Cadbury Small Selection Box - 78g

In Britain the selection box is less a present than a fixture. Every child gets at least one, usually from a grandparent, and it is open well before the turkey is out of the oven. Chocolate before nine in the morning is not just allowed on the day, it is expected.

In Canada it is the thing you suddenly miss when December arrives and nobody is going to hand you one. Picking one up yourself is how you give the kids the same Christmas morning you had, or quietly give it to yourself.

The small one is a proper stocking filler: it slides into the top of the sock with room left for the satsuma underneath. It keeps happily in a cool cupboard, which helps, because the wise move is to buy a few and hide one for Boxing Day.

Cadbury reaches well beyond the box, from a plain bar of Dairy Milk to the tins passed round after dinner. People who come in for a selection box tend to leave with a bar for the walk home and a few more boxes for the cousins.