Ribbon Candy | Up Close

Many New Englanders have never experienced a Christmas season without those corrugated creations that are one part candy, one part decoration. But this summer brought the ribbon-cutting word that Gilson’s company was discontinuing production and putting the ribbon candy portion of its business up for sale.

America’s oldest family-owned candy company, F.B. Washburn has been making confections of various sorts since 1856, when Franklin Pierce was president. Christmas wouldn’t even be declared a national holiday until 1870.

The exact origins of ribbon candy have been lost to history. F.B. Washburn didn’t get into the ribbon candy business until the 1960s. But since 1986, when it bought out Sevigny’s, the Massachusetts company that was its chief competitor, F.B. Washburn has not only supplied the treats to large retailers like Walmart under the Sevigny’s brand name but also served as the under-the-radar maker of ribbon candy sold by Russell Stover, Fannie Farmer, and other familiar brands.

The production season for F.B. Washburn’s ribbon candy stretched from March through Thanksgiving, during which time the company would churn out 400 pounds of ribbon candy an hour, 10 hours a day, four days a week. “I grew up learning how to make candy,” says Gilson, who, along with his cousin Doug, represents the third generation of his family to run the company. “I’ve made ribbon candy for the last 44 Christmases. There’s a rhythm to a seasonal business, almost like a harvest. Watching inventory build is like watching crops grow.”

But now, with no fourth generation champing at the bit to take over, the Gilsons say, “it is time for us to pass the torch to someone who appreciates the tradition and can build on it.”