(Photo courtesy of Markki Pesce, and used with permission.)
Every Christmas season, Janice Nelson and her family have a unique tradition.
They invite Columbia State Historic Park visitors into their candy store to make candy canes! And these annual Christmastime candy-making weekends have proven so popular that now, they have to select their guests by lottery.
Janice is the proprietor of Nelson’s Columbia Candy Kitchen, a family-owned business started in 1926. Five generations of the Nelson family have made some pretty irresistible confections since the store opened, and all their candy is handmade.
While this year’s candy cane making sessions are already booked, you are cordially invited to come watch through the window and see them creating the old-fashioned red-and-white striped Christmas candy. You may well be tempted to pick up a sweet treat for the special people in your life and start making plans to make candy canes during Christmas season 2015 (here’s how to be considered for the drawing).
Janice talked about Nelson’s Columbia Candy Kitchen, her favorite memories of beginning to work there with her husband in the1960s and how their Christmas candy cane tradition got started.