Chapter 8 - Holidays

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Iranian “Sun of Righteousness” whose worship was popular with Roman soldiers. The winter solstice, another celebration of the sun, fell just a few days earlier. Seeing that pagans were already exalting deities with some parallels to the true deity, church leaders decided to commandeer the date and introduce a new festival.”2

The earliest suggested use of December 25 dates back to 273 A.D. but a more substantial date would be 336 during the reign of Constantine, the great Christian Emperor. Even so, the Eastern Orthodox church continued to celebrate the birth of Jesus on January 6th, and does so to this day.

CANDY CANE – The candy itself is made of hard white candy in the shape of a stick that dates back to the 15th century. Legend tells us that it was not until 1670 that the straight stick of white candy received its crook. Apparently a choir master at Cologne Cathedral in Germany had them specially made for the children who attended the Christmas services (some accounts have the children participating in a live nativity scene).

The cane would remain white until the mid-19th century when it would receive one red stripe. Peppermint was also added at this time. Additional stripes were added to the cane in the 20th century.
In the United States, a German immigrant by the name of August Imgard in Wooster, Ohio is credited with having been the first person to put candy canes on his

Christmas tree. He “had the Wooster village tinsmith construct a star, and placed the tree in his house, decorating it with paper ornaments and candy canes. The American Confectioners’ Association officially recognizes Imgard as the first ever to put candy canes on a Christmas tree; the canes were all-white, with no red stripes.”3

At first candy canes were made by hand, leading to a wide variety of sizes and shapes. In the 1920’s Bob McCormack, a candy maker in Albany, Georgia, would begin passing out candy canes to his family and friends. In the 1950’s, Bob’s brother-in-law, Father Gregory Keller, would invent a machine that could quickly make the candy canes. In 1958, two employees at the company, Dick Driskell and Jimmy Spratling, perfected the candy making machine by modifying it to make the crooks, something that had previously been done by hand.4 At this point the modern candy cane, complete with additional stripes, was born.

Some readers are probably wondering, “But what about the story of a candy maker in Indiana who invented the candy cane as a witnessing tool?” Well, the story is an American folk tale. It simply isn’t true. Even so, what I enjoy about this symbol is that Christians have played a pivotal role in its creation and survival. I would encourage Christians to continue to use the candy cane to tell the story of Jesus.

So today’s version of the candy cane has many meanings. The white candy represents purity. The

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