Ah, the holidays. Mistletoes hung where you can see, Jack Frost nipping at your nose, and … lights. Lots and lots of Christmas lights.

Some might say that Americans' obsession with Christmas lights is out of this world. And they'd be right. Because NASA can see them from space.

Scientists with the agency have analyzed data from the so-called Suomi NPP satellite — which hovers above the Earth collecting data on climate change, and can detect the glow of lights in cities and towns worldwide — and found that nighttime lights shine 20 to 50 percent brighter during Christmas and New Year's when compared to the rest of the year. The researchers examined light output in 2012 and 2013 in 70 U.S. cities to discover patterns in urban energy use, a key factor in greenhouse gas emissions.

Check out the images below from NASA. Dark green pixels are areas where lights are 50 percent brighter, or more, during December.

In the U.S., the lights started getting brighter on Black Friday, and continued throughout New Year's Day, according to Miguel Román, a research physical scientist at NASA who co-lead the research.

Christmas lights are especially prolific in the suburbs and the outskirts of cities, where light intensity increased by 30 percent, the researchers found. In cities, the lights increased by 20 to 30 percent.

"Overall, we see less light increases in the dense urban centers, compared to the suburbs and small towns where you have more yard space and single-family homes," Eleanor Stokes, a NASA Jenkins Graduate Fellow, who co-led the study with Román, said in a statement.

Americans aren't the only ones obsessed with holiday lights, though. Researchers found that in some Middle Eastern cities, nighttime lights shine more than 50 percent brighter during the Muslum holiday of Ramadan compared to the rest of the year.

For more on the holiday light phenomenon, check out the video below.

Meanwhile, those who want to track Santa's travels around the globe on Christmas Eve this year have a few options. The annual "Santa Tracker" provided each holiday season by the U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) will be tracking Santa's sleigh, starting on Christmas Eve. You can also follow the big guy's around-the-world journey on Google's Santa Tracker site, and TheSantaTracker.com.