When I was growing up, my Prussian (German speaking Pole) grandmother used to host holiday family banquets for her rather large extended family. All of the aunts would get together for a week or more before hand and cook-cook-cook.
One of the things they would make for Christmas was
aniseseed candy. It was a bright red transparent hard candy and tasted like quite strong licorice. Amazon has something called
Red Anise Squares Candy but I haven't tried it.