Description
The red cover is embossed with a shiny poinsettia flower. Open the card to a gift box holding a festive poinsettia plant with a dozen scarlet flowers and green leaves. This is a bright beautiful card.
Poinsettias are the birth flower for people born in December. The plants are often seen at Christmas but can be given at any time, for any occasion, to show your thoughtfulness.
The showy colored parts of poinsettias that most people think of as the flowers are actually colored modified leaves that grow in a starburst pattern. Poinsettias have also been called the lobster flower and the flame-leaf flower, due to their bright red color. Its scientific name is Euphorbia pulcherrima, meaning “very beautiful.”
Meaning & Symbolism of Poinsettias
No flower says Christmas like the beautiful poinsettia. The shape of the poinsettia flower and leaves are symbols of the Star of Bethlehem which led the Wise Men to Jesus. The red colored leaves symbolize the blood of Christ.
Poinsettias’ association with Christmas comes from a Mexican legend. There was once a poor Mexican girl called Pepita who had no present to give the the baby Jesus at the Christmas Eve services. She picked a small handful of weeds from the roadside and made them into a small bouquet. She knelt down and put the bouquet at the bottom of the nativity scene. Suddenly, the bouquet of weeds burst into bright red flowers, and everyone saw the miracle. From that day on, the flowers were known as the Flores de Noche Buena, or Flowers of the Holy Night, the Christmas Star, or Christmas Flower.
History
Named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, first United States ambassador to Mexico and the amateur botanist who introduced the plant to the United States in 1825. The poinsettia is also known as Mexican Flame Leaf, Winter Rose, Noche Buena and, in Turkey, Atakurk’s Flower, because it was the favorite flower of Atakurk, the founder of modern Turkey. The poinsettia is also the national emblem of Madagascar.
While considered by the ancient Aztecs to be symbols of purity, in today’s language of flowers they symbolize good cheer and success and are said to bring wishes of mirth and celebration.
See also Feliz Navidad pop up card.
