“Christmas Greetings” postcard, published in the early 1900s by Selmar Bayer in Berlin, Germany. The card depicts the somewhat unusual combination of poinsettias and four-leaf clovers.
The poinsettia was introduced into the United States in the 1820s by Joel Poinsett, the first U.S. Minister to Mexico. He sent cuttings back to his greenhouses in South Carolina and by the latter part of the 19th century, it became a widely used Christmas decoration, although initially as cut flowers, not as potted plants.
Poinsett was a slave owner and had demeaning views toward the indigenous peoples of Mexico, so there is a growing movement to change the name of the flower back to its original Aztec name - cuetlaxochitl.