Candy Canes

Candy canes originated from Germany. Although associated with Christmas, they were actually invented to make children be quiet in church! A choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral in Germany was fed up with children interrupting his nativity scenes on Christmas Eve. So he commissioned a local sweetmaker to make a hard, stick-like sweet that children could suck on for a long period to keep them quiet. He specifically asked for a crook on top of the stick, to resemble the canes used by the shepherds in the nativity (and also because canes were used to punish naughty children!). Their popularity spread through Europe, often being handed out at nativity plays. Later on they found themselves becoming a Christmas tree decoration.