This is a huge candy cane decorated with a red gift ribbon. A candy cane is a cane-shaped stick candy. It is traditionally white with red stripes and flavored with peppermint, but they also come in a variety of other flavors and colors. A common folkloric story of the origin of candy canes says that in 1670, in Cologne, Germany, the choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral, wishing to remedy the noise caused by children in his church during the Living Crèche tradition of Christmas Eve, asked a local candy maker for some "sugar sticks" for them. In order to justify the practice of giving candy to children during worship services, he asked the candy maker to add a crook to the top of each stick, which would help children remember the shepherds who visited the infant Jesus. As with other forms of stick candy, the earliest canes were manufactured by hand.