What's a Christmas without Candy Canes?

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 6:44 am

Does anyone know where I can get some Candy Canes in London? Or a UK based shipping company? I'm working on the google searches myself, but figured someone might know...

Tak_the_whistler · Post by **Tak_the_whistler** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 6:53 am

I'm outwith UK, but did a google search nonethless. Have you come across this website? They seem to be offering international shipping.

www.aquarterof.co.uk

hope this helps.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 11:30 am

Ava, are there no Christmas candy canes in Britain? How...drab.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 1:02 pm

Do they have striped peppermint sticks of the unbent variety?

Sunnywindo · Post by **Sunnywindo** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 3:18 pm

avanutria wrote:What's a Christmas without Candy Canes?

I was going to say less fattening, but candy canes don't really have much fat in them. Perhaps less diabetic coma inducing?

Hope you find some candy canes. It's odd to think they are scarce there when over here the stores have them coming out their ears.

Sara

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 7:39 pm

avanutria wrote:Does anyone know where I can get some Candy Canes in London? Or a UK based shipping company? I'm working on the google searches myself, but figured someone might know...

My heavens!

It never occurred to me that there would be NO CANDY CANES in London!

I thought everyone had candy canes. They are a staple food!

Next, I suppose you'll tell me there is no candy corn on Halloween! No Peeps at Easter! No corndogs on the 4th of July!

Who else doesn't have them?

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 9:19 pm

Are candy canes those rounded sticks of pure sugar, shaped a bit like a walking stick and coloured like an old-fashioned barber's pole? Do people actually eat those things?

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 9:45 pm

Wombat wrote:Are candy canes those rounded sticks of pure sugar, shaped a bit like a walking stick and coloured like an old-fashioned barber's pole? Do people actually eat those things?

yes, yes, yes, and sometimes.

spittin_in_the_wind · Post by **spittin_in_the_wind** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 9:59 pm

Yes, and we hang them on the Christmas tree, too!

Robin

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 11:18 pm

emmline wrote:
Wombat wrote:Are candy canes those rounded sticks of pure sugar, shaped a bit like a walking stick and coloured like an old-fashioned barber's pole? Do people actually eat those things?
yes, yes, yes, and sometimes.

Oh, well, we have them here but I've never seen them in England.

They aren't part of mainstream Australian life and I'm not sure the shops that sell them have branches anywhere but Melbourne. Sweets and chocolates divide roughly into two kinds here. There are the cheap bars, loose lollies and chocolate bars and boxes by major manufacturers you can buy almost anywhere. Then there are the expensive Continental black chocolates, rich cakes and marzipans and so on.

There is a confectionary chain in Melbourne, perhaps elsewhere, which is nothing like either of those things: Darrell Lea. It is full of colourful bars, fairy flosses, licorices and other things which seem to have as much to do with decoration as feeding the sugar addiction. As a child, I couldn't walk past one of their outlets without feeling bilious. They were cheap, so I suppose they were treats for the folks who couldn't afford to induce their heart attacks through eating cheesecake and blackforest. I can honestly say that I have never seen any person I know with a candy cane, even though Darrell Lea displayed them prominently.

It certainly makes sense that they are used as Christmas decorations. That wouldn't work in Australia. With Christmas temperatures nudging 100 degrees F, things like that would melt. In any event, hanging them out would attract a migration of ants from the garden to the house giving Christmas a sort of Buddhist feel.

(PS, Em. I think your diagnosis of my computer problem is probably right. I just need to use several browsers and change when I strike trouble, just as I do at work. Thanks.)

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 11:25 pm

We should just mail her some, methinks.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 12:56 am

emmline wrote:
Wombat wrote:Are candy canes those rounded sticks of pure sugar, shaped a bit like a walking stick and coloured like an old-fashioned barber's pole? Do people actually eat those things?
yes, yes, yes, and sometimes.

Some are pure sugar, but most are of the same stuff as starlight mints. An old type of hard candy made of a mixture of sugar and syrup (flavored, of course, with peppermint oil). Customarily red and white peppermint, but cherry flavor is now quite popular, as well.

I don't think the barber pole coloration is accidental. The non-holiday straight version, called peppermint sticks, or simply, sticks of candy, were given to children in former times by barbers and shopkeepers, much as today they give bubblegum or lollipops.

The nursery rhyme goes,

Hippity hop to the barber shop to get a stick of candy,
One for you and one for me, and one for Sister Annie.

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 4:55 am

Woohoo, Candy canes are on their way!

Peggy wrote:Next, I suppose you'll tell me there is no candy corn on Halloween! No Peeps at Easter! No corndogs on the 4th of July!

Peggy, there is no candy corn (I brought my own from WalMart in September)! There are no Peeps at Easter! And as the fourth of July is not a holiday, there's likely nothing special offered except within the expatriate American community events. Martin says he has seen corn dogs "as a one off event. You might be able to get them at football matches or something like that, but they're definitely not a regularity."

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 4:16 am

We may not have candy canes, but we do have Christmas Crackers!

Your standard English Christmas cracker, for those in the dark, is a cardboard roll about 12" long, sealed near the ends, and containing:

paper crown
joke or motto
novelty item
a "crack"

The novelty is usually something cheap, such as a plastic figure, puzzle, squirty ring, or but can be replaced with more individualised and expensive gifts such as a diamond necklace or a set of car keys (the car generally not fitting in the cracker), depending on your host and the size of their wad.

In the spirit of Chiffymas this year the Milner/McDonald crackers each contained one of a set of whistles tuned (ahem, loosely) to an octave scale, enabling yours truly to line up his friends and relations and use them to play Christmas Carols.

Avanutria has a short video of the event, and will be posting the incriminating evidence in due course.

(Name this Carol:

4445441 212344 4445441 212344
8765654 212344 1123445 8765474)

jbarter · Post by **jbarter** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 6:13 am

Don't you have branches of Wilkinson's in Lunnon? They sell candy canes there. I can't quite remember if they're in the deco or the sweetie section.

BTW Martin, the same crackers will be in use in the Barter household this Christmas. They're just irresistable ain't they?

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