The figures have been out together by Nielsen and the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which found that much of the predicted increase would be due to extra selling space. On a like-for-like basis, growth could be as low as 3%, with food retailers faring better with an expected 4% like-for-like growth.

Each household is expected to spend an average of £169 on festive food and drink and each person is forecast to fork out £435 on gifts, a rise of 12% on last year.

The collection of Christmas statistics also revealed that Brits are likely to spend around £12 million on Brussels sprouts, £33 million on mince pies and £21 million on Christmas puddings.