Raising cane

We all have our most despised Christmas carol, but what about that other overdone holiday abomination: Christmas candy?

The Candystore.com blog recently took a reader poll to find out which holiday sweets give folks nightmares of sugar bombs dancing in their heads the most. While the list may not surprise you, with the holiday regifting glut upon us, it probably bears repeating. A few of the biggest offenders:

1. Christmas tree nougat – “Everything about these is all wrong. First off, it looks like a poker chip that you can only cash in for sadness,” blogger Claire Robbins writes. “Wretched is a word that comes to mind. Seriously the WORST.”

2. Reindeer corn – A Christmas hued-variation of the Halloween staple, the corn scorn ran high among readers. (As lovers of candy corn, we and Robbins took issue with this. “There is substance here, people. It’s tasty sugary goodness,” Robbins wrote. We concur.)

3. Peeps – Another low-hanging fruit on the candy tree. “The texture alone gives me the heeby geebies,” wrote Robbins, who compared it to “swallowing rubbery styrofoam.” (For the record, we love Peeps almost as much as candy corn.)

4. Peppermint bark – This ubiquitous entry is a love-it-or-hate-it thing, with detractors referring to it as “Grinch vomit” and to white chocolate as the “runt of the chocolate family.”

5. Chocolate-covered cherry cordials – At last, one we can ALL agree on. Obviously, folks took issue with the plastic-y shell and the strange goop inside. And why the heck is it called a “cordial” – there is nothing polite about having one of these dribbling down your chin at the office party.