Asda has shared a snapshot of customer shopping behaviour this festive season, revealing strong demand across food, gifting, clothing and pet categories as shoppers prepare for Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Search data from Asda.com shows significant year-on-year increases in seasonal products, with searches for Christmas cheese up 339%, said the retailer.

Gift-led grocery and personal care items are also performing strongly, including a 922% increase in searches for Lynx gift sets and a 263% rise for Galaxy Selection boxes.

Seasonal demand is also evident across Asda’s non-food offer. On George.com, Christmas-related terms dominate the top five search results, with festive jumpers and matching pyjamas among the most popular items.

In homeware, George Home has sold more than 265,000 novelty Christmas baubles, ranging from miniature Asda trolleys to novelty food designs.

Asda expects to sell almost 18 million metres of wrapping paper this Christmas, while sales of Christmas trees would collectively fill Sherwood Forest 350 times over, according to the retailer.

Demand for novelty traditions remains high, with more than 106,000 Elf on the Shelf figures sold, representing an estimated 2.5 million elf “incidents” over the festive period.

Food and drink remains central to seasonal spending and Asda anticipates selling 2 million packs of pigs in blankets, alongside enough wine and sparkling wine to fill more than 42 swimming pools.

The retailer is also seeing growth in pet-related festive products and it expects to sell more than 378,000 pet gift items, including toys and clothing, while 92,000 dogs are forecast to enjoy the Asda Adult Dog Hero Festive Feast on Christmas Day, priced at 42p.

In-store catering is also performing well and Asda cafés’ Winter Warmer deal has sold 120,000 meals so far, with a further 21,000 meals expected to be sold before Christmas.

Promotional activity remains a key driver for last-minute shoppers and Asda continues to offer 3 for £5 across selected party food lines and 3 for £10 on fresh party food, alongside festive drinks promotions including Louvel Fontaine Champagne Brut, reduced from £19.98 to £10, and Yellow Label Prosecco Spumante, reduced from £6.48 to £4.67, with deals running until 31 December.

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter