It was Christmas Eve. A poor little Mexican boy named Pablo was too ashamed to join friends and family in church because he had no gift for the Christ Child. He decided to kneel and pray. To his amazement, a beautiful plant grew in the spot where he had knelt. Its flaming red leaves arranged like a star and its yellow blossom like a shining light were God's gift for the little boy to present to Jesus.

The Poinsettia grows wild in Mexico and was first called "Flower of the Holy Night", because of the way its top cluster of green leaves mysteriously turn red in December. In the 1830's congressman and botanist Joel Roberts Poinsett brought it to the United States.