No single person is definitively known to have “invented” the candy cane, and historians consider its origin uncertain. Instead, the familiar red‑and‑white, peppermint, J‑shaped cane evolved over time from earlier straight sugar sticks.

Early origins

Sources generally trace the use of cane‑like sugar sticks in Christmas celebrations to Europe in the 17th–19th centuries, especially Germany, but these accounts are based more on tradition than on firm documentation. A popular legend credits a choirmaster in Cologne, Germany, in the late 1600s with bending sugar sticks into a shepherd’s‑crook shape for children at church, but this story cannot be verified from contemporary records.

Development of the modern cane

The first clearly documented appearance of candy canes in the United States is from 1847, when August Imgard, a German‑Swedish immigrant in Ohio, decorated his Christmas tree with them. The now‑standard red stripes and peppermint flavor were added later, around the late 19th or early 20th century, as candy makers refined both the look and taste.

Mass production and key figures

Several named individuals helped turn candy canes into the modern, mass‑produced product:

• Robert “Bob” McCormack in Georgia began producing candy canes commercially in the early 20th century and grew one of the leading candy‑cane companies.

• His brother‑in‑law, Gregory Harding Keller, invented a machine in the 1950s that automated bending and striping, making large‑scale production practical.

Because of this gradual evolution, historians describe the candy cane as a product of many contributors rather than the invention of a single, clearly identifiable person.