Lidl Declares Christmas Dinner War with £11.85 Feast
The German discounter Lidl has officially launched the 2025 supermarket Christmas dinner competition by revealing an entire festive feast for eight people at the astonishing price of just £11.85. This bold move equates to a mere £1.48 per person and sets the stage for another intense price battle among UK grocery giants in the lead-up to the festive season.
The Breakdown of a Budget Christmas Feast
The bulk of the total cost comes from a whole turkey costing £9. The remaining items complete the traditional British Christmas plate at remarkably low prices. The next most expensive components are gravy granules for £1.09, followed by two packs of stuffing for 90p (45p each) and a pack of 15 Yorkshire puddings for 46p.
Where Lidl's offer becomes particularly dramatic is in the vegetable department. The supermarket is offering more than 3kg of vegetables for just 40p collectively. This includes individual 8p offerings for Brussels sprouts (500g), carrots (1kg), and potatoes (2kg), plus 1kg of parsnips for 16p (sold as two 500g packs at 8p each). Lidl has confirmed that two additional vegetables – echalion shallots and individual swedes – will also be available within the 8p promotion.
Promotional Period and Farming Impact
These eye-catching promotional prices will be active in Lidl stores for a limited period, running from December 19 until Christmas Eve on December 24. The supermarket has been quick to address potential concerns about the impact on agricultural suppliers, stating that these discounts do not affect payments to farmers, with whom they maintain long-term agreements.
History Repeats in the Vegetable Price War
This announcement effectively fires the starting gun on what has become an annual race to the bottom on Christmas vegetable pricing among UK supermarkets. The strategy mirrors previous years' battles, where Aldi joined Lidl in offering festive vegetables for 8p last year following a day of price cuts that brought them down from 15p, as reported by The Grocer.
However, such aggressive pricing has previously attracted criticism from the farming sector. The British Growers Association has expressed concerns that it sets an unrealistic expectation in the minds of consumers as to what it costs to produce this stuff. Following similar discounting at Easter, the National Farmers' Union urged supermarkets to ensure that decisions to massively discount products do not have long term impacts on the public's perception of true market value and production costs.
Lidl's Position in the UK Supermarket Landscape
This Christmas pricing strategy comes as Lidl continues to strengthen its position in the UK market. Earlier this month, consumer watchdog Which? revealed that Lidl had beaten Aldi to the crown of Britain's cheapest supermarket for the second time in recent months. Their October analysis found that a basket of 70 items cost £120.46 on average at Lidl, with members of its Lidl Plus loyalty scheme able to save a further 8p.
While Aldi has historically dominated the budget supermarket space – being the cheapest 22 times in the last 24 months – it was 54p more expensive than Lidl last month with the same basket costing £121 on average. For larger shopping trips, Asda retained its position as one of the UK's cheapest supermarkets for a bigger basket of 187 items, costing £469.11 compared to Tesco's £476.11 with a Clubcard.
