The history of Vashon’s kooky candy canes

This article has been updated to clarify and correct the history of Vashon’s candy canes after the 1977 fire.

Early one morning two weeks ago, Terry Donnelly and I were out photographing the crews putting up the Vashon candy canes.

It was a freezing, foggy, windy day, but luckily there was no rain.

Hanging and hooking up candy canes and wreaths in the wind — with cold rainwater running down the insides of your coat sleeves every time you reach up — is no fun, according to Wes Petersen of Puget Sound Energy, who has been hanging and connecting the Vashon candy canes to electricity for the last two decades.

The lighted candy canes have been an island tradition for the last 53 years. Before the candy canes were purchased by the Vashon Businessmen’s Association in 1970, the main street of Vashon had a string of lighted garlands crisscrossing Vashon Highway.

This provided the town area with what felt like a ceiling of sparkling lights.

The Vashon Businessmen’s Association, led by the Jaycees, purchased the original Vashon Candy Canes in 1970. But we lost them all in 1977, and without a heroic effort by the community to raise the funds to replace them, the story would have ended there.

When the candy canes were first purchased, they were stored in the second story of the Vashon Pharmacy building, which was located where the current one-story Vashon Pharmacy is located. That worked well until the 1977 Vashon Town Fire, which began in the back of Bud’s General Store next door to the Pharmacy.

The late October fire destroyed Bud’s, the Vashon Pharmacy, PJ’s Tavern, and four other businesses. Gusting winds and low water pressure fanned the fire and hampered the efforts of the Vashon Fire Department volunteers to quell the flames. The entire center section of the block was burned, including the stored candy canes.

The newly purchased 1977 candy canes are the ones that still serve us today to welcome the holiday season. Every year, the “Saga of the Candy Canes” takes place under the guidance of a large group of community volunteers, with the help of the Puget Sound Energy (PSE) line crew.

After the fire, the new candy canes were stored in the back of the True Value store (now Vashon Ace Hardware). Eventually, when True Value expanded to use that part of the property, the candy canes were moved to Bettie Edward’s barn.

Each year, what Bettie described as a “screwing party” was held in her barn. The candy canes were pulled out of storage, the individual light bulbs that had burned out were unscrewed and a new bulb was screwed in. This was before strings of LED lights; now we just replace the entire string when the lights burn out.

Once the candy canes were fluffed up a bit and lights were replaced, Bob and Joann Elston, of Vashon Pony Express, used their truck to pick up the candy canes at Bettie’s and delivered them to the appropriate telephone poles that had hanging brackets installed. Once distributed, the PSE crew came along with their cherry picker bucket trucks, mounted the canes, and connected them to power.

The candy cane storage was moved to what Doug Snyder described as “Rat Haven” in 1999, after Edwards sold the barn property. “Rat Haven” is a storage trailer at the King County Road Service Center on Cemetery Road. Because garbage trucks were parked next to the storage trailer, rats proliferated.

Every year when Doug Snyder and Mike Weed pulled out the candy canes, they would have to run out all the rats before they took the candy canes to the Eagles, who replaced Bettie Edward’s “screwing parties” with their own annual party to refurbish the candy canes.

The team at The Eagles fluffed up the candy canes, replaced damaged tinsel, and replaced burned-out strings of lights. Once ready to be installed, the candy canes were loaded into the back of the Ace Hardware truck and dropped at the designated telephone poles.

The map locating the poles with bracket hooks was very Vashon: It was drawn on the back of an envelope. Wes Petersen and his PSE crew would install the candy canes with their cherry-picker bucket trucks, while the ground crew would hang candy canes on the bucket by their crook and provide traffic control. The PES line crew installed them on the bracket hooks and wired them to the power lines.

This year, the process was repeated like it has been for the past 53 years. The Chamber of Commerce thanked Schafer Specialty Landscaping, RO Enterprises, Windermere Vashon, the Vashon Eagles, and Puget Sound Energy for making it happen.

Nate Schafer and Eloy Carrillo retrieved the candy canes from storage (still at Rat Haven), delivered them to The Eagles refurbishment crew, and on the cold, foggy, windy morning Terry and I were out with them, set the candy canes and wreaths at the appropriate telephone poles.

Within an hour, Wes Peterson and his PSE line crew arrived and began the process of installing and wiring candy canes and wreaths.

Talking with those who have kept the candy cane tradition alive, they all said they rarely received thanks from islanders for what they volunteer to do, and only occasionally hear criticism of the candy canes. Perhaps the best-known criticism came in the form of two humorous opinion pieces in The Beachcomber, written by the late, great Will North.

His December 2011 opinion piece entitled “Vashon’s plastic candy canes: Are they past their sell-by date?” and his follow-up piece in February 2012, “Could the candy canes become hearts?” considered the decorations “eyesores — oops, festive candy canes.”

“The thing about plastic candy canes,” North wrote, is that “unlike your polyester leisure suit, they never die. … They are virtually indestructible. It’s very un-Vashon.”

He considered additional possibilities: “For example, if you linked two of those ratty candy canes together, facing each other, as it were, you’d have a heart! And Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! … But why stop there? If we leave the canes up just a little longer and add blue plastic to the red and white, we’re looking at a heck of a Fourth of July display. I mean, who needs flags when you have candy canes?”

Whether you love or hate the Vashon candy canes, with the COVID pandemic slowly winding down to become another seasonal disease, I find the ritual of the Vashon candy canes to be somehow very reassuring.

They are funky. They are old and battered. They celebrate sugary candy. But they welcome the holiday season. They provide some bright lights and festive feelings during this darkest time of the year. And they “Keep Vashon Weird.”

Bruce Haulman is an Island historian. Terry Donnelly is an Island photographer.

Terry Donnelly photo Wes Peterson installs and wires candy cane decorations.

Eloy Carrillo and Nate Schafer distribute Island Christmas decorations for installation and hanging for the Vashon Chamber of Commerce. Terry Donnelly photo

Puget Sound Energy employee Wes Peterson is part of the team that wires the island’s iconic candy canes. Terry Donnelly photo

From 1963: Crews string up the lighted garlands that criss-crossed Vashon Highway before the candy canes were purchased in 1971. Photo courtesy Vashon Heritage Museum