Christmas Lights

Christmas is a wonderful time of the year...a time of peace and joy and goodwill towards all. A festive time of gathering around the tree, family get-togethers, yule tide carolers and colorful decorations. It is really a beautiful season, when sights, sounds and feelings all merge together in perfect harmony.

One of the most beautiful parts of Christmas is the lights. Every year I love to drive through the neighborhoods and look at the lighting displays that people put up on their houses. The yards and trees, inside and out are covered with a dazzling array of red, green, yellow and blue twinkling little electric orbs. It is a tradition that goes back as far as the light bulb.

You might be surprised to learn that it was none other than Thomas Edison, the inventor of the incandescent bulb, who first strung a row of electric lights outside his house to celebrate the holiday season. A few years later, in 1882, Edison's good friend Edward Johnson, who was also the president of the Edison Company, used 120 colored bulbs to decorate the world's first electric lighted Christmas tree. It revolved on a rotating pedestal, and was considered a marvel of the time.

We have come a long way since then. Now there are drive-through Christmas theme parks with millions of tiny little multicolored lights creating dazzling pictorial displays like dancing Christmas trees, flying reindeer, hard working elves, and jolly old Saint Nick sliding down a chimney. One lighted theme park in Texas, called Santa Land, covers 24 acres and contains over two and a half million lights! The father of the light bulb would be proud.

There are other types of lights that sometimes appear around Christmas time, the kind that UFO enthusiasts take an interest in. These are the unidentified lights that mysteriously appear in the sky. While UFOs do not limit their appearances to only December 25, there have been some pretty interesting sightings that have occurred on that specific date.

The first would be the original Christmas UFO, or what is commonly known as the Christmas Star, or Star of Bethlehem. This is the heavenly light that supposedly guided the "three wise men" to the place where Jesus was born. While some scholars debate whether or not the incident actually even occurred, others try to find rational scientific theories to explain it. Comets, planetary conjunctions and supernovas have all been put forward as theories to explain what has so far remained an unexplainable event. There is just not a lot of evidence to go on, other than what is written about it in the Bible.

The Gospel of Mathew states that several magi, or wise men, saw the star in the east and traveled to Jerusalem to ask King Herod where the "King of the Jews" had been born. These learned men very likely were astronomers, or astrologers, who had read the ancient manuscripts which prophesied that the birth of a messiah would be heralded by an astronomical event. The prophesy also stated that the birth would take place in Bethlehem.

After they had met with the King they set out again, "and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy." Obviously, the reason they were rejoicing is because they knew they were witnessing an extraordinary ufological event. If the Star of Bethlehem could be considered the first Christmas UFO, then the three wise men were the first Christmas ufologists! They investigated, using the best scientific methods of their time, and proclaimed it to be a holy miracle.

In the many centuries since then many debunkers have tried hard to debunk the miraculous nature of the Star of Bethlehem. In the year 1614, a German astronomer named Johannes Kepler speculated that the Star of Bethlehem might actually have been a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. If these two planets were to line up the result would be an unusually bright star-like object, however, the closest year that such a conjuncture occurred was in 7 BC, and at that time there was a gap in between the two so the result would not really have been visually extraordinary.

Another possible explanation that the skeptics propose is a supernova. Chinese astronomers observed a very bright star-like object in the year 5 BC. It lasted for a duration of 70 days and could very easily have been what the "wise men" in the Bible were following. It is unknown what exactly the object really was, though, so it is still unidentified.

Of course, many skeptics claim that it is a waste of time even trying to determine which astronomical phenomenon was present at the time of the birth of Jesus, since nobody knows exactly when he was born. While it is true that both the day and year of his birth is unknown, that does not mean that the Christmas star had nothing to do with Christmas. Just because it is not known for certain that he was born on December 25, it also can not be proven that he was not. Therefor, the light and the birth very easily could have gone together. Since the 25th is the traditionally accepted date, that is the one I have chosen to use for this article.

In December of 1758 another light appeared in the sky on Christmas. It was first seen by a German astronomer named Johann Georg Palitzsch, and was later named for the English astronomer who predicted that it would appear...Edmund Halley. It eventually came to be known as Halley's comet.

Halley's is the most famous comet of them all. It is a short term comet that makes a complete orbit around the sun once every 75 years. Other comets may take over a thousand years to make a complete circuit. Since Halley's has such a short orbit it is the only comet that can appear twice in a person's lifetime. The fact that it was discovered on Christmas day only added to its reputation. Incidentally, it is also one of the potential possible explanations for the Star of Bethlehem, so its reappearance on Christmas day may have been more than just a nice little coincidence.

Religious visions and holy miracles seem to have a habit of making an appearance during the Christmas holidays. In fact, the word holiday is actually a derivative of the words Holy Day, so it is only natural that the number of miraculous visions would increase during one of the most important religious days of the year. Over the centuries people have claimed to have seen lighted crosses in the sky, visions of angels, and images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Skeptics naturally scoff at these claims, but the people who see these miracles are touched in ways that often have a profound impact on their lives.

The Roman emperor Constantine is one such example. In the year 312 just before he was to undertake a major battle, he supposedly saw a lighted cross imposed over the sun with words saying "In this sign be victorious." He was so inspired by this vision that not only did he win the battle, but he became a Christian, ended their persecution and converted much of the Roman empire to the new religion as well. It was also he who proclaimed December 25 to be a celebration of the birth of Christ...all because he had seen the light.

In 1914, another miraculous Christmas light occurred, but this time it was not up in the sky, it was in the muddy trenches of a European battlefield. World War 1 was in full bloom and German and British soldiers had been killing each other with a passion. Anger and hatred filled the air and the opposing armies wasted no opportunity to attack one another. The foes were both hunkered down for the night on the eve of the holiday when suddenly the darkness was pierced by a strange light...then another, and another. Not miraculous crosses, comets, or UFOs, but candles.

The German soldiers were lighting candles and singing hymns. The joyful sounds of Stille Nacht filled the air, and the guns indeed fell silent. Throughout the night, and the following day men who had been enemies exchanged gifts, shared food, and ventured into no-man's land to meet and greet their former foes. They met not in battle, but in friendship.

The men buried their fallen comrades, held short prayer vigils, and then engaged in lively games of soccer and baseball. The high commands of both armies were not pleased about the convivial goings on, and ordered the fighting to resume, but the spirit of Christmas prevailed and nobody dared violate the unofficial truce.

As December 25, came to an end the soldiers once again returned to their trenches and the battle was on again, but for one brief, shining moment the light of Christmas had shone through the darkness of war, and left a brief, shimmering glimpse of peace.

In 1947 the modern UFO era began...that is when a pilot by the name of Kenneth Arnold first spotted a group of unidentified objects zipping through the air. He reported his sighting to the news media and the flying saucer craze was born. In the decades after thousands of people reported seeing strange flying objects or lights in the sky. Among those reports were many very interesting sightings that took place on Christmas day.

In 1976, in Winslow, Maine, a young family looked out their living room window and saw two lighted saucer-shaped objects sailing through the sky towards them. The objects were described as being like two pie plates placed open side together, with a pale yellow light on the bottom. They appeared to be about 30 feet in diameter and made of a shiny, polished metal. They passed directly over the house and continued off into the distance...probably on their way to an intergalactic Christmas dinner.

In 1985, in Ridgefield, Connecticut, a teenage couple saw another saucer shaped object outside their window. It was a massive craft hovering about 200 feet above their front yard. They ran outside to examine it closer and noticed an eerie glow pulsating around the edge, and a humming noise that they could feel in their bodies. After yelling for their parents to come take a look the object produced a vaporous cloud and disappeared from view.

Late one Christmas night in 1978, a group of campers in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, watched a huge glowing object descend behind some mountains and into the sea. It was witnessed from a distance of about two miles away and was described as "large orange glow that must have been between 100-300 feet in length. Within the elliptical glow were two smaller ellipses, perhaps one third of the way in from each side, which were brighter glows within the large orange glow and close to the color of a white florescent light."  This incident was witnessed by a large group of people, including one lady who claims she saw a large flying saucer hovering over some brush close to the campground. Upon closer examination the next day, the bushes underneath where the object had been hovering were reportedly burned to a brown color. What would the three wise men have thought if they had witnessed that?

In 1982, in Kansas City, Missouri, a mother and son were driving home from midnight mass when they noticed a large amber moon-like object following their car. They quickly drove to the police station to report it and as they got out they saw a helicopter circling around the mysterious round object. After a few minutes the object quietly faded away and was gone.

Another close encounter involving people in an automobile happened right at midnight on Christmas eve of 1977 near Jackson, Mississippi. The car was stopped at a stop sign when suddenly an orange, glowing four foot wide saucer-shaped craft descended in front of them. The occupants of both vehicles observed each other for a few moments then the flying saucer flew straight up and out of sight, leaving several befuddled witnesses behind.

There was a very interesting event which took place in Bellmar, New Jersey in 1965. A family of four was driving home through a light snow after attending a family Christmas Eve get-together when they spotted a very, very large, dark triangular-shaped craft over the treetops. According to one eye-witness, "The delta shaped object was very low, perhaps just two hundred feet, and moving slowly enough that it was almost hovering – heading or facing northwest. It was large enough that it obscured most of the sky. It was silent. The leading edges of the delta shaped object were brightly lit in what at the time seemed the strangest possible way. A single light on each of the two leading edges ran the entire length of the leading edge. It emitted collimated ‘sheets’ of light, which slowly swept across the ground, homes, and trees from each leading edge."

What the witness remembered next was even more strange. "I became aware of four beings, three males and one female. The female was speaking, or more like singing to me. It seemed the three males were ‘singing’ to everyone else...I mean everyone else in the area around the ship and car. I became aware of the presence of our car from another perspective, perhaps looking down at it from some altitude, at the tops of the homes and trees. The female voice kept singing to me. It was the sound of a lullaby but had intense imagery and concepts attached to it. I understood that I was to take it all in."

Singing aliens? Or were they angels? Or was it just some more of that mysterious Christmas magic? Whatever it was, when the incident was over the family was left sitting in their car with a three inch blanket of snow covering it!

In 1990, two young boys from Gonzales, Louisiana, were lying in bed late at night anxiously waiting for Santa Claus to appear. Instead, they spotted a flying saucer outside of their window! It was surrounded by a cloud of some strange glittering substance that gently fell like snow to the ground. After hovering for a few minutes the craft suddenly levitated up and disappeared from sight.

In 1966, in Rockford, Illinois, a six year old boy was asleep in his bed when he was awakened by a strange whistling sound. Thinking that it might be Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, he opened his eyes to see thousands of deep red oval lights swirling around the room. They were moving rapidly in all directions, along the floor, the walls and the ceiling. He and his younger brother watched in shock and amazement before jumping out of bed and running for their parents. That was definitely a Christmas they will never forget.

The most unbelievable Christmas sighting of all may have been made by a young girl in Austin, Texas, who saw a bright red light zoom over the top of her house. She swears she heard the sound of sleigh-bells and a jolly old man saying "Ho-Ho-Ho! Merry Christmas!"

Who knows? It could have happened. Santa and his flying sleigh are no more unrealistic than some of the other weird encounters that have been described over the centuries. Mysterious stars, miracles and visions of Jesus have given way to flying triangles, saucers and reindeer. Heavenly angels have been replaced by otherworldly aliens. A handful of lighted candles has somehow evolved into millions of twinkling electric lights, blazing their colorful Christmas message for all of the world to see.

We have come a long way since the very first Christmas. Long ago when people saw strange lights in the sky they considered them holy miracles...now we think they are visitors from other planets or gift-giving elves. But are things really all that different?

Two thousand years ago the Christmas star heralded the birth of the messiah, the savior of the world, a man who would bring about joy, love and hope...hope for a better tomorrow, for a world filled with peace and goodwill towards all men.

In modern times people are also filled with hope. Children hope that Santa Claus will fill their stockings with goodies and toys, and leave lots of gifts under the Christmas tree. UFO enthusiasts hope that their long lost space brothers will reach across the galaxy to help man-kind cure our ills, save the planet, and end pollution and war and strife. We are all searching for a better tomorrow, one filled with peace and joy and love.

That is the true meaning of Christmas. It is what the three wise men sought as they trudged across the barren desert searching for a babe lying in a manger. It is what those muddy, war-torn soldiers were yearning for when they lighted those candles of peace. That is the light that has been burning brightly for more than two thousand years...and it just may be the most beautiful Christmas light of them all.