Whilst the cost of much of our Christmas dinner has soared in the last five years, the average price of the cheapest bottle of Champagne is nearly 10% cheaper.


Figures released this week by Harpers sister title, The Grocer, show that overall our Christmas dinner is some 14.3% more expensive than it was in 2008, against comparative salary increases in that time of 6.7%.

But whilst we can expect to pay 14.2% more for the average 5kg-6kg frozen turkey (£17 compared to £14.89 in 2008) and as much as 70% more for our sprouts, the major retailers have been able to defy year-on-year duty and VAT hikes to bring the average price of the cheapest bottle of Champagne down to £14.19 compared to £15.74 in 2008. Down by 9.8%.

Average wine prices, though, have kept up with market conditions with a bottle of Hardys Stamp wine now costing £5.92 against £5.21, a jump of 13.7%, according to the figures compiled by the Grocer from Brand View research.

A bottle of Harveys Bristol Cream sherry has jumped some 64% to £8.30 on average compared to £5.06 in 2008. Port has not increased by anywhere near as much with average prices now 5.8% higher selling at £10.54 in 2012 versus £9.96 in 2008.

But if you fancied celebrating Christmas with a four pack of John's Smith's bitter then it would be £3.77 against £3.76 in 2008. But Stella Artois is up to 3.4% to £4.06 for a four pack.

The figures demonstrate how much more the average family is going to have to spend on this year's increase, but the 14.3% increase is still below the RPI of 15.4% for the same period.

The Grocer's research also reveals that Asda is the cheapest supermarket for the Christmas shop amongst the Big Four grocers, for the fourth time running as part of its Grocer 33 survey, compiled by Brand View. It charged £112.42 for a basket of 33 products which was 13% cheaper than Morrisons and Tesco.