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Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Another Tuesday's Truth: Week Twenty-Three: Christmas Candy Canes


Look up in the air! It's a bird! It's a plane! NO....it's a candy cane! (Albeit, a candy cane-themed ballon — known as the red candy cane — as it appeared in bygone years when participating in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade!) And with that fact, I welcome you, dear reader, to part two of week twenty four of Tuesday's Truths where I'll share some interesting facts re this well known candy that is normally served during the Christmas season (which is still today, the tenth day of Christmas).

As far as the taste treat known as the Christmas Candy Cane, the following information (from Christmas Customs and Traditions), is interesting: "The Christmas Candy Cane originated in Germany about 250 years ago. They started as straight white sugar sticks.

"A story says that a choirmaster, in 1670, was worried about the children sitting quietly all through the long Christmas nativity service. So he gave them something to eat to keep them quiet! As he wanted to remind them of Christmas, he made them into a 'J' shape like a shepherds crook, to remind them of the shepherds that visited the baby Jesus at the first christmas. However, the earliest records of 'candy canes' comes from over 200 years later, so the story, although rather nice, probably isn't true!

"Sometime around 1900 the red stripes were added and they were flavored with peppermint or wintergreen.

"Sometimes other Christian meanings are giving to the parts of the canes. The 'J' can also mean Jesus. The white of the cane can represent the purity of Jesus Christ and the red stripes are for the blood he shed when he died on the cross. The peppermint flavor can represent the hyssop plant that was used for purifying in the Bible.

"Around 1920, Bob McCormack, from Georgia, USA, started making canes for his friends and family. They became more and more popular and he started his own business called Bob's Candies. Bob McCormack's brother-in-law, Gregory Harding Keller, who was a Catholic priest, invented the Keller Machine that made turning straight candy sticks into curved candy canes automatic! In 2005, Bob's Candies was bought by Farley and Sathers but they still make candy canes!"

In any event, I've written about candy canes in bygone years in posts here on Blogger; as well as in my entries on tumblr, but I've done this without the historical perspective that the aforementioned web-page for Christmas Customs and Traditions provides re this candy variety.

My perspective has been to anthropomorphize this taste treat (with the help of figurines) which can be seen in a couple of candy cane related entries for hometalk (HT), such as Christmas Decor (With a Cast of Characters) Part 1, and NOT SO FAST (Enjoy Thanksgiving FIRST)I included the following candy cane related images in the latter HT entry.





These figurines came from More & More Antiques, the shop in Manhattan's UWS which is selling my fauna-flora-insect-themed postcards. They can be found near to glass ornaments that are in the likeness of candy canes, as seen in the photo below, taken by Nancy Nelson Mancini.


Steve Mohr, the sole proprietor of this shop is enthusiastic about my collection and at his suggestion, I may offer my cards in boxed-sets in the coming year! I've already created promo cards that feature thumb-nails of each of my postcards! They can be seen in the following pictures.


Steve is currently carrying each type of my postcards, and each type of them have also been given to the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum (at their request) on a consignment basis.

Moreover, the gift shop at The Raptor Trust (a bird rehab facility in new Jersey), is currently carrying my fauna-themed postcards.

Meanwhile, all of these postcards can also be viewed within a prior post here on Blogger; as well as within a store-front page on my web-site, patriciayoungquist.com.

Every image within my postcard collection is from the iBook and ePub version of Cam's book, Words In Our Beak, Volume One.



All of these postcards, as well as the book, Words In Our Beak, Volume One, the candy canes agree, make great gifts on this tenth day of Christmas! Additionally, both the postcards and Cam's book are also wonderful items to offer to friends and family throughout the new year and beyond!



2019 ADDENDUM: 

The digital versions of Volume One within the Words In Our Beak book series that are mentioned in this entry may only remain available for a limited time, but hardcover versions of Volume One, Two and Three can now be found wherever books are sold.



Please click here to go to my blog post that provides details as to where you can get these books.

Additionally,  I have rendered some images from these books into other formats and they are available via Fine Art America (FAA). Some of my other photographs (Black & White Collection, Kaleidoscopic Images and the famous Mandarin duck who visited NYC) can also be found on my FAA pages.

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