Long before there’s even a hint of snow or the garish jumpers come out, the starting gun on the festive season sounds with the arrival of Christmas sandwiches.
According to a 2024 poll, nearly 20 per cent of people put the humble Christmas sandwich in their top 10 favourite festive foods. Every year, supermarkets sell over 200 million of them, stuffed with cranberry sauce, stuffing, turkey, brie, gammon and just about every other Christmassy ingredient you might care to consider.
This year’s crop runs the gamut from the sublime to the truly diabolic (a few really stretch the definition of “Christmas” to its outer limits.) We rounded up as many of these Yuletide lunches as we could get our hands on for a head-to-head tasting extraordinaire. Which shone like a star? And which should be cast aside like the satsuma at the bottom of the stocking? We’ve rated them, taking into account flavour, texture and nutrition.
Jump to:
- How we tasted
- Zero-star sandwich
- One-star sandwiches
- Two-star sandwiches
- Three-star sandwiches
- Four-star sandwiches
- Five-star sandwiches
How we tasted
The sandwiches were all tasted by Senior Lifestyle Writer Jack Rear and Food Editor Amy Bryant. We refrigerated each product for a short time before eating to mimic the experience of picking them out of store chillers. Each sandwich was assessed on its own merits including taste, texture, visual appeal and value for money, and given an overall score out of five.
Zero-star sandwich
£3; Tesco
One-star sandwiches
£2.88, Asda
£3.25, Tesco
£2.88, Asda
£3.25, Morrisons
£6.65, Starbucks
£3.40, Sainsbury’s
Two-star sandwiches
£3.50, Co-op
£3.50, Morrisons
£3.25, Tesco
£3.95, Greggs (prices vary depending on branch)
£4.75, Costa (prices vary depending on branch)
Three-star sandwiches
£4.75, Sainsbury’s
£3.25, Morrisons
£7.99, Leon
£3.40, Sainsbury’s
£4.50, Waitrose
£2.86, Asda
£4.99, Pret
Four-star sandwiches
£6.50, Paul
£8.99, Leon
£5.50, Pret
£3.75, Waitrose
£2.75, Aldi
£4 at M&S and Ocado
£4, Booths
£4, M&S
Five-star sandwiches
£4.50, Waitrose
£3.25, Booths
£3.50, Co-op
£3.90, M&S
£4, Waitrose
£3.50, Co-op
£7.80, Gail’s (takeaway price)