What is inside should hold its own. Lily O'Brien's has handcrafted chocolate gifts its chocolates in Newbridge, Co. Kildare since 1992, so the box is a genuine gift for the adults rather than a token wrapped around a name. That matters at an event where the parents are tired and the attention is all on the child.

Anniversaries come in a range of sizes, and a gift that fits a first year rarely fits a fortieth. Chocolate scales neatly across all of them, provided you match the collection and its personalisation to the milestone you are actually marking.

A hamper suits the occasion where you want to make a gesture. It arrives looking like an event, it gives the new owners something to open in front of guests, and it shares around a room full of people who have come to see the place. For a couple moving in together or a family setting up a first proper home, it reads as warm without being fussy.

It also suits the man who is hard to buy for precisely because he says he wants nothing. A collection asks nothing of him, needs no assembly, and does not sit around as clutter. He opens it, shares some, keeps the rest, and that is the whole transaction. For a certain kind of recipient, that ease is exactly the appeal.

Match the collection to the milestone, personalise it with the year or the names, and order in good time. Scaled properly, a box of chocolates marks an anniversary at exactly the right pitch, whether it is a quiet first year or fifty years worth celebrating in a full room.

For an early anniversary, a first or a second say, the register is warm and unshowy. A mid-size collection, perhaps with a short printed message or the date, says you remembered and you made a small effort, which is precisely the tone those years call for. It is a gift between two people rather than a public statement, so restraint reads better than grandeur.