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For many who grew up visiting older relatives during the holidays, memories of childhood Christmas are swathed in a warm glow that feels like the calling card of the season: a combination of colorful bulbs, lit candles, and soft lamplight. In recent years, though, it feels like the holiday season has traded its cozy tones for a much cooler, even sterile color palette. As it turns out, thats not just a quirk of our rosy collective memory. David Andora, a multidisciplinary creative whos worked in branding, production design, specialized lighting, and parade events, set out to understand why Christmas looks so different today. He discovered that, with the advent of LED technology, classic holiday lighting has become something of a lost art. When LED lights started becoming the norm for Christmas lights, which happened quite a while ago, one of the things that was completely missing was that warm, peachy glow that came off of those incandescent painted big bulbs, Andora says. Each year I would go to the big box resellers, look at the new Christmas lights, and wonder, Why is no one making these? [Photo: courtesy Tru-Tone] So, he decided to do it himself. Andoras company, Tru-Tone, caters to a growing audience of customers who want the look of retro Christmas without any of the accompanying fire hazards. The company declined to share exact sales numbers with Fast Company, but its seen major demand since its founding in 2020, experiencing growth of about 50% over the past several consecutive years. A 25-light set of Tru-Tone bulbs costs about $65, making them significantly pricier than similar options at big box stores (a 100-count strand at Home Depot that retails for about $50). Tru-Tones secret, Andora says, comes down to a fairly simple design trick that pairs modern LED technology with a vintage lighting technique. [Photo: Tru-Tone] Why are today’s Christmas lights so bad? During his research process, Andora found that the Christmas light manufacturing process has changed drastically since the mid-20th century. In that era, almost all holiday lights were incandescents, or bulbs that emit light via heat. The actual light source was all one colora warm white hueand, to make it colorful, American manufacturers like GE (one of the largest holiday light makers at the time) would add translucent bulbs with color washes on top. This combination created the peachy glow that defines Christmas nostalgia. There was just one major drawback to incandescent Christmas lights: they were hot. Like, really hot. Your parents were constantly warning you to never leave the tree lit unattended, Andora says. If you left the room, the tree had to be turned off because there were all these horror stories of trees burning people’s houses down with these blazingly hot light bulbs. LED lights began to replace incandescents in the late 90s, and manufacturing largely moved overseas to China. Unlike incandescents, almost all LED holiday lights on the market rely on colored LED diodes, rather than color-washed bulbs, to produce their final look. Colors from an LED diode are deeply saturated, “pure” colors emitted from a very narrow spectrum of colored light, whereas white incandescent light filtered through a colorful bulb produces a wider spectrum of light. This difference in the breadth of light spectrum is what makes many LED bulbs appear harsher and more electronic (even if they’re trying to recreate a “warmer” appearance), whereas vintage incandescents have a blurry, glowing look. [Photos: courtesy Tru-Tone] For Chinese manufacturers, this process makes sense, Andora says. Producing lights that draw their color from the LED itself is much simpler and more cost-effective than the incandescent technique, on top of LEDs being significantly more environmentally friendly. In addition, he says, Chinese manufacturers typically dont hae the same nostalgic associations with peachy tones that American consumers do, meaning that modern LED bulbs are also considered more aesthetically appealing. “The nostalgia for warm-colored Christmas lights is very Western, not part of the region where these lights come from. The factories view the colored-diode lights as easier, less costly, and more beautiful,” Andora says. “Very little development of these products is coming from the U.S. Most of this happens from the factories, and provides a catalog to resellers, also shaping what we see for sale here.” To recreate the vintage Christmas look, he would need to both rethink todays design process and convince manufacturers to adopt a new process. [Photo: courtesy Tru-Tone] How Tru-Tone recreated the vintage incandescent look Tru-Tone started as a passion project from a basement in Michigan. Andora spent a year experimenting with his prototype before landing on a final product that he felt looked almost identical to the real thing. To recreate vintage incandescents, Tru-Tones products use the same basic process as the original lights. Every light is a warm white LED that’s fitted with a tinted bulb on top to produce the actual color. Inside the bulb, the light itself is created by warm white LED “filaments”an array of very tiny LED’s used to mimic a tungsten wire filamentwhich create their warm white color with a color-tuned phosphor coating. Andora says this technique already exists in modern household lighting to produce a warmer effect, but Tru-Tone is the first to bring it to holiday lighting, likely because it adda an extra layer of inefficiency to the manufacturing process. To capture the nostalgic magic of vintage Christmas lights, Andora experimented with theater gels to perfect each bulb’s color wash. He used archival incandescent light samples from a range of periods, dating from the ’50s all the way to the ’90s. Once Andora had an actual product, the real challenge was convincing an overseas manufacturer to sign on. Hiring a manufacturer was made even more complicated by the fact that Andora hand-designs all of Tru-Tones packaging (and its delightfully retro website) to resemble vintage advertisements, which, he says, often included font alignment inaccuracies and printing errors that lend them a certain charm. Today, he provides manufactures with a full packet of informationtranslated to Chineseexplaining Tru-Tones premise and assuring bulb manufacturers and packaging printers that the brands quirks are intentional. You see a lot of vintage-style design these days that I joke is Old Navy-style retro, Andora says. It’s really just retro font, and that’s the end of itthe design isn’t as authentic. I think that what makes us special is that I try to really make things feel like you pulled it out of your grandmother’s attic. [Photo: courtesy Tru-Tone] The return of a nostalgic Christmas When Tru-Tone launched its first small batch of lights via social media in 2020, they sold out within two weeks. Since then, the brand has been steadily expanding and adding new product lines while navigating the typical growing pains of a new small business. One of the main problems its faced, Andora says, is not having enough stock to keep up with demand. While that struggle has diminished as he’s developed some “good relationships” with overseas manufacturing partners over the years, Tru-Tone is still actively sold out of several popular items. In the future, Andora says, he’d love to begin manufacturing in the U.S.though that’s currently more of a pipe dream than an actionable reality, given the lack of infrastructure for such an undertaking in the states. Andora believes that interest in vintage Christmas aesthetics is currently on the riseand big box retailers seem to agree. According to a Home Depot spokesperson, demand for nostalgic holiday aesthetics is one of the major trends theyre noticing this year. Thats evident on TikTok, where a search for vintage Christmas yields hundreds of aspirational videos, DIY concepts, and nostalgia-core clips. And Pinterest data shows that searches for “nostalgic christmas aesthetic” are up 1,130% this November compared to last November, while “colorful vintage Christmas” and “vintage retro Christmas” are up 1,500% and 100%, respectively. Customers are turning away from the bright white, blue, and millennial grey aesthetics in favor of a classic Christmas, and Tru-Tone is on the leading edge of that shift. I think that mid-century design, especially related to Christmas, is definitely reaching a peak, Andora says. After with the grey and beige interior trend, people are looking for more color in their lives, and the Christmas holiday is the perfect time for people to really want cozy, colorful, comfy vibes.
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E-Commerce
Chinas exports rebounded in November after an unexpected contraction the previous month, pushing its trade surplus past $1 trillion for the first time, according to data released Monday. Exports climbed 5.9% from a year earlier in November while imports rose just under 2%. The customs data released on Monday also showed that shipments to the U.S. dropped nearly 29% year-on-year. But as trade with the U.S. weakens, China is diversifying its export markets throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. China’s exports had contracted just over 1% in October. November’s worldwide exports of $330.3 billion exceeded economists estimates. Imports totaled $218.6 billion for the month. The nearly $1.08 trillion trade surplus for the first 11 months of this year is a record high, surpassing the $992 billion surplus for all of 2024, based on official data compiled by FactSet. A year-long trade truce between China and the U.S. was reached at a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in late October in South Korea. The U.S. has lowered its tariffs on China, and China has promised to halt its export controls related to rare earths. Its likely that November exports have yet to fully reflect the tariff cut, which should feed through in the coming months, ING Bank chief economist for Greater China Lynn Song wrote in a report. Chinas factory activity contracted for an eighth straight month in November, according to an official survey, and economists said it was still early to determine whether there was a real rebound in external demand following the U.S.-China trade truce. With exports still going strong, economists generally expect China to meet its target of around 5% annual growth for this year. Chinese leaders outlined a focus on advanced manufacturing for the next five years following a high-level meeting in October. It also highlighted the need to boost domestic consumption, which could help address trade imbalances. A meeting of the ruling Chinese Communist Partys decision-making Politburo was held on Monday, led by Xi, to discuss economic plans for 2026, according to the Xinhua state news agency. It said Chinese leaders reiterated a focus on pursuing progress while ensuring stability.” A readout from Xinhua said China needs to better coordinate its domestic economic work in the face of global trade struggles. Businesses and investors are paying close attention to China’s annual Central Economic Work Conference, which is expected to take place later this month and could map out economic priorities for the next year in more detail. Trade diversification will remain a long-term strategy for China to fight the trade war and manage external exigencies, said Chi Lo, Global Market Strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management. A stable global trade environment is unlikely to last long, as China-U.S. relations remain in a stalemate despite their temporary trade truce, he said. Still, some economists believe that China will continue to gain export market share in the coming years. Morgan Stanley predicts by 2030, Chinas market share in global exports will reach 16.5%, up from about 15% currently, fueled by its edge in advanced manufacturing and high-growth sectors such as electric vehicles, robotics and batteries. Despite persistent trade tensions, continued protectionism, and G20 economies taking up active industrial policies, we believe China will gain more share in the global goods export market, Morgan Stanley Chief Asia Economist Chetan Ahya said in a recent note. Chan Ho-Him, AP business writer
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E-Commerce
The long battle over control of Warner Bros. Discovery took another turn Monday when Paramount Skydance announced a hostile bid for the entertainment giant, following Warner’s acceptance of a competing offer from Netflix last week. Paramount, which many once deemed the frontrunner in the original bidding war, announced a tender offer that tops the Netflix bid by $2.25 per share, appealing directly to shareholders. That adds another layer of complexity to the deal, which will see a significant consolidation of Hollywood’s power players, no matter who ends up on top. With all the back and forth, it’s easy to have lost track of who’s proposing what. Here’s a rundown of what you need to know. What is Paramount Skydance offering for Warner Bros. Discovery? Monday’s bid, the sixth by Paramount Skydance for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), is the same one the company made in the close bidding process, it says. Paramount is offering $30 cash per share to acquire the totality of WBD, including the broadcast and cable networks, the HBO Max streaming service and the company’s extensive catalog. That works out to $18 billion more in cash than the Netflix offer. “We believe our offer will create a stronger Hollywood,” said David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance in a statement. “It is in the best interests of the creative community, consumers and the movie theater industry. We believe they will benefit from the enhanced competition, higher content spend and theatrical release output, and a greater number of movies in theaters as a result of our proposed transaction.” Who is funding Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery? While not mentioned in its press release, Paramount’s SEC filing about its tender offer noted that beyond the money that’s being supplied by the Ellison family, the deal will be partially financed by sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. In addition, Affinity Partners, the private equity firm led by Jared Kushner, is part of the bid. Paramount said each of those parties “have agreed to forgo any governance rights — including board representation — associated with their non-voting equity investments.” However, having Trump’s son-in-law as part of an offer in a deal where Trump has already said “Ill be involved in that decision” raises several potential conflicts of interest. What was Netflix’s offer for Warner Bros. Discovery? In the Netflix deal, which was announced last Friday, the streamer agreed to pay $27.75 per share for the film studio and streaming divisions of WBD, putting the deal price at $82.7 billion. Netflix’s bid was mostly cash, with some Netflix stock included. Shareholders, under those terms, would receive $23.25 in cash and about $4.50 in Netflix stock per share. WBD, under that deal, would still spin off its TV networks, including CNN and TNT, into a separate company. How long do Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders have to decide which offer to take? Paramount says its offer will expire at 5:00 p.m. ET on Jan. 8, 2026. That could be extended, however, Why did Warner Bros. Discovery choose Netflix’s offer instead of Paramount’s? The announcement of the Netflix deal on Friday talked about complementary strengths and assets, more value for shareholders, and more opportunities for the creative community. You might expect that sort of language in a merger agreement, especially one that faces a tough regulatory fight. With Paramount’s tender offer, though, Paramount will be required to make a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, explaining in further detail why it chose Netflix and rejected Paramount. Prior to the Friday announcement, Ellison, in a leaked letter, discussed what he called a tilted and unfair process in the bidding, suggesting WBD management viewed Netflix more favorably than it did Paramount. Which proposed deal has a better chance of passing review by the Federal Trade Commission? Netflix’s proposed takeover of HBO Max and the WBD catalog had been flagged by several experts as facing an uphill battle in Washington and possibly other parts of the world. On Friday, Trump himselfsaid Netflix also owning HBO Max “could be a problem.” That doesn’t mean the deal would necessarily be stopped, though. There is plenty of time for both sides to make concessions with regulators (a close date hasn’t even been announced). There will be a lot of work, however. Paramount, though, says it would be able to clear regulatory scrutiny quickly. (Larry Ellison, father of CEO David Ellison, is very close with Trump.) “Paramount is highly confident in achieving expeditious regulatory clearance for its proposed offer, as it enhances competition and is pro-consumer, while creating a strong champion for creative talent and consumer choice,” it wrote. “In contrast, the Netflix transaction is predicated on the unrealistic assumption that its anticompetitive combination with WBD, which would entrench its monopoly with a 43% share of global Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) subscribers, could withstand multiple protracted regulatory challenges across the world.” Will Warner Bros. Discovery films still be released to theaters? The impact of a Netflix-WBD deal on theatrical releases is one of the big unknowns. Netflix would honor commitments previously made by Warner Bros. Discovery, but things are murkier from there as to whether it would release films in theaters before putting them on the streaming service. Paramount Skydance, via David Ellison on CNBC, said it would put 30 movies exclusively in theaters each year.
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E-Commerce
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