Cash-strapped families should head to Asda for their Christmas dinner and save almost a tenner.
A comparison of the cost of 17 festive food staples for at five major supermarkets by consumer champion Which? found Asda had the cheapest Christmas offering with the basket costing £39.26.
Morrisons was the next best value at £48.35, followed by Tesco at £49.03, Sainsbury’s at £51.61, while Waitrose was the most expensive at £62.09, a hefty £22 more than Asda.
The shopping list included a medium turkey crown, pigs in blankets, sprouts, King Edward potatoes, parsnips, red cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, gravy, yorkshire puddings and cranberry sauce.
As well as ingredients needed to make important elements of Christmas dinner such as stuffing, chesnuts, onions and Knorr chicken stock pots. Plus smoked salmon and mince pies.
Which? found some products were the same price across most supermarkets - such as the cranberry sauce, which was £1 everywhere apart from Tesco at £1.50.
As Aldi, Iceland and Lidl do not stock the same range of items as other supermarkets, they were not included in the full analysis.
However, Which? did compare the price of frozen turkey across some of the other supermarkets, including the discounters. Asda, again offered the best value for a medium size crown at £12, 49p cheaper than the same size bird in Lidl and significantly less than Morrisons at £14.50, Tesco £15, Iceland £16, Sainsbury’s £17.50 and Waitrose £19.
Aldi didn’t stock this size but instead offered a large turkey crown for £13.69, slightly cheaper than Asda’s version at £14 and less than the other four main supermarkets, charging up to £25.
When Which? looked at how the supermarkets fared in previous years it found Asda was also the cheapest in both 2019 and 2018 - at £42.65 and £47.10 respectively with the same items at Waitrose costing over £20 more than Asda each year at £63.26 and £71.58.
Natalie Hitchins, head of home products and services at Which?, said: “Whether you’re gearing up for your annual Christmas supermarket sweep, or you’re ready to book an in-store collection slot, our elves have crunched the numbers and found big differences between the cost of yuletide foods, across the supermarkets.
“While price might not be everything, with a tough year behind us many shoppers will want to make sure they are getting a good deal on their Christmas food, so it’s good to know that a sackful of turkey and all the trimmings could cost you less than £40.”
