Who knew?

What are the MUST HAVES among your Christmas concoctions according to your family? My family each has their favorites. My husband’s favorite hands down is peanut butter fudge. My son loves chocolate peanut butter balls, sugared pecans, sugar cookies, and the list goes on and on. I really don’t think he has a favorite. I think he simply likes it all.

My daughter’s favorite is one I’ve been making for years because my younger brother always requested it too: peppermint bark. The funny thing is, it’s probably the easiest Christmas treat I make. It consists of taking about two dozen candy canes and breaking them into small pieces, which helps with any Christmas shopping aggression, and then dumping them into a pot of melted white chocolate. You pour the chocolate mixture out and spread it thin on waxed paper. Allow it to cool, then break it up into the desired size pieces. Easy! Honestly, the hardest part is getting the plastic wrapper from the candy cane to come off of your hand. It likes to cling to you.

Without fail, as I stand pulling the wrappers off of the candy canes, all twenty-four of them, I reflect on the message of the candy cane. The legend tells how every detail of the candy cane tells the story of Jesus.

It is in the shape of the letter “J” for Jesus [Matthew 1:21]. It also looks like a shepherd’s staff. They were the first ones to be told of Jesus’ birth [Luke 2:8-12]. The red stripes on the candy cane remind us how he bore stripes of pain and suffering and bled and died for our sins [Isaiah 53:5]. The candy cane is also white, because His blood washes us making us whiter than snow [Psalm 51:7].

The candy cane doesn’t just taste good to us. It can be used as a simple visual to spread the Good News of Jesus.

What creative ways do you use to share Jesus with others? Feel free to share those or your favorite Christmas recipe here. I’m always looking for a new one to try.