How Poinsettia became popular for Christmas?

The bright Poinsettias are the signal that is Christmas is just around the corner. It is popularly known as the official Christmas flower. Native to Taxco del Alarcon area in Mexico – this is actually a flowering plant that is widely believed to be a flower due to its bright flower-like bunch of upper leaves called bracts. The name of this plant is derived from Joel Roberts Poinsett who was the 1st US minister to introduce this plant to the US in 1825.

There are legendary stories and symbolic beliefs behind Poinsettias being popular as Christmas plants. They are discussed below:

1. The shape of the poinsettia foliage leaves is sometimes thought to the symbol of the Star of Bethlehem that helped those three wise men to reach Jesus on the night he was born.
2. The white leaves symbolise the purity of Jesus Christ while the red leaves symbolise his blood.
3. Another popular story of Mexico narrates that there was a girl named Pepita who was sad as she didn’t have a gift for baby Jesus on Christmas Eve. She was poor and that’s why she couldn’t buy any gift so she picked up a bouquet of weeds that she walked past on her way to the church. Suddenly those weeds converted into gorgeous red flowers. These red flowers are nothing but Poinsettia that is also known as “flowers of the Holy Night”.
4. Joel Roberts Poinsett brought this beautiful foliage plant to the USA but it didn’t become a famous Christmas decoration overnight. It was entrepreneur Ecke and family who started to promote them after a century that it became a famous Christmas décor item. He sent the poinsettia plants to all the famous TV shows in the country like “The Tonight Show” or the Bob Hope’s holiday special show, etc. He sent these plants free of cost so that they could be featured on-air from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
5. Due to its bright appearance, it didn’t take long for people to accept it as a Christmas floral décor item. The Ecke’s family started to produce come compact and bushier plant by grafting two varieties of poinsettia together.