It seems that I have a little problem.
Hi, My name is Mrs. Seabolt and I’m addicted to candy canes. Someone call Intervention. I’ve been eating candy canes non-stop, I’ve got them at home, in my purse and on my desk at work. There is just something so festive about having a candy cane hanging out of your mouth at all times.
The pinnacle of my addiction will be Saturday when I dress up like a Candy Cane, hand out candy canes and carry an over-sized candy cane as my accessory.
Here is a little history on my favorite Christmas Candy.
Birth of the Candy Cane
Around the seventeenth century, European-Christians began to adopt the use of Christmas trees as part of their Christmas celebrations. They made special decorations for their trees from foods like cookies and sugar-stick candy. The first historical reference to the familiar cane shape goes back to 1670, when the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, bent the sugar-sticks into canes to represent a shepherd’s staff. The all-white candy canes were given out to children during the long-winded nativity services.
The clergymen’s custom of handing out candy canes during Christmas services spread throughout Europe and later to America. The canes were still white, but sometimes the candy-makers would add sugar-roses to decorate the canes further.
The first historical reference to the candy cane being in America goes back to 1847, when a German immigrant called August Imgard decorated the Christmas tree in his Wooster, Ohio home with candy canes.
The Stripes
About fifty years later the first red-and-white striped candy canes appeared. No one knows who exactly invented the stripes, but Christmas cards prior to the year 1900 showed only all-white candy canes. Christmas cards after 1900 showed illustrations of striped candy canes. Around the same time, candy-makers added peppermint and wintergreen flavors to their candy canes and those flavors then became the traditional favorites.
Sweet Secrets of the Candy Cane
There are many other legends and beliefs surrounding the humble candy cane. Many of them depict the candy cane as a secret symbol for Christianity used during the times when Christian were living under more oppressive circumstances. It was said that the cane was shaped like a “J” for Jesus. The red-and-white stripes represented Christ’s blood and purity. The three red stripes symbolized the Holy Trinity. The hardness of the candy represented the Church’s foundation on solid rock and the peppermint flavor represented the use of hyssop, an herb referred to in the Old Testament. There is no historical evidence to support these claims, quite the contrary, but they are lovely thoughts.
I know what’s happened. Will loved candy canes more than anyone I know. He was most excited when Santa would leave one of those giant ones in his stocking and would have it in his mouth before breakfast! One of the nurses that used to work with me would buy him his first box every year and was the one who found sugar-free ones when he developed diabetes. I know she’s missing that this year. Will is making sure YOU carry on the candy cane tradition. Should we hang some on his tree?