CHOCOLATES AT CHRISTMAS IN THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES

Chocs.

Ah, the food of the Gods!

Chocs and Christmas. A marriage made in Heaven. What do I remember of this beautiful union?

Selection Boxes: the very essence of my childhood Christmasses, the spirit of Yuletide in a plastic tray of chocolate bars. Mars. Flake. Bounty. Picnic. Crunchy. Curly Wurly. They were all there. Like a big thick postcard from Santa himself. Flippin 'Eck, how I loved those Selection Boxes and there was always something cool to do on the back too. Many were TV related! OMG!

And then there were Chocolate Oranges. These were a ball of choc in thick slices shaped like an orange. It was wrapped in orange foil. To 'open' the choc ball you tapped it on a table, at which point the slices would fan out and fall. Deelicious.

Just Brazils were just that, Big brazil nuts blathered in thick milk chocolate. I think the makers were Beech's. Biting into the coating was wonderful and the mix of chocolate and brazil was simply divine.

Boxes of chocolates were everywhere too. The exotic and dark Black Magic. The quirky Weekend. The reliable Dairy Box and the James Bond of chocs, Milk Tray. There were also huge flat boxes of chocs with puppies or similar syrupy image on the lid. When these were done there must have been a hundred small empty choc papers in the box.

Empty papers were also aplenty when Roses and Quality Street came out. I can still see the large round tin of Quality Street at the centre of everything at Crimbo, a tin emblazoned with Victorian Hussars and petticoated ladies enjoying themselves.

The last chocs, literally the last, were those still dangling on the tree on Boxing Day. The best ones had been scoffed by then so only a few well-hidden Santas and Snowmen wrapped in foil were left for the intrepid chocoholic.

Leaving choccy to one side, there were other delectables to be had in the Christmas household of the Sixties and Seventies if you looked closely.

Glass jars of glaced cherries could be raided. Whether these were real cherries I've no idea but I always had a few to keep me going. 

Similarly dubious as to whether they were real, glazed fruit slices that came in a box. These looked like fruit slices, like lemons and oranges, festooned in sugar and having a somewhat sickly taste. I can see the greenish box now!

Unquestionably proper fruit, dates were as much Christmas as the prize turkey. I don't know why we didn't eat them at any other time of the year, cos they were scrumptious. they were always Moroccan. Packed in a barge-like tray, they came with a long plastic spear or fork to aid eating. Like little fat leather cushions, dates were stickier than snail slime and couldn't really be handled, just eaten. For some bizarre reason, the discarded stones always ended up back in the tray next to the uneaten dates! Yuk!

Last and not least and a welcome return to chocolate and nuts, Walnut Whips were and are my fave Christmas treat. While my Big Bros were chomping on Uncle Joe's Mint Balls I was cruching through the thick mantle of a whip, biting into that fluffy white creme and taking in the walnut crown on the way. Perfection. I think my Mum got them from  BHS or M&S, their own home brands.

This is a tradition that's lasted and I always get a box of Walnut Whips on my December Birthday or on the Big day itself from my family. The supermarket house-brand from Tesco. Yum!

Which choc and sweets did you or do you scoff at Christmas