A candy cane is a hard cane-shaped candy stick. It is traditionally white with red stripes and flavored with peppermint; however, it is also made in a variety of other flavors and colored stripes of different thicknesses. The candy cane is a traditional candy surrounding the Christmas holiday, although it is possible to find them throughout the year.


The candy cane was originally a straight, hard, and all-white candy stick. The cane shape is traditionally credited to a choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral in Germany, who, legend has it, in 1670 bent straight sugar sticks into canes to represent a shepherd's staff, and gave them to children at church services. Whether the choirmaster had the "Good Shepherd" in mind is unknown. Another theory is, as people decorated their Yule trees with food, the bent candy cane was invented as a functional solution. Peppermint candy with red stripes first appeared in the mid-19th century in the Swedish town of Gränna, and striped candy canes in the early 20th century.


In Swedish the candy canes are called polkagris (literally "polka piglet"). The aforementioned Swedish town Gränna is called the "polkagris capital of the world".


Apocryphal tales suggesting the candy cane was created wholecloth (usually by an AmericanProtestant, usually described as being an unnamed candy maker in 1870sIndiana) to represent Jesus. The white in the candy cane is for His purity, one bold red stripe for the blood He shed, three thin red stripes for the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), and the general shape for the J in His (Jesus) name and/or to represent the cane of a shepherd. This has become a popular story in recent years and a factual basis for this is pending.