Cashed-up Sydney shoppers spending big on ham, prawns, panettone and other traditional Christmas foods

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Pavlova sales are up 300 per cent this year at Woolworths, 80 tonnes of oysters will move through Sydney Fish Market next week, and Coles is tipping a 40 per cent uptick in lobster sales as shoppers splash plenty of cash on a cracker Christmas.

Record household savings, high consumer confidence and months of missed family occasions are the ingredients of extravagant Christmas feasts and Sydney's grocers, fishmongers and butchers are the beneficiaries. At Sydney Fish Markets, Tony Tsiklas of Claudio's Seafoods is praying that the 40 tonnes of cooked prawns he's ordered will be enough for the big Christmas feasts people appear to be planning.

"People are buying the best ham in town, the best cherries, the finest quality meats. Now they're able to put a show on, everyone wants to make sure everything's special," says Alex Evripidou of Wholefarms independent grocers.

One person recently purchased 300 panettone from a Wholefarms store in Sydney's west, where Evripidou estimates that at least 2000 boxes of the festive Italian fruit bread have been sold so far.

"I haven't seen a year of panettone sales like this before," he says.

People are also ordering whole lambs or pigs to roast on a spit for big family fiestas, says Evripidou.

Butcher Colin Holt, who co-owns Hudson Meats in Cammeray and Mosman, says that normally people will buy either a ham or a turkey. This year, they're getting both.

Australia's economy contracted by 1.9 per cent in the September quarter while NSW and Victoria were in lockdown, but disposable household income increased by 4.6 per cent in the same period - perfect conditions for a flashy Christmas.

The Commonwealth Bank estimates that Australians have $240 billion stashed in savings.

Some of that will show up on tables, as Coles reports a 40 per cent increase in demand for puddings, pavlovas and lobsters, and a 20 per cent increase in demand for fruit mince pies in November, compared with previous years.

Holt has already taken 500 orders for Byron Bay Berkshire hams with more set to sell over the next few days. He has noticed some customers even buying turkey or roast pork to do a trial run in the last few weeks.

"A lot more people are having a family, traditional Christmas," says the butcher. "They haven't seen each other for a while, so they want to do something special."

Woolworths sales reflect this mood, too, with more than 600,000 kilograms of ham, 2.8 million fruit mince pies and 300,000 kilograms of prawns forecast to fill shopping trolleys in NSW before December 25.

Meanwhile, Sydney Fish Market is expecting to move almost two hundred tonnes of seafood in its marathon 36-hour trading period from 5am on December 23 to 5pm on December 24.

Shoppers will be springing for prawns, oysters and lobsters as per tradition, but Alex Stollznow, who runs tours at the market, says that lockdowns brought lesser-known seafood normally purchased by restaurants onto the shop floor where it was snapped up by home cooks looking to expand their repertoire of dishes.

Stollznow expects that trend to continue, with sea urchin, venus clams and blood cockles all available at great prices.

Tradition still has a place, however, with Flour Drum Bakery in Newtown seeing huge demand for Christmas cakes in jumbo sizes, too. Bakery owner Victor Li is now offering a 1.5 kilogram cake for $79 after several requests from customers.

Flour Drum made three tonnes of fruit mince in preparation for this year's pudding, mince pies and cakes, triple the amount made last Christmas. And Li is expecting to get through all of it.

Last minute lunch

If you haven't given your Christmas menu a moment's thought yet, there's no need to turn to tinned soup.

Holt's butcher shops may not be able to sell you a whole turkey on Christmas Eve but they usually have stuffed and hand-tied turkey breasts as well as half-legs of ham that can be lacquered with an orange, cinnamon and mustard glaze.

While you can expect high prices and hot competition for prawns, lobsters and oysters, seafood-lovers can get a bargain at this time of year on fish, for which prices remain steady. And you're likely to have your pick of the cabinet.

Stollznow's top buys include sea bully mullet, an oily fish that's a great alternative to trout or salmon at a fraction of the price; the delicate ocean perch, ideal for roasting or steaming, at $12 a kilogram; or luderick as an all-rounder than can be pan-fried, used for fish and chips, and more.

Thinking about jumbo prawns? Go for medium-sized prawns that are more abundant, and therefore cheaper [than larger prawns], says Stollznow.

"Any old salt in any fishing town will tell you the small ones taste better."

Coles expects cooked fresh black tiger prawns to go for $27 per kilogram next week, while uncooked, thawed banana prawns are marked at $24 a kilogram.

If you haven't made your own Christmas pud and find the shelves bare next week, Phillippa Grogan has plenty of creative solutions from her range. Panettone can be quickly turned into a trifle, saving the trouble of baking a sponge; a ripple cake is easily done with star-shaped honey biscuits, or you can crumble cranberry shortbread or fruit mince pies into vanilla ice-cream for your very own signature scoop.

And, at the end of the day, there are always fresh mangoes and cherries.

with Callan Boys