The Natural Confectionery Company Christmas Box €3.50 Highs: The jellies in this box are very good and certainly make a change from all the heavy chocolate to be found in the competition.

The packaging is nice and bright and will impress young children while allowing adults to feel slightly better about themselves for not loading up their kids with too much junk. It's also a comparatively cheap option.

Lows: While the box is big and impressive-looking, the actual return once you open it is pretty poor - all you get for you money is four very small (and one mid-sized) bags of jellies. Children may wonder about the absence of chocolate while Pricewatch was left wondering why there were none of the company's awesomely sour jellies included.

Verdict: We wanted sour jellies

Star rating: ***

Kinder Christmas Selection

€5.49

Highs: This box promises 12 "full-sized Kinder treats", although we have to say that some of them looked a little on the tiny size to us.There is also an "ice steps and snow slides" game on the back of the box (that'd be snakes and ladders) that might act as a diversion for, oh, all of 30 seconds.

Lows: While the box promises 12 treats, what you get are four varieties of chocolate bar (none of which tastes particularly nice) and absolutely no Kinder surprises whatsoever, which is the least we expected after shelling out this much money.

Verdict: Disappointingly dull

Star rating: **

Nestlé Christmas Collection

€3.59

Highs: This box has a nice Christmassy feel and contains eight varieties of sweets that are instantly recognisable. It is comparatively cheap and there are both chocolates and jellies in the box. Apart from the mini mint Aero bar, nothing is likely to get left behind.

Lows: There is a huge amount of unnecessary plastic in this box (something all the selection boxes are guilty of to a greater or lesser degree), which makes the various chocolate treats look a little lonely. The game on the back of the box is, it has to be said, utterly useless.

Verdict: A nice selection

Star rating: ****

Maltesers & Friends

€3.49

Highs: This is the cheapest selection box we happened across, although it is only a single cent cheaper than its closest rival. It looks quite ample at first glance, with two bags of Maltesers, a bag of Revels, a bag of Minstrels and two bars of chocolate.

Lows: While the bags look big, the contents are pretty miserly. There were just 10 Minstrels and 20 Maltesers in the box, and the bars were on the small side. The variety was a bit disappointing and the chocolate a bit dull. The game on the back is called "the snowman's mountain climb" (that'd be snakes and ladders again) and cutting out the cardboard counters is such a fiddly operation that you'd need to have surgical training to do it with any degree of accuracy.

Verdict: Not a lot to show for it

Star rating: **

Cadbury Magic of Christmas

€5.99

Highs: For many people, this is the default selection box, and with good reason. There are 11 varieties of chocolate, and novelties such as the Christmas elf and the chocolate Santa sit alongside instantly recognisable bars such as the Crunchie, the Flake and, of course, the legendary Curly Wurly. We were relieved not to be asked to play a Christmassy form of snakes and ladders on the back of the box, instead being presented with five "magical elf facts".

Lows: Mind you, we're not sure what is either elfish or magical about the fact that British military officers traditionally serve their men lunch on Christmas Day - but there you go. It is the most expensive box we tried, but also the biggest.

Verdict: Top notch

Star rating: *****