From twinkling lights and holiday meals to favorite movies and gifts that need charging, electricity makes many holiday traditions possible
November-December 2026
by Laura Emery, Staff Writer
Christmas morning often begins before the sun comes up. The coffee starts brewing, its familiar aroma wafting through the house. Lights on the Christmas tree cast a soft glow across the room, illuminating neatly wrapped gifts tucked beneath its branches. Someone turns up the thermostat, anticipating excited children clattering down the stairs to discover what Santa left behind. And before the first gift is even opened, electricity is already hard at work.
It is something most of us rarely stop to consider. We flip a switch, press a button or plug something in, and the power is simply there. But during the holidays, electricity becomes an almost invisible thread running through celebrations, traditions and everyday comforts that make the season feel special.
MERRY AND BRIGHT
Few things say Christmas quite like lights. They’re wrapped around trees, draped across mantels and strung along rooftops. They illuminate wreaths in windows and inflatable figures standing proudly on lawns, transforming ordinary homes and neighborhoods into something a little more magical for a few weeks each year.
Today’s LED holiday lights do more than decorate our homes. Across Virginia and Maryland, electric cooperatives decorate bucket trucks and other vehicles with thousands of lights for community Christmas parades, bringing a little extra sparkle to the streets of the communities they serve.
HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Inside, electricity helps create many of the sights, sounds and smells we associate with the holidays. Festive music fills the house while mixers turn flour, sugar and butter into Christmas cookies. Slow cookers keep favorite seasonal dishes warm, refrigerators hold the ingredients for Christmas dinner and kitchens hum with preparations for gatherings of family and friends.
Then there are the gifts. Phones, tablets, headphones, smartwatches, gaming systems and countless other electronics emerge from boxes on Christmas morning, many of them quickly plugged in, powered up and put to use. By afternoon, televisions may be playing classic Christmas movies while dishwashers tackle the aftermath of a holiday feast and chargers compete for outlets throughout the house. Electricity is so thoroughly woven into the rhythm of the day that, most of the time, we hardly notice it is there.
BEHIND THE HOLIDAY GLOW
While families gather around Christmas trees and dinner tables, electric cooperative employees are working behind the scenes to ensure the power remains as dependable as members expect. The electric system, after all, does not take the holidays off.
Cooperative employees monitor the system around the clock while lineworkers and other personnel remain ready to respond when winter weather, fallen trees or other unexpected problems threaten the reliable service members depend on. Much of that work happens quietly and out of sight — until, of course, the power goes out. Reliability matters every day, but there’s something particularly meaningful about it during a season centered on home, family and togetherness.
Electricity is not what makes the holidays special; that comes from the people gathered around the Christmas tree or the dining room table, the traditions passed from one generation to another and the memories created along the way. But electricity helps make many of those moments possible.
It illuminates the tree where presents wait underneath, keeps homes warm against the cold and helps prepare recipes preserved on well-worn cards. It powers the movie a family has watched together every December for years and the lights that welcome loved ones home.
When the Christmas lights begin to glow this season, take a moment to notice something that’s easy to overlook. Behind all the holiday sparkle is a dependable flow of electricity — and the electric cooperative employees working throughout the holidays to keep it that way.