Skittles & Friends Medium Selection Box - 150.5g

The selection box is a very British bit of Christmas. It is the present from the auntie who never quite knows what you are into, the one stacked under the tree with your name on in biro, and the first thing eaten on the big day, usually before the presents are finished.

People in Canada go looking for this one because the box itself is the tradition. Parents who grew up with one want their kids to have the same morning, and grown-ups who left Britain years ago still feel that something is missing when there is no box to tear into.

It is a medium box, which in selection box terms means plenty without being silly. It keeps happily in the cupboard until the day, slides under the tree or into the top of a stocking, and is a nice change if the rest of the haul is wall-to-wall chocolate.

It sits well alongside other UK selection boxes, a tin for passing round after dinner and a few small stocking fillers, so everyone has their own pile and nobody has to share. Officially, anyway.