The Bright, Twinkling Tunnels Of Christmas Cheer

 

One of the many tunnels of light at the Colorful Christmas event in the Water World parking lot

   The origins of these particular Christmas holiday decorations seem to be lost to the passage of time - or at least to the amount of time I'm willing to spend on the internet searching for their origins.

    Someone, somewhere, at some time in the fairly recent past got the idea that making a skeletal tunnel out of a long row of connected arches and then stringing strands of Christmas lights along the arches and the braces that provide structural integrity for the tunnel's length would be a great way to decorate for the Christmas holidays.

    By "fairly recent" I'm thinking sometime after National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was filmed, which was in 1989. If the Christmas holiday tunnel of lights had been around when that movie was filmed, I'm fairly certain the set designers would have included a Christmas holiday tunnel of lights in Clark Griswold's front yard or maybe his driveway.

    So, sometime in the past 34 years the idea of festooning a skeletal tunnel with Christmas lights as a holiday decoration came into being.

   And now they are everywhere, in holiday displays large and small.

   So here's to you, anonymous originator of the Christmas tunnel of lights display, you created what has become a world-wide phenomenon.

   Large municipal and commercial displays can now be seen just about everywhere Christmas is celebrated on the planet. From the Longwood Gardens Holiday Lights display in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania to the Winterfest in Costa Mesa, California (Southern California's largest winter carnival...in a land of no discernable winter), to the Norwich Christmas lights in Norwalk, England (the Tunnel of Light on Hay Hill) to Charleston's (in Cornwall, UK) claimed and famed longest indoor tunnel of lights (with approx. five miles of lights - that's a lot of lights).

   Christmas tunnels of light can be seen in London, Munich, Paris, Brazil...even in Red Square, Moscow. 

   Heck, there are at least 12 municipal or commercial tunnel of lights displays within twenty minutes of my house.

   There are also several smaller, front yard-sized tunnels of light in front of several homes in the neighborhood (most of these appear to be store bought - kits are now readily available at several stores and online retailers).

   If you want to build your own tunnel of lights (and who doesn't?), there are plenty of online resources for those who are so inclined, such as https://www.mymydiy.com/diy-christmas-light-tunnel-archway-plans/ or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEW106rkXXc.

   As for me, I'm going to just stick with the single strand of LED bulbs that grace the eaves of the roof in front of the house. Those and maybe the candy cane lights up the walkway.