When the little boy reached his destination, people already in the church turned to see the gift he had brought and, when they saw what it was, they laughed at him.

As the little boy determinedly marched up to the altar and laid the branches by the edge of the manger, an abundance of bright red flowers suddenly began to bloom.

Since that day, the Poinsettia is known worldwide as The Christmas Flower.

Perhaps this story is a fairy tale. Perhaps not. Who is to say?

It’s certainly true that the Poinsettia originated in the south of Mexico, wending its way to the United States of America in the admiring custody of one Joel Roberts Poinsett.

Poinsett (1779-1851), was born in Charleston South Carolina , and educated in Europe and the U.S., studying medicine, military strategy, and the law. He became a member of South Carolina’s House of Representatives and subsequently held many prominent political positions. He also spearheaded the founding of the Smithsonian Institution.

Fluency in Spanish (as well as French, Italian and German) resulted in Poinsett’s diplomatic appointment by President John Quincy Adams as the first United States Ambassador to Mexico (then called Minister of Mexico).

That was a tumultuous time in Mexico, and, to make matters even more difficult, Poinsett’s impossible task was to buy the Mexican land we know as Texas, for a million dollars. However, the Mexicans did not want to sell Texas and, in 1829, they invited the hapless Ambassador Poinsett to leave.

In 1828, shortly before his absence was requested, Poinsett, an avid amateur botanist, was visiting the Mexican state of Taxco where he first saw the plant that would eventually be named after him. He shipped samples to South Carolina, where they were called “Mexican Fire Plant.” The Aztecs had called the plant “Cuetlaxochitl,” and from the 14th-Century to the 16th, used the sap to control fevers. The leaves were also used to make dye. Montezuma, the last of the Aztec kings, was forced to have Poinsettias caravaned from the south into what now is Mexico City because the plant could not grow in such high altitudes.

Upon his return to the U.S., Poinsett shared the plant with friends and botanical gardens worldwide. Around 1836, scholar William Hickline Prescott, author of The History of the Conquest of Mexico, and after whom the town of Prescott Arizona is named, was given the honor of renaming the plant. It has been known Poinsettia ever since.

While these facts are interesting, there are those of us who prefer the apocryphal tale of a little boy and the miracle of The Christmas Flower.