Maltesers Small Selection Box - 73g

The selection box is as much a part of a UK Christmas as the cracker joke nobody laughs at. Every child got one, usually from a grandparent, often several, and the unofficial rule was that it could be eaten at any hour on the big day without comment.

In Canada, people go looking for it because the ritual is half the point. The box with the window in the front, the stocking with something rectangular in the toe: that is what Christmas morning looked like, and it is nice when it still does.

This is the small one, a proper stocking filler that will not ruin anyone's appetite for dinner (in theory). Keep it somewhere cool and dry until the day, well away from the radiator and the warm glow of the tree lights, because chocolate has opinions about both.

One box rarely goes far in a family. Most people buy a few: one per stocking, plus one for the grown-up who insists they do not want one and then quietly eats it on Boxing Day.