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Vivian Christmas
⊙ω⊙
Banned
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12-22-2011, 06:11 PM
( excerpts borrowed from about.com & Snopes.com & starstuffs.com in that order)
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 The first historical reference to the familiar cane shape goes back to 1670, when the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, bent the sugar-sticks into canes to represent a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.
About 1847, August Imgard of Ohio managed to decorate his Christmas tree with candy canes to entertain his nephews and nieces. Many who saw his canes went home to boil sugar and experiment with canes of their own. It took nearly another half century before someone added stripes to the canes . . . Christmas cards produced before 1900 show plain white canes, while striped ones appear on many cards printed early in the 20th century.1
Tradition has it that some of these candies were put to use in Cologne Cathedral about 1670 while restless youngsters were attending ceremonies around the living creche. To keep them quiet, the choirmaster persuaded craftsmen to make sticks of candy bent at the end to represent shepherds' crooks, then he passed them out to boys and girls who came to the cathedral.
The Modern Candy Cane
Until the turn of the century, the candy cane peppermint treat remained white. It is speculation that candy maker Bob McCormick of Albany, Georgia, who established McCormack's Famous Candy Company in 1919, created the red-striped candy in the 1920's as treats for friends and family. He may have been inspired by the Swedish candy known as "Polkagris" (English: polka piglet). The originator of the red stripes on candy canes is popularly accredited to McCormick. History does show that Christmas cards at the turn of the century show pure white candy canes pre 1900 and striped candy canes post 1900.
Producing the red and white candy canes in the beginning were labor intensive because they were made by hand. It wasn't until the 1950's that McCormick's brother-in-law Gregory Keller created an innovative machine that aided in manufacturing and mass producing the candy canes.
Last edited by Vivian Christmas; 12-23-2011 at 01:27 PM..
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