Ace Collins

And that was the legend.

And then the ambassador to Mexico heard that legend, saw the plant.

His name happened to be poinsettia.

And he brought it back to the United States and started marketing the plant after growing it in nurseries.

And so it was in the mid-1800s was when the poinsettia really took off as being an important part of Christmas.

And it's one of the few traditions, by the way, that was actually born in North America.

All the rest mainly come from Europe.

You can pray Santa's roots to St.

Nicholas of Baria, who was a Catholic priest and later a cardinal.

He wore red, obviously, as a cardinal.

So that's where the red connotation comes from.

And he actually spent all of his ministry ministering to the poorest of the poor.

And he would bring gifts to young girls who didn't have money for a dowry so they could get married.

And he would leave those gifts, ironically enough, most times in stockings that hung by the

the fire anonymously.

And so they would get up in the morning and they would find this, this change and realize they could get married, which before they couldn't without that dowry.

And hence there is the beginning of putting gifts in stockings by a fireplace.

Now, the only reason the stockings were at a fireplace, it was a convenient place to leave the gift because they only had one pair of stockings.

Most people did.

They washed them and hung them up by the fire to dry overnight.