The First North Pole Stripe — Behind Candy Ridge, Bram tapped a plain white cane on the snow: thump, thump, puff. Read the full story →
Behind Candy Ridge, Bram tapped a plain white cane on the snow: thump, thump, puff. He had promised himself he could make a walking stick big enough for Santa’s night walk and bright enough not to vanish in the flakes. The pole smelled like sugar and cold mint. “Just one more shine,” Bram whispered.
He rubbed it with peppermint bark he had crushed by hand. Scritch, scritch—red dust curled into rings around the cane. Santa lifted it, grinned under his snowy mustache, and marched off while stars winked above the pines. Ever since, North Pole candy canes wear red stripes, because Bram’s handmade marks helped Santa find his way through thump, thump, puff snow.
