As the Hudson Valley closes in on Christmas, News 12 went to Lucas Candies in Haverstraw to see how candy canes are made.

Fourth generation owner Nick Loucas and his partner Deb Bertrand put on one of their candy cane demonstrations for us.

We learned that it's not an easy task! "It's very labor intensive. We do everything by hand. So, it's kind of exhausting, but we do enjoy it. It is fun, but we have a lot of sore muscles at Christmastime," says Loucas.

First, they cook the sugar. Then they pour both the white part and the red part on to a greased table - separately - then they mix it up.

Then comes the tiring part - turning the sugar white!

The sugar needs to be pulled on a cane about 75 times to allow the air to turn the sugar white.

Then, the red part and the white part come together and are twisted and cut and shaped into a delicious candy cane.

Lucas Candies has been on Main Street for 126 years when Loucas' great-grandfather, a Greek immigrant, came to Haverstraw.

When they first started selling candy canes again in 2016, they were a huge hit. "It was insane. We had a couple hundred candy canes ready to go, and it just took off! And our store was packed to the point to where we sold 10 times that - over 3,000 candy canes in a week," says Loucas.

Candy cane demonstrations were postponed because of the pandemic. This year is their first year back. This weekend is the last full round of demonstrations but there will be a special Christmas Eve pajama party at 1 p.m.

For more information on the demonstration schedule, click here.