Darrell Lea already starting on Easter after Christmas prep

In case you haven't seen the calendar yet, or strayed into your local shopping centre, Christmas is well and truly on the way.

But for one western Sydney company, and a long-time Australian favourite, the festive season is almost over.

For chocolate maker Darrell Lea, Christmas started four months ago.

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"We have to start quite early because we do make a huge amount," says safety officer Letiticia Roberts.

"We also get busy early for Mother's and Father's Day."

And after observing hygiene standards with washed hands, white coat and hair net, I was given the nod to note their Noel work.

The choccie churns a churning, ready-to-drape bandoliers of Bullets, their bigger and chunkier brothers shifting down the line as well.

The colours of the season represented in the red straps of raspberry-flavoured liquorice and coated across the green BBs.

And punching along the 24 metres of cooling tunnel, a long-time Aussie Christmas fav; the Rocklea Road.

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"It actually takes 90 minutes to go from a grain of sugar to the marshmallow," says Letiticia, the eight lanes of loveliness showered in shards of coconut.

And unusually for modern manufacture, this road is hand-pressed.

"Machinery doesn't give it the feel of hand-pressed," explains Letiticia.

"So just what is the feel of hand-pressed?" I enquire.

"The hand can tell where the divots are and where it needs to fill," she informs.

"And it makes sure everything is perfect every single time."

Green and red jellies are added to the recipe at this time of the year.

Given that the choccie HQ started its Chrissie prep in August, I asked if they have started working on their Easter stock.

"We have started working on Easter," says Letiticia.

"We're actually making speckled eggs today."