Bright red poinsettias have become traditional in North America during the Christmas season, but why?
The tradition of poinsettias on Christmas Eve in Mexico can be traced to an old legend. A young girl, Pepita, was looking for a gift to give to Jesus on Christmas Eve. However, she was very poor and couldn't afford any gifts. So instead, she picked some weeds from beside the church and placed them on the church altar. From these weeds, a crimson blossom sprouted, and the weeds became a beautiful poinsettia. Beginning in the 17th century, Franciscan Friars in Mexico included poinsettias in their Christmas celebration. They viewed the star-shaped leaf pattern as a symbol of the star of Bethlehem and the bright red color as a representation of the blood of Jesus's sacrifice.
While poinsettias became integral to Mexican Christmas Eve celebrations, they were never seen as part of Christmas celebrations in the United States. That is, until an enterprising family, the Ecke family, decided to change that.
The Ecke family originally ran a vegetarian health spa in Germany in the early 1900s. However, they had trouble running a vegetarian spa in the sausage capital of the world. So, they moved to the United States where they began growing vegetables and flowers. They settled in California and became connected with the movie and television industry. They were looking for a flower to be marketed during the Christmas season. Unfortunately, not many flowers naturally bloom in the middle of winter. They noticed one flower that did blossom right around the Christmas season, the poinsettia. So, they began to market poinsettias as a Christmas tradition.
Their marketing campaign really began to take off in the 1960s. The family used their connections to Hollywood to make sure that poinsettias were featured prominently on all television Christmas specials. The family once claimed that poinsettias had even more screen time than prominent hosts like Johnny Carson. They even convinced popular magazines at the time to run spreads featuring Christmas trees, mistletoes, and poinsettias, saying that a Christmas spread needs more color than the Christmas trees and mistletoes can provide.
They began to advertise on television that they could ship you a poinsettia for free! Their family farm even bred their own kinds of poinsettias that would bloom three to four times more than a normal poinsettia, which would ensure plenty of red flowers for your house at Christmas. Until 1970, over 90% of all poinsettias came from the Ecke family farm.
In general, there is no biblical connection between Christmas and poinsettias. Even the creation of the tradition itself is a bit odd. Even still, Poinsettias do have an undeniable beauty and have become closely connected with Christmas. Whatever the reason, whenever we see those bright red blossoms, we know that Christmas is just around the corner.