Taste, part 1

OVERDONE Chocolate Santas from the supermarket
UNEXPECTED Milk, dark and white chocolate Santas from Lilac Chocolates (40 Eighth Ave at Jane St, 212-924-2280)
Lilac’s Brooklyn-made, semisolid Clauses range in size from a couple inches to a lifelike three feet (by request), and are far tastier—and fresher—than any Gristedes variety. As owner Martha Bond puts it, “We’re making chocolate Santas right now, so what you buy today may well have been molded yesterday—as opposed to last summer.” $6.50–$350

OVERDONE Truffles
UNEXPECTED Milk and white-chocolate mochi daifuku from Minamoto Kitchoan (608 Fifth Ave at 49th St, 212-489-3747)
The doughy rice-cake balls that usually contain sweet red-bean paste are instead filled with chocolate and dusted with cocoa powder or green-tea powder, just for the holidays. Six-piece box: $13

OVERDONE Fruitcake
UNEXPECTED Stollen from Blaue Gans (139 Duane St at West Broadway, 212-571-8880)
Pastry chef Matthew Lodes’s yeasted-bread confection is traditionally made with rum and dotted with dried fruits like currants, cherries and raisins—except that Lodes hates raisins and is thinking of replacing them with apricots this year. The dessert is better than fruitcake for two reasons: One, it has a fantastic marzipan center, and two, as Lodes puts it, “you eat it the same year it’s made.” $20

OVERDONE Plum pudding
UNEXPECTED Sugarplums from Aji Ichiban (188 Lafayette St at Broome St, 212-219-4010)
How are they supposed to dance in your head if you’ve never even tried one? Fix that problem with a fistful of these natural treats, which come in sweet and sour varieties at this Hong Kong–based bulk-food mart. $10 per pound

OVERDONE Gingerbread men
UNEXPECTED Bahlsen Contessa Lebkuchen from Fairway (2127 Broadway between 74th and 75th Sts, 212-595-1888)
Standard snaps have nothing on these spiced gingerbread cookies, whose moist, cakey insides are held together by a firm layer of sugary glaze. “I’ve stocked them for ages and every year they get more and more popular,” says Fairway partner Steve Jenkins. “I think people get addicted to those unique German ginger and pumpkin tastes—Christmas is not the same without them around the house.” Seven-ounce box: $2.89

OVERDONE Hot chocolate
UNEXPECTED Peppermint hot chocolate from Sanctuary Tea (337B West Broadway at Grand St, 212-941-7832)
Forgo the Swiss Miss: Mint tea steeped with cocoa powder and syrup, topped with chocolate foam, is far more fun. “Like most of our drinks, it was invented by a staffer,” says owner Dawn Cameron. “It’s perfect for the cold weather, so we put it on the menu.” $4

OVERDONE Jordan almonds
UNEXPECTED Candied chestnuts from Fauchon (442 Park Ave at 56th St, 212-308-5919)
These melt-in-your-mouth, gold-foil–wrapped babies are made from sugar-dipped Italian chestnuts and vanilla beans from Madagascar. Give them to the Francophile in your life, since, as Fauchon CEO Zeina Sayegh reminds us, “chestnuts are a traditional French holiday treat.” Six-piece box: $35

Photograph: Ben Goldstein

OVERDONE Hanukkah gelt
UNEXPECTED Chocolate Pearl ornament from La Maison du Chocolat (1018 Madison Ave at 79th St, 212-744-7117)
“This year La Maison celebrates 30 years—and in France, pearls are associated with 30th anniversaries,” says creative director Gilles Marchal. The completely edible nine-inch-tall adornment hangs tantalizingly from a chandelier—or the bows of your erstwhile Hanukkah bush. It’s a spherical dark-chocolate cage that contains iridescent balls of white chocolate that look more like baubles than candy. $138