The "The Story Of The Candy Cane" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Shopping at my local grocery store and found a variety of candy canes in a special section devoted to holiday candy.  Not as large a display as you might find during Easter or Halloween, but still took up quite a few feet of shelf space.  The candy that seemed to have the most prominence on the shelf was the candy cane.  The majority of the candy canes were red and white, but there was a multitude of other colors displayed on the shelf.  Grabbed a pack to place in the stockings for our grandchildren.  

The easily recognizable Christmas candy cane.

Got me thinking of when and how long ago the candy cane came into existence.  Seems that in 1670 in Cologne, Germany, the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral was trying to find a remedy for the noise that the children were making in his church during the Living Creche tradition of Christmas Eve.  He asked a local candy maker for some "sugar sticks" to quiet the children and to justify giving the candy to the children, he asked the candy maker to add a crook to the top of each stick which would help them remember the shepherds who visited the infant Jesus at the creche.  He chose to keep the sugar stick a white color to teach the children about the Christian belief in the sinless life of Jesus.  Must have worked for the practice of the sugar sticks, or candy canes spread to other parts of Europe where they handed out the "candy canes" during the reenactment of the Nativity.  Thus, the candy cane became associated with the Creche and Nativity and therefore the Christmas season.  The first documented reference of the candy cane was in 1837 when the Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association had a judged competition of candy and the straight peppermint candy stick, white with colored stripes, was entered.  

A young boy looking at the tasty treat.

The "candy cane" is found in literature in 1866 and the first association with Christmas was in 1874 and by 1882 the treats were being hung on Christmas trees.  Bobs Candies was the first company to begin to mass produce the candy cane in the 1920s.  His brother-in-law, a Catholic priest named Gregory Keller, had invented a machine to mass produce the candy and churn out millions in a day.  The world's largest candy cane was built by Geneva, Illinois chef Alain Roby in 2012.  It was 51 feet long and required about 900 pounds of sugar.  He eventually smashed it with a hammer so people could take home a piece.  A few notes about the candy cane:  54% of kids suck on candy canes compared to the 24% who crunch it right away.  And, I have no clue as to what the other 22% of the kids did with their candy canes.  Also seems that the boys in the survey tended to crunch their canes more than their female counterparts.  Other names given to the candy cane are Santa's cane and Peppermint stick.  My only question I have that I can't seem to find an answer to is since the candy cane is almost entirely sugar, why would anyone who wanted to quiet children during a Christmas Eve service give them a candy cane.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.