BY MIKE PULFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[lights]](/editions/1998/12/15/icicles_200x133.jpg)
James and Dana Kelly put icicle lights on their Victorian home in Glendale.
(Jeff Swinger photo)
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Last year, “icicle lights” were one of the Christmas season's most intriguing decorating options; this year, they are a must-have.
Also called “curtain” or “wonder” lights, they hang vertically at random lengths from a main horizontal wire, usually along the house gutter or gable — creating an icicle effect.
Introduced four years ago, they're now everywhere. On the finest, most historic Victorian houses, the way they were illustrated in early marketing materials. On the sprawling ranch-style houses of the 1950s. On mobile homes. Even on Rosie O'Donnell's TV desk.
But if you haven't bought yours yet, finding them can be as difficult as finding a Furby.
James and Dana Kelly of Glendale bought icicle lights for their three-story, 113-year-old Victorian house from a catalog before they even moved in.
Now, celebrating their second Christmas on Willow Avenue, they have (in the words of one of their neighbors) “perfected” the look with more than 1,500 white lights.
“We had people — complete strangers — stopping and knocking at the door, asking where we got them,” Mrs. Kelly said. “There weren't so many of them (on other houses) last year. Now you're seeing them all around. This year, they're not so unique.”
An 8-foot section of icicle lights runs about $17. Shorter sections for windows cost about $6.
Before they thought about a tree or stockings, Jan and Chuck McHale were out buying a succession of more than 500 icicle lights to brighten the front of their two-story house in Fort Wright.
“Basically, we did it the same way we had decorated the house before,” said Mrs. McHale. But — instead of standard strings of large, multicolored lights — white icicle strands (with more lights per foot) now stretch horizontally across the lower and upper gutters of the house. “It's more outstanding,” Mrs. McHale said.
Standing out is what homeowners like.
“The idea is to change an ordinary space into a ritual space,” said Dr. Daniel Goldstein, a visiting assistant professor of anthropology at Miami University in Oxford, who asked students to study the phenomenon last month. “A special display is symbolic of the holiday season. It changes our houses, streets and neighborhoods.”
When it comes to icicle lights, “Everybody everywhere is falling in love with them,” said Donna Fallon, a cashier at Hader Hardware in West Chester. “We must be getting more than 20 calls a day.”
The callers hang up disappointed. All 15 Hader stores had depleted their supplies of icicle lights last week. “We've been calling every source we can find,” she said. “But we just can't keep them on hand.”
No more left
Diane Hodge, a bookkeeper at Walgreens in Hyde Park Plaza, Oakley, said employees were persuaded in certain cases to hold icicle lights for callers “who said, "I promise, promise I'll be right over.' ” The last box left the store early this month,
Maria DiPilla, assistant vice president of Christmas at Frank's Nursery and Crafts, expects the icicle-light trend to last a few more years.
Frank's, with stores in 13 states, marketed its own Valance line of icicle lights this year. “We sold out in two weeks,” Ms. DiPilla said.
Gary Fick, a buyer for Heckinger, parent firm of HQ, said the company ordered “in the neighborhood of 10 times as much” icicle lights as it did last year. For the most part, the supply is gone, he said. Sandy Kinderman, chief executive officer of Brite Star Manufacturing Co., Philadelphia, which first made icicle lights four years ago, said he thinks 15 million to 18 million sets (all brands) were sold this year. “That will double next year,” he predicted.
Other precedents
The last time the decorative-lighting industry saw a jump in sales was in the 1980s, with the introduction of lights that appear to chase each other, said Nori Juba, president of Minami International Corp., one of several companies that makes icicle lights. His Yonkers, N.Y.-based company is sold out of its 10 million supply of the lights, made in China.
Mr. Juba doesn't expect icicle-light sales to taper off for several years. Of the 67 million U.S. households that put up holiday lights, about 6 million have the icicle lights, he said. The icicle era of Christmas decorating is not precedent-
setting, in spite of its speedy acceptance. There have been other “hot” looks in the cold. Some survive; some don't.
•Lights. Stringed electric lights were introduced as Christmas tree decorations by Ralph E. Morris, an employee of New England Telephone Co., in 1895. He used telephone switchboard lights to replace burning candles, which had been setting way too many fires. The practice grew in popularity and colors, and spread quickly to the out-of-doors.
•Individual plastic electric candles, usually positioned in front windows. The theme works well with traditional houses, and it eliminates outdoor fumbling in freezing wind and precipitation. But flimsy candle bases and narrow window sills often force the use of tape or cords to hold candles in place.
•Real candles, otherwise known as luminaria. Mexican custom puts real candles with real flames in real paper bags. The bags, lined along sidewalks or driveways, frequently signal a holiday party and whole neighborhoods such as Mount Lookout, Fort Wright and Park Hills now light up with luminaria.
•Shadows. Aim a floodlight through a stencil Santa or reindeer or Virgin Mary, and, voila, there's a giant silhouette on the garage door or barn wall for everyone to admire.
•Wreaths. On doors. On windows. On chimneys. On car bumpers. Wherever there's room for a big circle, there's a big circle of evergreen waiting to fill the space. Wreaths, like trees, symbolize the strength of life overcoming the forces of winter. The wreath-on-the-door custom probably came from Rome, where it was used as a sign of victory and celebration.
Creativity and novelty usually are appreciated by neighbors and drive-by observers.
“Christmas is not a time for dignity; it is a time for top-heavy joy,” write Gerard and Patricia Del Re in the suggestions section of The Christmas Almanack (Doubleday; 1979). “There is no such thing as a quiet Christmas.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
![[lights]](/editions/1998/12/15/icicles_600x400.jpg)