The Festive Food Face-Off
We’re nearly there, and even the most last-minute of shoppers must surely have started to think about what they’re going to eat over the festive period. After all, food is central to festive celebration with people spending an average of £150 on festive food last year, and anticipating spending the same, or more, this year.
With that in mind, we scoured the ranges of the 10 major UK supermarkets—Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Iceland, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco, and Waitrose—to uncover 40 festive food innovations (from a cast of hundreds!), and pitted them against each other in a titanic World Cup type tournament* to see which are the most eagerly anticipated by the hungry hordes.
A quick browse through the ranges shows a slight shift away from the theatrical centre-pieces of last year (for example, our winner in 2023 was Aldi’s smash Dome Christmas Cake), and there seems to be more of a focus on luxury ingredients and provenance. We’ve got Wagyu beef vying with lobster dishes as well as those tapping into the current trends, like hot honey, gooey cheese, crumpets, and as last year, bao buns.
There’s definitely a feeling that even though times are tight and nights are long, festive food should bring a break from the mundane; a touch of indulgence. This was evident in our additional qualitative research conducted through our Financial Research Survey, where participants expressed a preference for spending money on food rather than extravagant gifts.
£150 was the average amount spent on Christmas day food last year
What Themes Emerged This Year?
We tested two festive bao bun variants this year (one from Waitrose and one from Sainsbury’s). This was a trend last year too, but this year they were very much down at the bottom of the pile. Is it time for this trend to bao out?
Gooey cheese is very much a theme this year, but fortunes were mixed. Waitrose’s Reuben Rarebit won the battle of the cheeses, with M&S’s Hot Honey Brie Brûlée just behind (no doubt benefitting from the tie in to the hot honey trend). Unfortunately, the Co-op’s Baking Camembert with a Hedgerow Fruits Glaze and Dried Fruit Topping was a distant third – maybe a bit too autumnal sounding?
Crumpets as offered by Waitrose, No.1 Crab & Brown Butter Crumpets, and Sainsbury’s, Lobster Thermidor Crumpets, were middle of the pack overall, with Waitrose slightly ahead of Sainsbury’s despite the latter’s more luxe sounding ingredients.
Finally, and most importantly, every year sees festive products with groan-inducing pun names. Three of our test products this year had punny names; we had Charcuter-Tree, and Charcuter-Wreath, plus Ice Ice Bao-by Penguins. So whilst M&S’s Charcuter-Tree was higher up the product rankings, the bao buns languished in third place. But honestly, anyone not hearing Vanilla Ice in their heads as they read this is missing the point!
And, the Winners are...
There's certainly no shortage of options, but which festive foods truly captured the British public's attention and made their mouths water just by looking at them? We surveyed 375 participants, presenting them with unpriced descriptions and images of the products to discover the outcome of this culinary contest.
And the top 3 winner are... (based on their promise scores**):
- 3rd place: Asda - Exceptional Welsh Lamb Shoulder with Fig, Whiskey & Spiced Honey Stuffing
- 2nd place: Lidl - Mulled Wine / Honey & Rosemary Glazed Gammon Joint
- 1st place: M&S - Collection Santa Popping Down the Chimney Dessert
This first place is borne out by the fact that the product is already so popular it’s sold out online!
Here's the full suite of products we tested:
Source: Ipsos Digital Duel survey. Base: 375 Online UK adults aged 18-65, 28th November - 2nd December 2024
In Conclusion
Holidays and celebrating Christmas, the two things Brits hate to cut back on. Even when times are hard, the nation will endeavour to treat themselves. With a plethora of innovative products to spend their hard-earned money on, those that bring a welcome break from the mundane, tap into the zeitgeist, and add that ‘wow’ factor to the Christmas table will continue to sell well.
Source: Ipsos Digital Duel survey. Base: 375 Online UK adults aged 18-65, 28th November - 2nd December 2024
Technical Note: Ipsos interviewed a sample of 375 adults aged 18-65 across the UK. Each respondent completed the Duel tournament for 16 of the 40 tested innovations with block rotation ensuring all 40 innovations were each randomly tested 150 times across the entire sample.
Polling was conducted online between 28th November - 2nd December 2024. Gender, age and region quotas were applied in order to broadly replicate the spread of these demographics within the UK. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.
*For details on the Duel methodology see here
** Promise is a measure combining Preference – which item is chosen out of each pair presented, and Punch – the time taken to make the choice
