Sophie Morris asks experts what to scrimp on and splurge on
The cost of Christmas ticks up every year, from food inflation to ever inventive manufacturers creating new ‘must-haves’ for our Christmas Day tables.
There’s also a typical race to the bottom price-wise, with supermarkets advertising their cheapest possible festive meals to lure us in to spend big on other things like alcohol and gifts.
We’ve assessed the prices of all the components for a typical – traditional – Christmas Day feast, and asked the experts to analyse the cost so that you can spend or splurge where it matters most to you.
Turkey: ‘high welfare birds are unavoidably expensive’
£2.50-£30/kg
From £2.50 a kilo for the cheapest whole turkey I found (frozen, at Aldi) to £30 and up for premium products from high-end butchers, it’s easy to blow your whole Christmas meal budget on this one big bird alone.
I find it easier to swallow the cost by pricing it up per portion. If you do make the effort to use up a whole turkey in a curry, pie or soup, you’ll feel the value. If you’re not going to do that, buy a crown instead.
Jorge Thomas of Swaledale Butchers in North Yorkshire says that high welfare turkeys are unavoidably expensive. They’ve already sold out for 2024, but their price tag of £90 for a 4-5kg turkey is on a par with Waitrose and M&S. “We understand that not everyone can stretch to free-range turkeys, especially in tough economic times,” he says. “We never want to make anyone feel pressured to spend beyond their means, although we do advocate for the merits of a good, free-range turkey or other produce at Christmas.”
Swaledale sells Yorkshire-raised bronze turkeys. “They are slow-growing, which makes them succulent and flavoursome, far from the dry, tasteless reputation turkey sometimes has,” says Thomas. “But a piece of free-range pork or a top-quality beef topside can also make for a fantastic festive centrepiece.”
An added bonus of ordering quality meat from a butcher? You’re spared the supermarket crush on Christmas Eve.
Festive drinks: ‘port and sherry are great value’
Gin: £15-£50+/litre
Cream liqueur: £7.49-£20/70cl
Christmas is the ultimate opportunity to wheel out some fun drinks, and there are plenty of ways to dial up your kitsch cocktail dreams without maxing out the credit cards.
“Pep up cheap fizz by mixing with a little crème de cassis, elderflower or ginger liqueur, or swap the wine for lower-ABV cider from The Fine Cider Company,” says Hannah Guinness, drinks writer for Olive magazine.
Buy a classic London dry gin that will work across various drinks – Guinness batch-makes simple cocktails in advance – while fortified wines like port and sherry can deliver great value and versatility. “Morrisons’ sherries are particularly good. Mix white port with tonic for a refreshing aperitif or use ruby or tawny port instead of vermouth in a negroni.”
Bored of Baileys? Guinness loves a Brandy Alexander instead of dessert, made with brandy, crème de cacao and cream. Try Hotel Chocolat’s Black Forest Gateau cream liqueur (£23/500ml) or Aldi’s Ballycastle Peanut Butter flavour (£7.49/70cl).
Ham: ‘cheap ham is pumped full of water’
£9-£50+/kg
Large hams are crowd pleasers, ready for hungry guests at a moment’s notice. I like mine warm with parsley sauce and boiled potatoes, and later in sandwiches and hopefully a pie.
“A good ham is one that isn’t pumped full of water, which bulks up the weight, bringing down the cost,” says Ian Warren of Philip Warren & Son butchers in Launceston, Cornwall. He recommends looking out for the Red Tractor label, which most big retailers use. It might have been diluted in recent years, but Warren says that welfare standards overall are high in this country (and that most farmers love their animals more than their own family!)
Warren employs local staff, while supermarkets can make big savings on factory processing, but price-wise he tries to align with Tesco Finest as it’s the most popular supermarket near his shop.
Typically gammon joints are sold raw, while hams are cooked and ready to eat, hence the higher price. Warren’s smoked gammons are £15.40/kg, with unsmoked at £12.25/kg.
One of the most expensive hams I find in supermarkets is the Waitrose No. 1 bone-in gammon with Muscovado and wildflower honey at £25/kg, but you can spend far more at specialists like Dukeshill.
Smoked salmon: ‘£2.50 is far too cheap’
£25-70/kg (a standard packet is normally 100g)
Once a rare treat, smoked salmon has become ubiquitous and quality varies. Prices from £25/kg (so more like £2.50 for a 100g pack) is far too low according to expert David Josephs, owner of historic deli Panzer’s in north London, which has been working with smokers for 50 years.
Josephs says a good product should cost £60-£70 per kilo, and that the only way to find out what you like is to try the different finishes, whether dry, medium or oily. “Buy your smoked salmon from people who hand cut it in front of you, then you can taste it and understand the difference,” he says. Though his small packets of 113g cost £7.40, you can take home a whole side of 1.8kg for £85.
If you can’t stretch to this but want something special, it is so easy to cure your own with some salt, sugar, citrus and herbs or spices. Get a fresh side of around 800g/1kg, which will cost £18-£20. The only hard part is skinning the salmon, so get the fishmonger to do this. It might sound like yet another job, but requires minimal effort with showstopping results – definitely handshake territory.
There are a lot of sustainability issues with fish, especially salmon, and the Marine Conservation Society recommends reducing waste by buying whole fish instead of fillets, and using leftovers in a quick paté (blend with cream cheese and lemon) or fish cakes.
Festive veg: ‘try farm shops for competitive prices’
Sprouts: 85p – £2.95/500g
Parsnips: 1.50-3.95/1kg
Potatoes: 70p – £2/kg
Fruit and veg is often an afterthought even though we associate seasonal sprouts and parsnips with Christmas.
We don’t expect to pay much for veg, and supermarkets often treat it as a loss leader – last year bags of sprouts, carrots, parsnips and spuds were advertised from as little as 15p.
When I see cheap veg, I imagine the retailers are making savings elsewhere, but campaigners like Riverford (the organic vegetable delivery box) say it’s usually the suppliers being squeezed.
“Farmers are already struggling with weather extremes, labour shortages, and rising costs, and while supermarkets claim to support British farming, they fail to back it up with buying practices,” says Riverford founder, Guy Singh-Watson.
Riverford, which has delivers veg all around the UK, is pricier than most, but you might have a local alternative – if I take a two-minute detour from Sainsbury’s, I can buy the cabbages, cauliflowers and beautiful cavolo nero I drive past every day for competitive prices at my local farm shop.
Wine: ‘don’t go below £8’
£8 – £20
Alcohol pricing is confusing and the discounts make it hard to know where the value lies. Wine writer Henry Jeffreys recommends Aldi and Asda among the cheaper retailers, as well The Wine Society and Majestic. “Sometimes Aldi have something drinkable for £6, and as soon as you get above £9 or £10 you can get some really nice wines,” he says, picking out Les Trois Manoirs Bordeaux.
“But don’t go below about £8, because with duty, VAT, shipping and packaging, anything under £6 means nothing is spent on the wine.”
For red wine, Jeffreys, who has just launched a new podcast, Intoxicating History, with Tom Parker-Bowles, says that France is still a great choice, in particular southern Cotes du Rhone, from supermarkets or independents like Yapp Brothers and Lea and Sandeman, while you can get very nice Rioja for £10 and great ones for £15. His ‘push the boat out’ pick is a £19.95 2020 Ramon Bilbao Rioja Limite Sur from Slurp.
For white, it’s Chilean Chardonnay, and South Africa is brilliant value while the rand is weak, Jeffreys explains: “You can find budget Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay for £7 or £8, and wonderful Rhône-style reds from Swartland for £12-£20.”
Fizz: ‘Buy Cremant instead of cheap Champagne’
£15 – £35
“Don’t bother buying cheap Champagne just for the label – it won’t thrill your tastebuds,” says wine writer Aleesha Hansel. “Get yourself something more delicious from another region; such as Cap Classique from South Africa (£15-£25), Cremant (£10-£20) or Franciacorta (£25-£35). Of course all these regions have much more expensive bottles outside these price ranges, which if you’ve got the budget for I would absolutely encourage you to try, but these amounts will get you something decent.”
Hansel says pet-nat is the on-trend choice for 2024. Her pick is a South African Pet Nat from Testalonga, El Bandito ‘I Wish I Was A Ninja’, £21-£24 from independent wine merchants.
Jeffreys recommends a budget English sparkling from Asda called Asquith Gardens, £18, rumoured to be made by Nyetimber, one of the UK’s most prestigious producers with bottles that usually cost from £40, and Langham Culver NV (£32.95), which he likens to Bollinger.
Cake and pudding: ‘invest the time to make your own’
Mince pies: £1.25 – £25 for a pack of six
Pudding: £2.50 – £24.95
Cake: 60p – £4/kg
Eyebrows have already raised this season over a box of £25 mince pies, from Pump Street Bakery in Orford, Suffolk, while the Waitrose food advert was designed around a non-traditional white chocolate and raspberry dessert.
Carve out the time to make your own, suggests food writer Angela Clutton, author of Seasoning: How to Cook and Celebrate the Seasons (Murdoch Books, £30), who’s been using the same recipes (Nigel Slater and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall) for almost 20 years, and has turned the baking into a much-loved ritual.
“We have a playlist called ‘Christmas cake’ and it’s our first big burst of Christmassy-ness,” she says. “Making the time to do it in the middle of the busyness and craziness of this time of year is the real investment, and the result will feel special.”
Cheeseboard: ‘£25 will cover a good quality selection’
£25 – £50 per cheeseboard
£8 – £40/kg
“I think a healthy way of looking at Christmas cheese is to make sure you are purchasing cheeses which you like, not just for the sake of it,” says Emma Young, consultant and author of The Cheese Wheel (Ebury, £14.99).
“The range of cheeses in certain supermarkets is very good. My favourite for selection, variety and quality is Waitrose, and a budget of £25-£50 will cover a cheeseboard of varying quantity and quality.”
Save money without sacrificing quality by choosing Farmhouse Cheddar over more labour-intensive cheese like goat’s, says Young, who also loves classics like Camembert de Normandie.
“I’d be happy with a Mont Dd’Or – a gooey, spoonable cheese – and a large wedge of Stilton or Stichelton, which would sit me at around the £25 mark and comfortably feed four if their cheese appetites aren’t as insatiable as my own.”