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Christmas Candy Canes

a cluster of red and white candy canes

Well, Christmas is nearly upon us and the most asked question of the week in DaffyDownDilly must be ‘Have you got any Christmas Candy Canes?’

‘Absolutely we have – which size would you like?’

candy cane 3

 

I wondered what started the tradition of hanging minty hooked sticks of candy from our Christmas trees in the first place. It seems rather odd when you think about it!

 

Well rumour has it that a German Choirmaster in 1670 became more than a little upset by the noise the children were making in Church. So he asked a local sweet maker to design some sweets in a stick shape for them to keep them quiet! The hook at the top came about as a reminder to the children of the visit of the shepherds to Jesus. Thus making it ok to give sweets to children in Church!

candy cane 2

 

The tradition of Candy Canes was then born and they were handed out at Nativity plays throughout Europe thus becoming firmly associated with Christmas.

Interestingly though, they were not hung on Christmas trees as they are today until around 1880.

The process for making candy canes was quite painstaking, with the hook made by hand with a breakage rate of about 20%. It became a skilled job!

Perhaps interesting to think about as we hang beautiful, stripy and sweet candy canes on our trees again this year.

candy canes 4

 

Merry Christmas everyone, from us all at DaffyDownDilly xx

 

 

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1 thought on “Christmas Candy Canes

  1. Love the story of the history of candy canes

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