Origins of the Christmas Candy Cane

The candy cane originated from a straight, pure white sugar stick. The cane shape and mint flavor were added later. The history of the candy cane in its white form starts in 1670 when a choirmaster at cologne Cathedral in Germany used the sugar sticks to keep the younger singers quiet during the Living Creche ceremony. The ceremony was long and the children would get antsy otherwise. To make the candy symbolic of the season, the choirmaster bent the sugar sticks into a cane shape, making the candy represent the Shepard's crook.

In 1847, August Imgard, an immigrant from Germany, inspired the Christmas spirit in Wooster, Ohio by decorating a spruce tree with paper ornaments and candy canes. At this time, the candy cane was still pure white. Its cane shape easily hangs on the bough of a luscious evergreen tree and can be removed for friends and loved ones to enjoy its sweet taste during the holiday.

About fifty years later, a man by the name of Bob McCormack from Albany, began adding the traditional red stripes and delightful peppermint, spearmint or wintergreen flavoring to the candy cane as he made the holiday candy for his friends, family and local community. Bob McCormack's brother-in-law, Father Gregory Keller, invented a candy cane making machine which allowed the candy cane to be enjoyed by a wider range of people. Thus became Bob's Candies, the largest maker of the candy cane world wide.