M&M's Selection Box - 137g

In Britain the selection box is less a sweet than a tradition. One from an aunt, one from a grandparent, one from the neighbour who always remembers, all stacked under the tree with a name on each.

So people in Canada go looking for it for one reason: they want Christmas morning to feel like theirs. Parents want the children to have the same box they had. Others want a Christmas gift for someone who misses home and would rather open something familiar than something sensible.

The box is a proper stocking shape, flat enough to slide in behind the satsuma. Kept in a cool, dry cupboard it waits quite happily until the big morning. Some people save it for Boxing Day, which takes a strength of character most of us do not have.

It tends to go home with other selection boxes, so every child gets their own and nobody has to negotiate. A tin of chocolates for the grown-ups usually ends up in the same bag.