#1 Buy them at Went/BM is the absolute fastest. The longer the event runs the cheaper they will be
Im finding the Baby New year a decent return/time. The Winter event if you have a critical mass of folks is a fast way of getting them as well
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I found that doing the BNY mish at -1/1 heading straight to the Guardian to get the key then wasting Snaptooth.Take BNY to the exit and choosing the 5 CC options is pretty good in addition you get CC as drops for defeats in the mish help.
As Cat suggested WW/BM is fastest but will cost you in the long run.Best of luck..
BNY missions might be faster, but I'd argue that defeating Winter Lord is more interesting and much less repetitive. It also has the added advantages of: 1) getting to hang out with more people (and helping some of them get the new badges), 2) collecting stuff while you're opening presents while looking for the Winter Lord, 3) getting merit rewards when you defeat the Winter Lord, and 4) snagging a few extra candy canes here and there by hanging out in Lord Winter's Realm after he's defeated and defeating snowmen.
Totally my opinion, though, YMMV.
We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.
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I tend to frequent the low population servers and for the first time played on Freedom last night. Madness! There were tons of people farming the Lord of Winter. If I were smart I'd create a character just to run that, repeatedly, and then take advantage of the free server transfers and send the candy canes where they were needed. if I were smart . . .
I'm gonna echo the recommendation for Lord of Winter. You get present rewards while spawning LoW, candy canes if you're in a level-appropriate zone when defeating the Winter Horde that come from Naughty presents, 2 merits from the Winter Lord, 8 merits from Lord of Winter, and a bunch of candy canes from Winter Horde that die in the crossfire of fighting LoW.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
And 20 candy canes at the same time as the 8 merits. 
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What is the best way to get a good amount of Candy Canes for the badges/emote/other items? I have a bunch of characters to do it for and not a lot of time.
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