Christmas Chocolates for this Holiday Season
Looking for a no-fuss and easy-to-find Christmas chocolates for the holidays? Well, Dessert Advisor has your back! These are go-to desserts during the festive season. They’re inexpensive and provide you with this wonderful tasty feeling. Curious to see if your favourite Christmas chocolate made its way onto our list?
Take a look at our picks! First, as for every dessert, there’s always a history associated with it. Keep on reading to have fun and learn more!
Solid Milk Chocolate Santa (Laura Secord)
Chocolate Figures
Our holiday dessert list starts off with chocolate figures. At every dessert shop and bakery, you will come across this Xmas chocolate. Let’s learn a little more about how these figures came to be.
Chocolate has a deep and rich history. It was first discovered in Antiquity by the Aztecs, Toltecs and Maya in Mesoamerica. Once the Europeans colonised the Americas, the Aztec recipe was loved by the European settlers. When Europeans found a way to create milk chocolate and enjoy chocolate in solid form in the 20th century, they started making chocolate figures and other fun shapes. You can read the full history in our milk chocolate blog.
Since then, chocolate figures in the shapes of Christmas trees, Santa Claus and elves have grown popular and loved by many children. Chocolate figures are especially used as stocking stuffers. Head to your local store and stock up on chocolate figures this Christmas!
Brandy Beans Chocolates (sold at IGA)
Liquor-filled Chocolates
Looking for chocolates and alcohol to spice up your holidays? Why not have the cake and eat it too? Liqueur-filled chocolates are the answer. But where did it exactly come from?
Some say that liquor-filled chocolate originated in the 1920s. This is because it was unladylike for women to drink alcohol back then. What’s a better way to consume alcohol discreetly? Put them in chocolates! But, making these small little chocolate liquor bottles is not as easy as it seems.
Instead, they decided to pour the liquor into a cornstarch mould. By doing so, the starch removes the water. This helped form a delicate crystalline structure which can be delicately dipped into chocolate.
Liquor-filled chocolates come in different flavours:
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Brandy Beans:
They are fun bean-shaped chocolates filled with brandy.
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Mini Bottle:
Christmas chocolates: These little bottles come in a variety of alcoholic shots.
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Cordial Cherries:
They are chocolate-covered cherries, and the liquor-filled cherries taste sweet, creating a perfect harmony!
Lindt Christmas Milk Chocolate Advent Calendar (Lindt)
Advent Calendars – Assorted Christmas Chocolates
Another well-loved Christmas chocolate: Advent calendars! They are a perfect way to countdown the days towards Christmas. Every day, you are rewarded with a sweet little treat.
The advent calendar is based on the 5th-century Christian tradition. People used to fast for three days every week before the coming of Jesus Christ. The time period associated with waiting for Jesus was named Advent. “Adventus” in Latin means “coming”. Throughout history, the month of December eventually became the advent of the arrival of Christmas!
To ease up the waiting for Christmas, children received a small triptych (a picture or relief carving on three panels) to open every morning to countdown the days towards December 24th. These little windows represent the doors to the advent calendars that we know today. If you’re still looking for chocolate advent calendars, make sure you grab one at a shop near you!
After Eight Dark Chocolate Mint Thins (Nestle)
Mint Chocolates
There’s a specific flavour that is special to the holiday season, and this chocolate surpasses all of your expectations: mint chocolates! By adding peppermint, spearmint or “crème de menthe”, it creates a cool and sweet flavour.
Amon the popular, yet nostalgic, mint chocolates are After Eights. They are thin after-dinner chocolates filled with a mint-flavoured fondant. They’re great to eat after a Christmas dinner, especially since they taste refreshing and of course, minty!
There are a lot of other mint chocolates to try. If you haven’t tried mint-flavoured Christmas chocolates, give them a try. You’ll be surprised by how much you’ll enjoy them!
Chocolate Coins (Purdy’s)
Christmas Chocolate Coins
Moving on, we have chocolate coins. They are extremely fun and delicious to eat after a heartwarming Christmas dinner. Furthermore, the process of unwrapping a chocolate coin is satisfying.
If you didn’t know, chocolate coins are a bridge between Christmas and Hanukkah. In Jewish traditions, parents gave Gelt (money) to children to play a game of dreidel (four-sided spinning top). In Christmas traditions, chocolate coins were left by Saint Nicholas on the night of December 5th. Children who were considered good would receive sweets and chocolates. However, the naughty children would be punished by the père Fouettard (giving lumps of coal), who accompanied Saint Nicholas.
Keep the traditions and get yourself chocolate coins this holiday!
DeHeer Chocolate Letters (sold at The Candy Bar)
Chocolate Letters
Up next in our list of Christmas chocolates, we’re moving on to chocolate letters. The joy of eating these comes from their different sizes and flavours. There is a chocolate letter suited to everyone’s taste.
The Dutch give chocolate letters at Christmas to children to offer a personalised sweet gift. Children were considered lucky if their names started with M or W. Each year, there is always a discussion about which chocolate letter has the most chocolate in them. People thought that letters that were traditionally larger (i.e an “M” versus a “C”) must have contained more chocolate.
But chocolate letter companies debunked this idea: All letters have equal content of chocolate, in spite of their shape. Regardless, you can still expect some people to look for “larger” letters this holiday season. There’s nothing more fun than looking for the first letter of your name! Go ahead and check out dessert shops to get a hold of this treat.
Russell Stover Let It Snow Tin (Russell Stover)
Christmas Chocolates – Specialty Edition
Saving the best for last: Christmas edition chocolates! During the holiday season, your favourite chocolates transform into Christmas specialties.
Not only do they fill you up with the holiday spirit, but they are also great gifts to send to your loved ones or stocking stuffers. Most Christmas edition chocolates include an assortment of the most-beloved chocolates, as well as sought-after flavours during the holidays such as peppermint, cinnamon, truffles and so much more.
Bundle up around the fireplace, and share with your loved ones. It isn’t truly a holiday without chocolates.
Did your favourite Christmas chocolate make its way on our list? The holidays always bring so much joy, and of course, desserts! Don’t wait until the last minute to get a hold of these holiday treats. Check out for Xmas chocolate sweets near you!
