light tour is offered by Cheekwood Botanical Garden in Nashville with more than a million lights showcased throughout their 55 acres of land. With just over a mile long walk in the garden trails, a lot of thoughts have been put in to create a memorable experience for visitors.  Playful lighting with flashing colors is often used in areas with more activities for children. Dim lighting can be found by the ponds to create reflections and a more calming atmosphere. At places where there are more gathering and crowds, lighting is usually bright and cheerful. Upright lighting tends to be used around main paths to not only give clear directions but create a stronger emphasis on the allée, which ultimately highlights and frames the destinations and the paths lead to on both ends. 

Christmas Tree as A Seasonal Landmark by Rockefeller Center in New York

Seasonal Tourism

Seasonal tourism is probably one of the greatest outcomes for creating the most festive holiday decorations for a city. If you do a quick google search with “best Christmas destinations”, usually the list goes on and on.

According to the New York Times, from Thanksgiving to New year’s, the city attracts about 5 million visitors. Every day, about 800,000 people pass the Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center. Macy’s Christmas windows attract on average 8,000 to 10,000 people an hour. For many people who grew up watching countless holiday movies that took place in the Big Apple, it is indeed hard not to put NYC on the winter destination bucket list and every single moment spent there for the holidays might just be magical! 

Welcome Sign in Santa Claus, Indiana

Nostalgia

The cities that go all out on Christmas decorations are not just metropolises. Small towns never fail to create the most festive atmosphere. From Illuminated parades to lit up town squares, community-based holiday celebrations not only create the perfect opportunity for small towns to showcase their identities, but simply make people feel good and nostalgic. What could be more festive than literally being in a town called Santa Claus?

This small town in southwestern Indiana with less than 3,000 residents prides itself as “America’s Christmas Hometown''. December 3rd marks the official beginning of the Christmas celebration in Santa Claus, spanning the first three weekends featuring plenty of light shows, parades, and even live reindeer exhibits. Live reindeer in the middle of nowhere in Indiana? That tells you how committed and serious these people are!

ARE FESTIVE DECORATIONS ALways GOOD?

Time and Labor

In a Christmas town like Natchitoches, Louisiana, the city runs a six-week-long Christmas celebration that dates back to 1927 when the superintendent of Utilities Burgdorf first displayed a lighting set piece on the riverbank expressing his appreciation to the city. According to the city’s Utility Department, Every year, over 300,000 lights and 100 plus set pieces are on display every night at dusk. It is truly a full-time job to maintain thousands of Christmas lights for the Utility department of Natchitoches.

Illuminated Bridge by Cane River Lake in Natchitoches, Louisiana

In preparation for the lightshow, work is done almost year-round. Installation begins in the city in early fall. Each of the set pieces out of the 100 lighting sets was designed and put together in house to be entirely exclusive and unique. To be more energy and cost efficient, the city switched to brighter LED bulbs from 10-watt bulbs. Although Natchitoches is doing its best to embrace its unique traditions and history and never fails to impress its tourists and residents, it still takes a tremendous amount of preparation work and maintenance to achieve all the festive effects.

On a different note, despite how much work is required to have a spectacular light show in the city, it does create a unique job market for many professionals such as lighting engineers, electricians, and data analysts. Whether it’s commercial or residential, service is often provided at all scales from design to takedown. For public lighting displays, design guidelines and standards may be followed to ensure a more consistent and high quality lighting displays in the city. 

Environmental Impact

While Christmas may be the most wonderful time of the year, it is also the most wasteful. Americans create 25% more waste during the festive period, which generates an extra 1 million tons of trash in the landfill or, even worse, in the ocean. A high volume of waste materials from Christmas decorations including plastic and glass baubles and tinsel end up in the landfill as they cannot be recycled. From homemade items with compostable materials such as rosemary and cranberries, to reusable ornaments made with yarn or felt, these are not only creative ways for more sustainable decorations, but also great opportunities for more fun family activities.  

The American Christmas Tree Association’s data has shown that nearly 94 million Christmas trees were displayed in US households in 2020, 14 million of them were real trees. Luckily, with artificial Christmas trees, people generally box them up and reuse them many times, which could be a sustainable solution overtime. For the ones using real trees, the responsibility is bigger than it seems. Even though real Christmas trees are recyclable and could be used for compost, tons of them still end up by the curb and in the landfill eventually. Ultimately, more methane and carbon dioxide get released into the air, raising the temperature of the Earth, which greatly increases the possibility of natural disasters such as wildfires and flooding. Study shows that the carbon footprint of a 6 feet tall real Christmas tree is 35 pounds of carbon dioxide if it ends up in the landfill. Turning real trees into wood chips for parks or backyards may be the easiest disposal method for real trees. If you don’t live in a rural environment or don’t have the access or tools to make it happen, contact your local Public Works Department for their recycling program.

Energy Waste

It’s no doubt that lighting achieves the most spectacular effects for the holidays in most cities. Although these lights often come at a cost to taxpayers, many can argue that the experience it brings is priceless as these lights create a fabulous image for their city as well as a cozier environment for entertainment and shopping. 

A Well-Lit Residence During the Holiday Season

What is more worth looking into is perhaps the electricity use that comes down to the individual level. An average strand with 100 mini lights used for Christmas trees consumes about 45 watts per strand. An average size Christmas tree needs about 10 strands of mini lights, which totals 450 watts to keep the tree lit. This may be the least expensive spending for Christmas lighting. One of the more expensive outdoor lights may be icicle lights. An average strand has 95 lights that use about 6000 watts of energy. To line the gutters with 3 strands of icicle lights, it costs around 18,000 watts of energy, which is the same amount of energy it costs to do 50 loads of laundry. If you go all out on Christmas lights inside out around your household between Thanksgiving and New Year’s even just for a few hours a day, extra lighting could easily cost hundreds of dollars. (The average electricity rate is 12.52 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh))

A few hundred dollars more may not be a big burden for many. However, if every household does the same, it could cost millions of dollars per day as a country. With a 45-day holiday season, over 30 million megawatts of electricity are spent on Christmas lights only. To put this in perspective, it is more than the electricity usage in Ecuador and Cuba combined in a year!

Some alternative ways for less electricity consumption are by using battery operated lights, solar power lights, pre-lit yard displays and outdoor projectors.

Creating a More Sustainable Holiday

How to create a more sustainable and environmentally friendly holiday while still honoring Christmas traditions and spreading the holiday cheers for sure is not an easy task. It is for sure not something that’s only worth rethinking for many cities. The crucial work ultimately comes down to every single household. This holiday season, I encourage you to be more mindful and more responsible on your Christmas decorations.