Once upon a time, everyone in Mexico was taking flowers to the church. It was Christmas time and they were taking them to offer the baby Jesus as a welcoming gift.
One young girl was so poor that she couldn’t afford any flowers, so she stopped at the roadside and gathered up a bunch of weeds. People pointed and laughed at her as she arrived at the church.
“You can’t give weeds to the baby Jesus!” said one lady, horrified.
“Show some respect or go away!” cried a young man in disgust.
Undeterred, she made her way to the Nativity scene, and laid her weeds alongside the many extravagant gifts near the manger. Suddenly the weeds transformed into the most beautiful flowers of the deepest red, with rich, lush green leaves.
Everybody gasped in disbelief at this miracle, and the flowers became known as Flores de Nochebuena (Christmas Eve flowers, or Holy Night flowers).
To this day these flowers bloom every December, and are the ones we know as poinsettia.