These beautiful metal candle holders were once used to decorate a local Christmas Tree. Invented in 1879, the spring-clip design was a marked safety improvement from the earlier counterweighted candle holders, which were prone to slip off the branches. The flower-like metal disc on each holder was intended to catch any drips of wax. The spring-clip metal candle holder was popular until the 1920s, when electric lights became common. Until then, they were too expensive for the average consumer. The first electrically-lit Christmas Tree showed up in 1882 at the New York City home of a colleague of Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb.