Keeping tradition in your Christmas with the Candy Cane

Many of our holiday traditions are based upon symbolism.   One of the easiest and simpliest ways to keep Jesus in Christmas is found in the candy cane.  St. Nicholas often gave candy to children and in 1670, a german choirmaster used candy as a tool to keep children's attention during worship services.  He had hard candy shaped into a shepherd's staff and explained that the white candy represented the purity of Christ.  The shepherd's staff reminded them of the sheepherders' role in the first Christmas.  Within a century, Christmas trees all over Europe and England were having white candy canes handling from them.
In the 1920s a shop in Georgia found a way to hand twist colors into the white candy canes.  This led to an Indiana candy maker adding three red stripes to his canes.  He said that the three red stripes represented the Trinity and that the red color stood for the blood of Jesus which was shed for all of mankind.  Again, the white has come to be represented as the purity and the crook still symbolizes the staff of a shepherd.  The cane turned upside down  also is a representation of the letter J, which is a reminder of the baby who gave his life for the forgiveness of our sins.  Whatever you use them for during this holiday season, teach your children the symbolism of the candy cane and make this season a teaching moment for why we are celebrating "Christ"mas.