There are many theories as to when the candy cane was invented, and from where it originated. The earliest documented date is around 1670 when the choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral was frustrated by fidgety kids at the living Nativity. He had some white, sugar-candy sticks made to keep the youngsters quiet. The sticks were curved like shepherds' staffs in honor of the shepherds at the stable. The idea caught on, and candy sticks became common at living Nativities all over Europe.

In 1847, a German-Swedish immigrant named August Imgard put candy canes on his Christmas tree in Wooster, Ohio. Putting candy canes on the Christmas tree had been a custom in his homeland. The sweets gained popularity here, too, and around the turn of the century, they assumed their now familiar properties of red stripes and peppermint flavoring.

A faithful Indiana candymaker developed the treat as a witnessing tool. The candy is hard because God's church is founded on the rock, white because of Jesus's purity (or his virgin birth), peppermint flavored as a reference to cleansing hyssop, and curved to represent a shepherd's staff and/or the letter "J" for Jesus. The large red stripe represents the blood Christ shed for the sins of the world. The small red stripes are for the stripes He received from the whippings administered by the Roman soldiers, through which we are healed. Some candy cane makers place three small stripes representing the Holy Trinity.

In Albany, Georgia, in the 1920s, a candymaker named Bob McCormack made canes as special treats for family and friends, but the confections were difficult to mass-produce. Then, in the 1950s, Bob's brother-in-law Gregory Keller, a Catholic priest, invented a machine to speed up the process. Other members of the McCormack family worked on new packaging to keep the canes from breaking in transit, and Bob's Candies became the world's leading candy cane producer.

The message given to us from the candy cane is that Jesus is the pure Lamb of God, who came as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Share the legend and celebrate the Christ.

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