Canelake’s Candies brings nostalgic holiday cheer to Virginia, MN

VIRGINIA, Minn. — Canelake’s Candies in Virginia is spreading holiday cheer and nostalgia with its classic Christmas display.

When the candy store came back to the Canelake family in 2018, it was the perfect opportunity to display a piece of Minnesota history.

After the Dayton’s department store in Minneapolis closed and auctioned off items, the Canelake family purchased an animatronic display from the stores popular 8th floor show.

The display consists of two reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh and various other holiday scenes.

The figures underwent a restoration process, including fixing broken hands and feet and repairing motors.

The display brings back a lot of memories for people who visited the original Dayton’s shows.

“It is a step back into time. And people love those memories of what they experienced in that when they were younger, or even recently. This is really touching a chord in people’s hearts, because lot of them actually went to the Dayton shows or heard about them,” Pamela Canelake-Mattson, Canelake’s Candies Owner said.

Canelake’s Candies is a staple in the Iron Range, and draws in many customers with the holiday display.

“It’s, just very neat to, you know, to see these things as you come up, like I said, they’ve been there for years. And it’s kind of a nostalgic thing for one thing,” Harry Salminen, a customer at Canelake’s Candies Customer.

Canelake’s Candies is the oldest continuous running candy store in the state and has been in business since 1905.