Yes they are. And it’s The Big One. The Christmas One. You can’t miss it. It’s everywhere. And you’ll be hearing about more Christmas stuff from us here at The Queen's Pantry over the next few weeks, because, quite frankly, we bloody love Christmas. And you know when Christmas starts? When you hear that jingle…..Holidays are coming, holidays are coming…and you see the Coca Cola truck, slowly inching its way down a snow-driven pass. Because nothing screams Christmas more than a gas-guzzling 64 wheeler truck, decorated in sparkling lights and Coca Cola Santa, driving through the snow, dishing out a carbonated drink, crammed with enough sugar to wake Sleepy Joe up, to people on the verge of a heart attack. Ho Ho Ho.

There’s an urban myth that Santa Claus wears red because of Coca Cola. You see, originally Father Christmas was always depicted wearing green. It matched his eyes. And Coca Cola wanted to encourage people to drink Coke during the winter months, as it was generally seen as a Summer drink. So they dressed Santa in red, and everyone drank so much Coke at Christmas that in the delirium of the sugar rush, they believed that Red Santa was real and was invented by Coke.

At this point, I’m gonna be careful, because, you know, Coca Cola was invented in Atlanta, and some of you might work there. So just to clarify, Coca Cola is awesome, it’s incredibly healthy, it in no way contains 15 teaspoons of sugar in every can and Father Christmas is real.

Anyway, Santa drank so much Coke that he became a bit chubby, the reindeers complained of bad backs, so Diet Coke was invented. Out went the sugar, in came the Aspartame, which fortunately didn’t cause obesity, and the reindeers picked up their sleighs and went back to work. However, the aspartame lacked the sugary taste of sugar, and even though smug gym goers guzzled it down by the gallon, the magical taste and effect (that’ll be the cocaine) could not be recreated. Fortunately the smugness was wiped off their faces when they discovered that Aspartame is an artificial non-saccharide sweetener 200 times sweeter than sucrose and is a methyl ester of the aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide. So. It’s probably safer to stick to cocaine.* You’ll lose a load of weight that way too. And money. And teeth.

Then came Coca Cola Zero, Caffeine Free, Taste Free and it all got a bit out of control. They added Vanilla, Lime, Cherry and Orange and we all got completely distracted from what we were actually talking about in the first place, and that’s Christmas.

So, as stated before, here at The Queen's Pantry, we absolutely love Christmas. It gives us an excuse to ram the shop full of chocolate. And chocolate comes in so many disguises. Advent Calendars, Selection Boxes, big tins of Roses, Celebrations, Heroes and Quality Street, Chocolate Oranges (1 of your 5 a day), 2 foot long Jaffa Cake boxes (2 of your 5 a day - that’s 3 already), Orange Smarties (4), tins of chocolate biscuits…the list goes on. And not a methyl ester of the aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide in sight.

So don’t just take my word for it. Remember when you were a kid and you first saw the pile of presents under the tree on Christmas Day?? Well walking onto The Queen's Pantry right now feels just the same. So, come on down and feel the Christmas Spirit (oh yeah, we got whisky toffee too!!)

*The Queen's Pantry absolutely, categorically and firmly does not recommend sticking to cocaine. Unless you are Keith Richards.