First and foremost Merry Christmas to everyone. Now I know that at Easter time we have the eggs which symbolises new life and the bunny rabbit that can multiply really fast. Now that is Easter.

At Christmas time however we instead have Candy Canes. Why do we have Candy Canes at Christmas time and what does that symbolise? Is there some kind of story about how the Candy Cane came into play? Also why is it traditionally red and white? What do those colours signify?

The cane is a shepherd's hook, which has a lot of biblical significance. Most relevantly to Christmas, Christ was described as a shepherd in the Gospel. The whole trend originated in Europe, I believe.

The red and white I had to google. Apparently these stripes only appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. Nobody's really sure why, but it's similar in fashion to a barber's pole.