# Whence Christmas Lights on the roof?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-christmas-lights-on-the-roof/381979>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 27, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-christmas-lights-on-the-roof/381979 "2006-11-27T20:26:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-christmas-lights-on-the-roof/381979/1 "2006-11-27T20:26:34Z")

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Ok, so I did my (admittely half-assed) search and got nothing. So What’s the deal with lighting up the outside of the house like that? If I remember right, the tree tradition comes from Germany and they like to tempt the fates by sticking candles among the inflammable branches of a murdered & drying evergreen, so let’s address that one too.

So, beides, “Because it looks way cool!”

1. Why’d folks start sticking candles in (Christmas) trees?
2. When & why did we start risking our lives by afixing lights to the eaves of our houses?

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-christmas-lights-on-the-roof/381979/2 "2006-11-27T22:50:46Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> So, beides, “Because it looks way cool!”

Why would you expect there to be any reason beyond that?

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**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-christmas-lights-on-the-roof/381979/3 "2006-11-28T06:35:16Z")

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Dammit, I’m not going to let Johnson beat me again this year! Last time, I got only Rudolph, while that SOB put the entire sleigh team on his roof!

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**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-christmas-lights-on-the-roof/381979/4 "2006-11-28T16:49:11Z")

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Some people just tend to go overboard:

[http://dorjan.fotopages.com/?entry=296056](http://dorjan.fotopages.com/?entry=296056)