Fairy lights

In the United Kingdom, a common name for Christmas lights . A string of electrically powered lamps usually used for decoration and for special effect are known as fairy lights. These miniature lamps featured in the stage production of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Iolanthe for the opening night on the 25th November, 1882. The famous British physicist, William Thomson,1st Baron Kelvin, was asked if it was possible to add miniature lighting to the costumes of some of the cast. The electric star lights which the principal fairies wore on top of their heads aroused much excitement. The incandescent star lights, made by the Swan United Electric Lamp Company, were chosen because Sir Joseph Swan's lamps had been recently fitted to illuminate the theater. These miniature carbon filament lamps were worked intermittently by a small battery carried on the shoulder and hidden by the fairies' long flowing hair. The archive of the Doyly Carte Opera Company states that the term 'fairy lights' subsequently came into common use after this stage production.