The second thing is lead time. Every seasonal peak has a delivery cut-off, and it is always earlier than people expect. The safe approach is to order several days before you think you need to, not the day before. Ordering early does not spoil the gift, because chocolate keeps, so an early arrival is simply the recipient having their gift in hand with room to spare.

A hamper works because it spreads the pleasure out. Instead of one shape to unwrap, there is a selection to move through across the long weekend: pralines to pass around after lunch, a share bag for the children, a boxed assortment kept back for the adults. Each piece is handcrafted in Newbridge, Co. Kildare, where the company has made chocolate since Mary Ann O'Brien began in her kitchen in 1992, and the range reflects that same attention to finish.

The office at Christmas is a difficult room to buy for. There are people you know well and people you have only met by email, dietary preferences you are not across, and a Secret Santa budget that does not stretch far. Individually wrapped chocolates answer most of that in one go.

Small share bags do a similar job from the other direction. Rather than splitting a box, you drop a whole bag into a single stocking, which suits the person who likes to graze through the morning rather than open everything at once. They sit well next to the satsuma at the toe of the stocking and take up little room.

The egg will always have its place under the age of about twelve. For everyone else at the Easter chocolate hamper 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.

Easter rewards a bit of planning. Order early enough that the collection arrives before the weekend, and you have a gift that carries through Good Friday to Easter Monday rather than a single shape that is gone by mid-morning. The egg still has its place. It simply does not have to stand alone.