I Just Learned Why We Have Candy Canes At Christmas, And It's Not What You Might Think

Loads of commonly-held Christmas origin stories are untrue, while other (equally interesting) factual ones are less known. 

For instance, Coca-Cola themselves say that they’re not why we think of Santa as a guy in a red and white suit. He’d been painted that way (in those colours) for years before they published his iconic image. 

On the other hand mince pies, which traditionally had 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and his disciples, really did once include lamb meat, meant as a tribute to the shepherds. 

So what are we to make of the compelling narrative some people have for candy canes?

St Andrew’s Catholic Church for instance argues that their hard candy is like the “rock” of Jesus’ presence; peppermint is like the Shepherds’ offerings, they add, while “red is for God’s love”, white is for “Jesus’ purity”, and the “J” shape is for “Jesus.” The stripes, meanwhile, “remind us of Jesus’ suffering”, they say. 

But was that why the candy canes were originally designed or is that a later interpretation?

They’re not the only ones who think that ― but it’s not their original design

St Andrews aren’t the only people who think this meaning behind the common candy applies. 

So many claims (including that the canes were first used to identify fellow persecuted Christians in Europe) were made about the sweet’s history that debunking site Snopes got on it. 

The persecution theory seems outright false, they say, as, “Even questionable accounts regarding the origins of the candy cane place its origins no earlier the latter part of the 17th century, at which time Europe was almost entirely Christian.” 

Other theories, including that they were first invented in the 1670s by a German choirmaster and handed out to rowdy kids or that candy canes were invented by a sweetmaker and deliberately stained with red to signify Jesus’ suffering, are similarly poorly backed-up. 

However Snopes say there is a genuinely confirmed religious link; the guy who helped to make the candy canes shaped like a hook, which had previously been very tricky for sweetmakers, was a Catholic priest. 

But though some say the sweets are so shaped to represent the “J” of Jesus, writer and candy historian (dream gig) Susan Benjamin told the Charleston Gazette-Mail in 2015 that, “People wanted to put the candy canes on the tree as a way to decorate it, and the hook was really just added as a way to hold it.” 

Of course, none of this is to say that the canes can’t have a special meaning to people ― just that some of the most common stories are likely not why they were originally created.

So what DO they have to do with Christmas?

TIME writes that the sweets only really took off in the ’50s, when they were able to be mass-manufactured. 

Aside from that, though, we don’t really know why they’re associated with the big day, though the hook shape design doesn’t hurt. 

They also look great against Christmas trees, which have their own fascinating history.

’Tis the season for loads of conflicting lore, eh?