Sales of seasonal pies and puddings slump as they fall out of festive favour

SALES of seasonal pies and puddings were stodgy last year as they fell out of festive favour.

But we still splurged a record £13.7billion on grub to gorge on over Christmas.

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Mince pie sales slumped by four per cent in December, while Christmas puddings were down by seven per cent.

Meanwhile, sales of turkeys, veg, pigs in blankets and fresh cream were all up at supermarkets.

According to data firm Kantar, the average household spent £477 on food in December — £28 more than the previous year.

This was partly because food was more expensive than in 2022.

Shoppers also splashed out as it was the first Christmas celebration in three years that people could spend time together without Covid restrictions or major rail strikes causing chaos.

As as result, shoppers spent seven per cent more and bought two per cent more food.

Kantar’s Fraser McKevitt said a fall in food costs and discounting by supermarkets enticed people.

He said nearly a third of all items bought in the four weeks before Christmas was on promo.

Cut-price grocers Lidl and Aldi were the season’s winners with sales up 13.8 per cent and 9.9 per cent respectively in December.

Sainsbury’s sales were up by 9.3 per cent, almost three times those of rivals Asda (3.4 per cent) and Morrisons (3.2 per cent).

Iceland’s sales rose the least, up just 2.9 per cent.

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk