How did candy canes become the “ofiicial” Christmas candy?
The candy cane was originally a straight, hard, and all-white candy stick invented by French priests in the early 1400s. The cane shape is traditionally credited to a choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral in Germany, who, legend has it, in 1670 bent straight sugar sticks into canes to represent a shepherd’s staff, and gave them to children at church services. Whether the choirmaster had the Good Shepherd in mind is unknown. Another theory is that, as people decorated their Yule trees with food, the bent candy cane was invented as a functional solution. Candy with red stripes first appeared in the early 1900s. Postcards before 1900s show only white colored candy canes, but postcards after 1900s display red striped candy canes. Peppermint flavored candy canes appeared around the same time.
