This is the most conspicuous Christmas sweet, not because of a central role in anything or cultural value (it's an Italian import and more of a pan-Latin phenomenon) but for its frequency in stores. It appears sporadically months before Christmas and gradually builds up until it fills shelves. Then it withers away through the beginning of the following year.
In some versions the fruit is replaced by chocolate. Purists decry this as a fraud and an offense. As a moderate I like the ones with chocolate drops and spots but not the radical, iconoclastic forms such as inner chocolate filling half of the space. Sometimes it's not even sweet chocolate.