Jane Bradley: Shelling out a fortune just to fill up on Easter calories

IT might still be four weeks to Easter, but the supermarket shelves have been stocked with shiny chocolate eggs and slightly demonic-looking gold bunnies for a good two months now.

The question that perplexes me, is who on earth has been buying these goodies since January? Is it very organised parents and grandparents, desperate to stock up on Easter treats in fear of a run on chocolate egg products come April?

Or is it, as my chocolate-loving-colleague claims, simply people planning to scoff them on their own because the thinner chocolate shape “tastes nicer” – who will end up buying a whole second batch to give out when Easter actually arrives?

Either way, they seem to have missed the point of an Easter celebration. Whether you’re religious or not, the festival is a chance for a once-a-year treat which is surely about more than scoffing chocolate.

In some European countries, children are sent on an Easter egg treasure hunt around the garden – while other hold “egg tapping” competitions, after painting or dying real eggs.

Just a few years ago, ordinary chocolate-makers used to try harder to give the eggs that bit of magic – stuffing the shells with loose Smarties or mini versions of whatever chocolate bar the product was ostensibly linked to. Now, the foil-covered shells are empty and the heavy plastic wrapping encases ordinary chocolate bars available on any supermarket shelf.

In another nod to consumerism and a world away from Cadbury’s Buttons eggs, wealthy chocolate-lovers are this year forking out to buy their loved ones something that little bit different.

One email from a London-based department store told me of a £59.99 “Easter egg tree” – essentially a pot of chocolate raisins with a tree covered in mini egg “leaves” and chicks perched on top – while another product on offer was a box of six real hens’ eggs stuffed with praline and selling at £24.99.

Does it really have to cost that much to create a happy Easter?