Christmas tradition

I’ve gone a bit early with this Christmas tradition. My mum always got a box of after eights for Christmas but nobody ever saw her eat them! At some point between Christmas and new year she would disappear for a couple of hours on her own and the after eights would disappear too.
I bought this box the other day thinking I might open them on her birthday but something I heard on the radio earlier made me think of her and I decided to open them early.