Distributive lattices form an important, well-behaved class of lattices. They are instances of two larger classes of lattices: congruence-uniform and semidistributive lattices. Congruence-uniform lattices allow for a remarkable second order of their elements: the core label order; semidistributive lattices naturally possess an associated flag simplicial complex: the canonical join complex. In this article we present a characterization of finite distributive lattices in terms of the core label order and the canonical join complex, and we show that the core label order of a finite distributive lattice is always a meet-semilattice.