Pinky's call to ban candy canes.

You can tell it’s the last week of school by the sticky, stained fingers and faces of all the kids at school; it’s candy cane season. 

The carelessly discarded, annoying little pieces of cellophane blow freely around the gardens, oval and walkways on their way to the storm drain only to be swept out into the ocean to choke an unsuspecting turtle.

Some students suck their candy cane into sharp pointy spears which they use to stab each other. Others use the ones with golden strings attached as inventive earrings. 

The kids’ eyes are dilated in sugar-rush fever as they hand out the ubiquitous Christmas cards to their 29 classmates. I haven’t seen any sincere, meaningful messages on any of the cards, merely “To Jack, From Amy.”

I’m thinking the cards are a ruse to cover for the candy.

I have a rule. No eating candy canes until after the sausage roll at morning tea.

Apparently, a school in Darwin banned the giving of candy canes with Christmas cards and there was loud uproar from the parents. The dentists are the winners here, laughing all the way to the bank every January.

Candy canes were originally a religious symbol at Christmas. The “Good Shepherd’s Crook” or the “J” shape meaning Jesus, the white candy suggesting purity, the three red stripes denoting the Holy Trinity...

Now they’re just an added financial stress for Mum to add to her never-ending list of end of school year crap.

Every school should ban them.