Lidl Christmas food: what will it cost you?

Traditionally when it comes to buying Christmas food, we have tended to avoid the discounters. However, Aldi and Lidl have been working hard to win your custom for Christmas dinner.

They have expanded their ranges to include more luxuries, and claim to now offer cheap Christmas food that's the kind of quality you'd be happy to serve to your family and friends. Meanwhile, however, the big four have been slashing costs to compete. So how does Lidl compare? Does it offer the cheapest Christmas food?

In our series examining the cost of Christmas food at each of the major supermarkets, we looked at the price of a trolley of Christmas food and drink at Lidl, and overall its performance is impressive.

The trolley cost £62.03, which at first glance would make this the second-cheapest out of Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Asda and Aldi. Morrisons is the clear winner so far at 60.04.

However, when you look a little closer, you can see that a huge chunk of this is taken up with the price of a turkey - for which we were forced to use a typical price of £37.50 as Lidl has not finalised its prices. If Lidl was to match Morrisons for turkeys at £28, then the overall price of the shopping would be £52.53 - making it the cheapest for the six stores we compared. It means that when Lidl releases its price for fresh turkeys, we could have a new holder of the title of the cheapest for Christmas food.

Turkey
Birchwood fresh turkeys will go on sale on 18th December - on the grounds that it's only worth filling the shelves with Christmas food at the moment when people are stocking up for the day itself. In the interim the store can free up the space for bigger sellers - which is one of the ways in which Lidl cuts its costs.

At the moment it is offering whole frozen turkeys for £14.99 (undercutting Aldi by a penny) but for the sake of the calculation we will use the typical turkey price of £37.50.

Sprouts
Oaklands Fresh Brussels Sprouts, 500g - 89p

Most of the supermarkets are opting for the round pound for sprouts, so this is a decent saving and makes Lidl the cheapest sprout-purveyor of the supermarkets.

Potatoes
White potatoes (2.5kg) £1.59

This is the second cheapest on the market - after Sainsbury's at £1.25

Carrots
1kg carrots (bagged) 55p

This is the joint-cheapest on the market, matching the price at Aldi and undercutting Tesco and Sainsbury's by 14p. Overall Lidl is competing impressively in the vegetable aisle.

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Peas
Green grocer's frozen Peas, 1kg - 99p

This is the best deal on offer, at the same price as Aldi, but with 100g more peas. It also significantly undercuts Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons.

Gravy
Lidl doesn't have a gravy brand, and although it plans to stock Bisto gravy granules for chicken later in December, it has not yet finalised the price. For the sake of the calculations we will assume a typical price of 78p.

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Christmas pudding
Snowy Lodge Mini Christmas Pudding (100g) 69p

This is the second cheapest mini pudding - after Aldi. Both the discounters are significantly cheaper than the big four on this product, which the larger supermarkets have tended to price around the £1 mark.

Brandy butter
Deluxe Brandy Butter 200g £1.59

This doesn't hit the shelves until 27 November, but Lidl has already set the price at £1.59. It makes it the second cheapest on the market again - after Aldi.

6 mince pies
Snowy Lodge Deluxe 6 Luxury Mince Pies £1.49

Lidl has taken a highly unusual decision with its mince pies, launching them on - 13th November - when the other supermarkets have had them on the shelves for weeks. It is also going for a 'luxury' mince pie rather than an everyday one, which makes it the most expensive of all the supermarkets and around the typical price of a branded mince pie.

Quality Streets
These were available back in September, but there aren't any more left for Christmas. It was pricing them at £4.99 - a whisker under the typical price of £5.

Crackers
Luxury Crackers, 6 pack £4.99

The discounters don't have the same sort of space to stock a huge range as the bigger supermarkets, so the Lidl cracker brand is aimed slightly above the cheapest supermarket ranges. This makes the crackers more expensive than the typical entry price of £4.

Wrapping paper
Luxury Gift Wrap 5m - 99p

What you lose on the crackers you gain on the gift wrap, however, which starts at an impressively cheap 99p for 5m.

Vintage Cava
Arestel Cava Brut (NV) 11.5 % - £4.99

Lidl has a fairly wide range of sparkling wine and champagne for Christmas, and its vintage Cava is highly competitively priced. It's the cheapest vintage Cava from any of the supermarkets surveyed.

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Aldi Christmas food: what will it cost you?

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