Christmas Trees May Be Allergy Trigger

although taking it down stirred up one last bout of sneezing and itching.

Tests of the trees showed they are a source of mold spores, with air tests detecting spores in rooms with the trees.

Santa's Symptoms

"His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry," wrote Clement Clarke Moore (or Henry Livingston Jr., as some scholars now believe), describing Santa in The Night Before Christmas.

Santa may, of course, have simply been filled with good cheer. But, as the story continues, he left the house "laying his finger aside of his nose." What Alexander calls "nasal itching"?

The researchers report their findings in a poster presentation at this week's Annual Meeting of the America College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology in Philadelphia.

SOURCES: Annual Meeting of the America College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, Philadelphia, Nov. 9-15, 2006.