Last-minute shoppers provided a boost to retailers despite the recession, with men more likely than women to be out looking for gifts on Christmas Eve, retailers said.
Stores across the country reported strong sales as shoppers splashed out an estimated £1m a minute. Shopping centres such as Meadowhall, near Sheffield, said bad weather conditions had not limited the number of people trooping through its doors.
John Lewis and Debenhams said people looking for last-minute bargains had driven up sales while Selfridges said it was also expecting "strong and robust" figures.
Comet, the electrical retailer, predicted a record number of online visitors over the Christmas weekend.
Season winners so far also include Waitrose, which reported making £38.7m in sales on Wednesday, £4m more than the same day last year. The supermarket said it had sold 55,200 scoops of mince pie ice-cream, 624,000 chestnuts and more than 34 tonnes of turkey.
Kitchenware sellers reported strong sales of items needed to make Christmas dinner, such as gravy jugs and napkins. "We tend to see a last-minute rush for turkey foil and roasting pans on Christmas Eve, as people realise their turkey's too big or they need a couple extra for the potatoes and parsnips," said Wendy Miranda, from the cookware store Lakeland.
John Lewis said some of its biggest sellers had been designer lingerie, with sales of brands such as Stella and La Perla up 115%. Sales of high-tog duvets were also up and pink champagne truffles had proved to be a popular last-minute choice.
Selfridges said it expected the majority of its 50,000 customers on Christmas Eve to be men. Andrew Parkinson, the general manager at Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, predicted around 70% of customers there would be male. Around 130,000 last minute shoppers were thought to have flocked to The Trafford Centre in Manchester, with a spokesman for the shopping complex saying more than 140,000 people were expected on Boxing Day, with stores opening their doors to bargain hunters at 7am.
More than one million people visited the centre in the past seven days, a drop of 4% compared to the same period last year.
Research from Sainsbury's suggested about 13 million people would hit the high street on Christmas Eve, spending nearly £1.4bn. Retail Week, the trade magazine, said there would be fewer bargains this year as retailers cut back on stock after finding themselves overloaded last year amid the banking crisis.
Online retailers said they were expecting high sales volumes, with Debenhams and B&Q launching online sales earlier than in previous years. Comet said it expected a record number of visitors over the three-day Christmas period, around 1.6 million people.
The bad weather has not deterred shoppers, instead spurring more local buying, said some retailers. "We've seen a huge last-minute rush and pre-Christmas trade has been off the clock," said Tim Bettley, managing director of the clothing chain Peacocks. "The weather has helped, with people going local instead of travelling into town."
The charity retailer Oxfam said it expected a spike in sales for Oxfam Unwrapped – an ethical gift service – but donations were declining. "December is when we get the least number of donations as people focus on their Christmas shopping from other high street stores," a spokesman said.
