One year when I was very young, my mother took me to see Santa Claus at Miller’s department store in Knoxville. They had a candy cane factory set up in the middle of the sales floor! While we kids waited in line to see Santa, we could watch through the glass windows and see the candy being cooked, pulled, twisted, and wrapped. After we spoke to Santa, each child would get a fresh cane, still slightly warm. That’s a memory I will always treasure. But where did the tradition of Christmas candy canes come from?
No one knows exactly how long candy has been a part of Christmas celebrations. Sugar has been used since antiquity as a preservative and a source of quick energy, which made it very useful in winter weather when fresh food was not available. Image by Flickr user Great Beyond.
During the Christmas of 1670, Cologne Cathedral in Germany was staging a living nativity. The choir director gave out white sugar sticks to children as a reward for good behavior. This is the earliest documented use of candy canes for Christmas. Some sources say the choir director had the canes bent to resemble a shepherd’s crook before giving them out. The bent shape made the candy just right for hanging on a tree. The Christmas tree shown is from the early 1800s, decorated with candy and cookies.
German immigrant August Imgard of Wooster, Ohio was the first recorded American to decorate a Christmas tree in 1847. It was adorned with paper chains and cookies as well as candy canes, and people came from miles around to see it. He became famous for that pioneering tree.
Peppermint became a trendy flavor around the turn of the 20th century for flavoring candy, gum, and toothpaste. In 1901 the King Leo candy company created the first peppermint stick candy.
Bob McCormack founded McCormack’s Famous Candy Company of Albany, Georgia in 1919. Later the company became Bob’s Candies, now a division of Farley & Sathers Candy Company. McCormack is credited as the first candymaker to add red stripes to candy canes. The company was also the first to use cellophane to wrap candy, making it last much longer on store shelves. McCormack’s brother-in-law, Father Gregory Keller invented the Keller Machine in 1950. This machine automated the process of making uniform-sized candy sticks with much less breakage than the made-by-hand method. In 1958, the final stage of automation was added to candy cane manufacture when employees developed a machine that put the crook into the end of the cane, a job that was done by hand until then. Take a look at how candy canes are manufactured today.
This is a great setup if you need to make thousands of candy canes in batches weighing hundreds of pounds, but you can make your own candy canes. After you are finished with the candy making, you might want to try Emiril Lagasse’s recipe.
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Is that the same Bob’s Candies that makes Bob’s Sweet Stripes? We absolutely love the sticks (the little puffs are okay, but the sticks are better), but can’t find them since we moved to Maryland. Anyone know where we can get Bob’s Sweet Stripes (sticks in a box)?????
posted by hyacinth on 12-17-2009 at 9:33 am
hyacinth, I picked some up at Walmart the other day… but that is probably seasonal. You can order them here.
http://www.oldtimecandy.com/bobs-sweet-stripes-mint-sticks.htm
posted by Miss Cellania on 12-17-2009 at 9:41 am
We always bought them at Wal Mart but our local one doesn’t carry them. I didn’t know if it was a Maryland thing or just our tiny little WM thing.
posted by Hyacinth on 12-17-2009 at 10:07 am
I’m not sure of the brand – it’s some smaller candy company – but Cracker Barrel sells great peppermint sticks in bags.
As a kid, one of our best treats was a peppermint stick and an orange. It sounds weird, but trust me on this:
Take an orange and cut a small cone-shaped hole in one of the points. Then take one of the large old-fashioned peppermint sticks (not a cane, but a stick) and jab it down into the orange through the hole. Then you suck the juice through the stick just like it was a straw. It’s really good!
posted by Sandy Wood on 12-17-2009 at 10:14 am
Sandy – I remember school fairs where your could get the big pepperment sticks with a lemon.
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 12-17-2009 at 10:37 am
I remember sticking peppermint sticks in oranges, at grandma’s home in Florida. Later on, we got lazy and stuck the candy in a glass of juice to drink it.
Go to the link in the second comment, scroll down, and see the comments where people sucked orange juice through peppermint sticks.
posted by Miss Cellania on 12-17-2009 at 10:39 am
I love and only buy Bob’s candy canes for the tree and the mini ones to eat. One year, I had such a hard time finding the mini ones that I ordered some through the site because I just had to have them already!
posted by Sarah in CA on 12-17-2009 at 10:48 am
Here in Denver, there is a wonderful little old-fashioned candy factory called Hammond’s, where the workers still hand-make the candy canes. It is so much fun to watch, and it’s a free tour!
posted by FizzyGurrl on 12-17-2009 at 11:27 am
LOVE the video showing how candy canes are made! (I love any kind of how-to video.) Not a fan of candy canes, though. It’s chocolate all the way for me.
posted by Rachel on 12-17-2009 at 11:47 am
When I was growing up my mother would put the candy canes on the tree overnight so they’d be there Christmas morning with the presents from Santa. I always thought this was the usual “Santa decorates your tree” thing but nobody outside my family has ever heard of this!
Anyone?
posted by C on 12-17-2009 at 11:50 am
I really hate peppermint things, and when I was little, “Santa” would leave candy canes hanging on the tree when we woke up- peppermint for my sisters and fruit for me. Instead of threatening me with coal, my mom always told me if I was bad, Santa would only bring peppermint candy canes and not stop for the fruit ones. It always worked too.
posted by Caitlin on 12-17-2009 at 12:03 pm
My family’s favorite candy canes when I was a kid were the teaberry flavored ones. But a few years ago, they just seemed to disappear off the shelves. Has anyone still seen those?
posted by Moth on 12-17-2009 at 12:46 pm
Peppermint candy canes are my favorite and not available at all ever in Eastern Europe (that I’ve seen). I never knew you could make them, so I might just try it! Sounds like a mess! ;)
posted by ann on 12-17-2009 at 12:47 pm
Wow! I had forgotten all about Miller’s Department Store (I grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, myself). That was always a fun place to be around Christmas. Shopping malls just don’t seem the same, really….
posted by Brett on 12-17-2009 at 2:59 pm
This might be one of those weird Baptist church type of deals but I heard that (as said)the white part represents the sheperds stick…
But as a macabre twist the red was suppose to stand for the blood of Jesus flowing over it…
Yum :)
posted by Chrystani on 12-17-2009 at 3:08 pm
After xmas every gives me all their left over candy canes. They are not for me but for the horses at my barn.
Most horses love hard candies – its the same thing as giving them a sugar cube but with a flavor. I like giving them candy canes as it makes their breath smell nice for a minute or so. Like with any treat they only get them in moderation.
posted by beth on 12-17-2009 at 3:47 pm
i think thats the weirdess thing ever
posted by renel on 12-17-2009 at 4:08 pm
Flavored (but I am not sure about teaberry) candy canes seem to be making a comeback. Try Harry & David’s or other specialty stores like that for flavored (other than peppermint and the other usual suspects) canes.
posted by Hyacinth on 12-17-2009 at 7:42 pm
The candy cane is Swedish, they’re produced in the city of Gränna since 1859. Today the “polkagris” is kind of a trademark of that city.
See (in English):
http://www.grm.se/turistinfo/ENGELSKA/grennaeng/polkagriseng.htm
posted by word on 12-17-2009 at 7:55 pm
Thanks for the link Word, I knew they were Swedish, but not the story behind them. I also grew up hearing that they were made with a bend in the top to symbolize the shepards cane. I think now that the bend isprobally a direct result of people hanging them on a tree…just my opinion
posted by megaroo on 12-23-2010 at 11:22 am