'Tis the holiday season! Here are some Christmas-related tidbits from History.com that you may not have known.

• In the Middle Ages, Christmas celebrations were rowdy and raucous - a lot like today's Mardi Gras.
• The first eggnog made in America was consumed in Capt. John Smith's 1607 Jamestown settlement.
• From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was outlawed in Boston, and law-breakers were fined five shillings (a considerable amount at the time).
• Poinsettia plants are named after Joel R. Poinsett, an American diplomat who brought the plant from Mexico to America in 1828.
• Christmas was declared a U.S. federal holiday on June 26, 1870.
• Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was created in 1939 by a Montgomery Ward copywriter to lure customers into the department store.
• Today, 30-35 million live Christmas trees are sold in the U.S. each year.