The egg will always have its place under the age of about twelve. For everyone else at the Easter table, a hamper built around darker, hand-finished chocolate is the more considered gift, and the one more likely to be finished with pleasure rather than obligation.

More information is available at individually wrapped chocolates.

The first argument is simply that chocolate lasts. Flowers are beautiful for a few days and then gone. A boxed selection stays, gets shared, and gives the pleasure of choosing across an evening rather than being admired once and then wilting on the windowsill. For a gift meant to say something, lasting a little longer is no bad thing.

Chocolate Hampers works as a thank-you because it is generous without being personal in a way that feels awkward. A teacher does not have to wear it, display it or find room for it. A boxed assortment can be opened at home over the holidays, shared with the staffroom, or kept back as a treat, and it says thank you without asking anything in return.

Individually wrapped chocolates change the maths. Each piece is its own small gift, which means one box can be shared out across three or four stockings without anyone feeling short-changed. A wrapped praline tucked in beside an orange and a paperback reads as considered rather than filler. It also solves the problem of the mixed household, where one person wants dark chocolate and another will only touch milk.

The third thing is the address and the message. A gift sent to a workplace needs to arrive on a day the recipient is in. A gift to a home is safer if someone is likely to be there, though a boxed selection left in a porch will come to no harm in cold weather. Adding a written message at the point of ordering means the gift arrives ready to give rather than needing a separate card.