The cost of an average Christmas dinner for a family of four has risen to €34.74, up 2% on last year, driven mainly by the price of turkey and Christmas vegetable staples.
New figures from Kantar show that brussels sprouts and mince pies have seen an increase of over 10% in price compare to this time last year. Carrot prices are up 6.6%, parsnips are 12% more expensive, while the cost of potatoes are up 4.3% and turkey prices are up 5.1%.
However, the price of cranberry sauce is down 9.4%, while the price of gravy is also 4.7% lower.
Kantar also said today that wider grocery inflation increased to 3.6% in December compared to 3.3% last month.
It also said that take-home grocery sales in Ireland increased in value by 5% over the four weeks leading up to December 1, reaching €1.24 billion.
As households stocked up for the big day, November became the biggest sales month of the year so far, with the number of shopping trips up 1.4% compared to the same time last year.
Emer Healy, Business Development Director at Kantar, said that €87m passed through the tills on December 23 last year and Monday 23 December this year is set to be the single busiest day again for the supermarkets this year.
But she noted that there are clear signs that Irish shoppers are stocking up early especially when it comes to festive favourites.
"Shoppers spent an additional €4.5m on assorted biscuits and crackers compared to the previous month, while 15% of all households bought mince pies and more than 36% purchased seasonal chocolates in November," she said.
Shoppers also spent an additional €104m on branded products over the latest 12 weeks, while sales of premium own label products were up a significant 10.5% over last year.
Consumers also spent €18m more on branded biscuits and beer and cider compared to this time last year.
Meanwhile, shoppers spent an additional €28.7m online, with value sales up 15.4% year-on-year.
In the latest 12-week period, Kantar said the number of online shopping trips increased by 17%, while new shoppers looking to save time during a busy period leading up to Christmas added an additional €34.8m online.
Today's figures from Kantar also show that Dunnes continued to hold the biggest share of the grocery market - 24.9%, with sales growth of 7.8% year-on-year as shoppers increased their number of trips by 7.9% and picked up more packs per trips. This contributed a combined €72.1 million to their overall performance.
Tesco holds 23.6% of the market, with value growth of 7.6% year-on-year, as shoppers increased their trips to store by 6.7%.
Meanwhile, SuperValu holds 19.9% of the market with growth of 3.5%. Consumers made the most shopping trips to this grocer, averaging 24.4 trips over the latest 12 weeks. The increased number of shopping trips and additional items picked up per trip contributed €20.2m to its performance.
Lidl holds a 13% share of total spending. Increased trips to store and increased volume per trip drove an additional €35.4m in sales, up 5.9% on the same time last year.
And Aldi holds 11.2% market share, up 2.5% on last year with an increase in trips contributing an additional €25.5m to its performance.
