The British public have named their favourite Christmas sweets, and it's definitely controversial

There are separate rules when it comes to Christmas foods.

Thinking of switching out the ham in your Eggs Benedict for pigs in blankets? Not in November, you’re not, but when the 12th month arrives you’re all over it.

Don’t think an entire turkey dinner belongs on top of a pizza or in a kebab? You do now.

But it’s not just the savoury stuff.

As we all know, ‘just a handful of sweets’ counts as a meal between 23-27 December, maybe an extra day either side if you’re feeling particularly indulgent.

Additionally, you might be full of meat and potatoes, but there’s still always room for a ‘second dinner’ of a pile of chocolate, vaguely grabbed at from a distance while playing Scrabble.

Christmas sweets aren’t even your regular run-of-the-mill candy, either. There are certain products that don’t even register for the other 11 months of the year, but come December you can eat nothing else. Why should chocolate coins only be saved for Christmas? And even the holy Terry’s Chocolate Orange.

And now, with that qualifier in mind, the British public tried to figure out which one is the best.

It’s all the result of a survey carried out by Andy Baxendale, the self-styled ‘Sweet Consultant’ who made meat and potato pie flavoured sweets this year, for some reason.

He asked 1,000 Brits for their favourite festive sweet, and some favourites were nowhere near the top of the tree.

Quality Street? Just fifth. Matchmakers? Down in 10th. Celebrations? Not even on the damn list.

Instead, the winner was Ferrero Rocher, which rose above the obstacle of nut allergies to pip After Eights to the top spot.

“With Ferrero Rocher, sales have risen approximately 17% each year and in the UK sell around 130 million – and that’s enough for two each for every member of the UK population,” Baxendale said.

That’s right, two each on average. When you consider all the people who don’t have any, that’s a lot of people eating more than two of the things.

The UK’s 10 favourite Christmas sweets are as follows:

1. Ferrero Rocher (the daddy)
2. After Eights (an honourable runner-up)
3. Candy canes (extra points for Christmassiness)
4. Edible tree decorations/advent calendar treats (ditto, but a bit of a cop-out)
5. Quality Street (yeah, OK)
6. Sugared almonds (not sweets, are they)
7. Orange and lemon jelly slices (the worst flavours, what’s going on here?)
8. Coffee creams (have these people eaten sweets before?)
9. Terry’s Chocolate Orange (OK, now we’re back to normal)
10. Matchmakers (harshly overlooked for a higher slot)

(Images: Sylvanus Urban/Pexels/Rex)