These Christmas Candy Recipes Will Help You Sweeten the Season (2024)

FAQs

What is the importance of candy in Christmas? ›

Candy plays an essential role in the festive weeks between Thanksgiving and the New Year, making Christmas the third biggest holiday for candy sales. Candy canes, chocolate Santas, Hershey Kisses and ribbon candy all signify winter celebrations and add a sweet touch to holiday parties.

A candy cane is a cane-shaped stick candy often associated with Christmastide, as well as Saint Nicholas Day. It is traditionally white with red stripes and flavored with peppermint, but the canes also come in a variety of other flavors and colors.

Cane: Is like the staff used by the shepherds in caring for sheep. Jesus is our “Good Shepherd.” The Color Red: Is for God's love that sent Jesus to give his life for us on the cross. The Stripes: Remind us of Jesus' suffering-his crown of thorns, the wounds in his hands and feet; and the cross on which he died.

Every trip past the candy dish yielded a handful of cut rock candy, rainbow gems, baby ribbons, chocolate-filled straws, filled raspberries, and other treats to suck on while opening gifts. Other Christmas classics include peppermint patties and candy canes.

According to America's Favorite Christmas Candy by State Report, a comprehensive study by research firm HubScore that delved into a survey of the top 20 favorite Christmas candies, Kit Kat ranked top in 13 states followed by a tie between Skittles and candy canes, both ranked top in six states.

Candy canes are one of the oldest Christmas candies, first appearing in the 17th century in Europe. They were originally straight white sticks of sugar that were meant to symbolize shepherd's crooks.

CandyStore.com highlighted Kit Kat as making the strongest push. "Having never made a #1 showing, this year Kit Kat has two of them," the site explained. "Massachusetts and Oklahoma both prefer Kit Kats at Christmas. Interestingly, both states had candy canes at #1 last year.

Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, which is located in the fertile limestone hill country of the Holy Land, 10 kilometres south of Jerusalem. Millions of people around the world celebrate Christmas Day as the birth anniversary of Jesus on December 25. It is a religious and cultural celebration.

Does the candy cane represent Jesus? ›

One legend suggests that an Indiana-based candymaker shaped the peppermint stick into a “J” shape to represent Jesus, with the white stripe symbolizing the purity of his birth and the red stripe later added to acknowledge the blood he shed on the cross.

Candy canes were originally solid white, but during the turn of the 20th century stripes started to appear. Prior to the late 19th century, Christmas cards of that period show nothing but plain white candy. Some believe the stripes came from the candy maker Bob McCormack in the 1920s.

Gingerbread. The holidays wouldn't be the same without the sweet smell of gingerbread seeping through the hallways. Gingerbread is a timeless Christmas flavor and can be baked into nearly everything. Cookies, muffins bread—you name it! So, how did the spice blend of gingerbread become such a holiday staple?

The dire crop outlook recently pushed wholesale cocoa prices to the highest in almost 45 years, and sugar to the most in over a decade, further raising the cost of making treats ahead of Christmas.

In 1847, he made a candy to symbolize Christ. The cane's "J" shape stands for Jesus; when turned upside-down, it becomes a shepherd's staff. The white color signifies purity; the red represents Christ's blood, shed for the world's sins, and three red stripes symbolize the trinity.

Candy is the excellent Christmas gift for people that have whatever since no person can have every type of sweet, and also no one can have way too much sweet.

Dopamine and Reward System

Dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward, plays a crucial role in the psychology of sweetness. Candy consumption activates the brain's reward system, reinforcing the association between indulging in sweets and experiencing pleasure.

Candy represents what happens to everyone who gets old in American society: They are let go, canned, thrown out, used up. Candy's greatest fear is that once he is no longer able to help with the cleaning he will be "disposed of." Like his old dog, he has lived beyond his usefulness.

There is a romantic element to candy as it is considered an appropriate gift for a man to give when courting a woman, though this may be an old-fashioned sentiment. However, considering the enormous connection between candy and Valentine's Day, there is still great power in candy as a symbol for expressing affection.