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 in 1882.[1]
In 1881, the Savoy Theatre, London was the first building the world to be lit entirely by electricity.[2] Sir Joseph Swan, inventor of the incandescent light bulb, supplied about 1,200 of his lamps, and a year later, the Savoy owner Richard D'Oyly Carte equipped the principal fairies with miniature lighting supplied by the Swan Electric Lamp Company, for the opening night of Iolanthe on 25th November 1882.[1]
British physicist, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) had been 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 Swan's Company, were chosen because of the success Swan's lamps had been in illuminating the theatre. 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 D'Oyly Carte Opera Company states that the term 'fairy lights' subsequently came into common use after this stage production.[3]