Christmas Candy Canes originated in the United States.

Candy Canes originated in Germany more than 250 years ago. Originally, the candies started as straight white sugar sticks without their famous red stripes and, obviously, without any flavor.

The legend says that one choirmaster wanted his children to be quiet all through the long Christmas service. So he gave them the candies to keep them quiet. In order to make them remember the true essence of the holiday, he made the sugar sticks into a "J" shape - the first letter of Jesus name.

However, the legend dates back to 1670, while the earliest records of candy canes comes from over 200 years later.

The red stripes and peppermint flavor were added to the canes only in the early 20th century.

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97 Comments

Diane Wernke

Quiet: silent or nearly so Quite: to the utmost degree

tdelisi

Andrew Smith haha the correct spelling is grammar. That's funny.

belindawilliams

Loretta Rogers, me thinks he was being facetious 🤷🏽‍♀️ didn’t you notice the misspelling of “word” ?lol

Matthew Roen

Bridy4u , the cane itself, yes. The additions he mentioned? No

Helga U. Williams

I can't remember ever seeing one when I grew up in Germany. 🙄

Steve Edwards

Ramon Cosio Galvin, the correct answer is that they originated in Germany at least 250 years ago. This is not in dispute, the author goes on to give a “legend” as to the reason for them, but this is irrelevant to the actual answer.

earlepg

Diane Wernke, Quiet looks okay to me. Was it spelled wrong back then?

Francie Carlson

The candy cane supposedly originated in Germany.

Nikki Proctor

Brad Schwebler, There would be a dispute about this as it was made mentioned that although not noted there were early stories of people and their candy cane way fore the 1800's.

Ilias Tsiabardas

Got it

skullfire

There appears to be some dispute as to the correct answer, and the author has no link to back up their explanation. This question should be corrected or removed.