Candy Cane memories... Candy canes have been a Christmas tradition in my family since as long as I can remember. Our Christmas tree always bears at least one candy cane for each person in our family. Back in junior high I began giving gifts each year to my friends at school and since a junior high student’s income is rather meager I started making candy cane reindeer made from candy canes, brown pipe cleaners for antlers, google eyes, and little red pom poms for noses. They were a big hit and I make them every year now for several of my friends and family. ~ Morgan from Texas

Legend has it that in 1670, the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany handed out sugar sticks among his young singers to keep them quiet during the long Living Creche ceremony. In honor of the occasion, he had the candies bent into shepherds' crooks. In 1847, a German-Swedish immigrant named August Imgard of Wooster, Ohio, decorated a small blue spruce with paper ornaments and candy canes. It wasn't until the turn of the century that the red and white stripes and peppermint flavors became the norm.

In the 1920s, Bob McCormack began making candy canes as special Christmas treats for his children, friends and local shopkeepers in Albany, Georgia. It was a laborious process - pulling, twisting, cutting and bending the candy by hand. It could only be done on a local scale.

In the 1950s, Bob's brother-in-law, Gregory Keller, a Catholic priest, invented a machine to automate candy cane production. Packaging innovations by the younger McCormacks made it possible to transport the delicate canes on a large scale.

Although modern technology has made candy canes accessible and plentiful, they've not lost their purity and simplicity as a traditional holiday food.

Source: National Confectioners Association