As we celebrate this holiday season, you are likely to give or
receive a poinsettia. No plant is more often associated with
Christmas than the poinsettias and more than 65 million are sold
each holiday season. We have come to cherish these colorful
plants as part of our holiday, but have you heard the story of
how they came to be part of our Christmas tradition? It began
with a legend passed down in Mexican culture about a young girl
who was on her way to church on Christmas Eve. She was sad,
because all the other children were bringing gifts to honor the
birth of Christ, but she was too poor to bring anything. As she
walked along crying, she was consoled by her cousin, who assured
her that any gift given in love would be acceptable to the
Christ child. So she gathered an armful of leaves from a common
shrub, entered the church and placed them humbly at the altar.
At that moment, the leaves of the shrub turned a bright, fiery
red. Since then the plant has been called “Flor de Nochebuena”
or “Flower of the Hol