Consumers are hot and cross after supermarket giant Woolworths stacked its shelves with an Easter favourite just days after Christmas.

Many customers were startled to see hot cross buns at the supermarket on December 27 - some 99 days before Easter.

'Pull your heads in. December is ridiculously early!!!' fumed sports scientist Tim Doyle, who tweeted he would take his hot cross bun purchases to another store's baking aisle.

'I thought it was an urban myth,' wrote a surprised South Australian Federal MP Andrew Southscott on Facebook. 'But Woolies are first off the mark with hot cross buns on the shelf on December 27!

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Not exactly a December favourite: Hot cross buns have already appeared on Woolworths shelves

Woolworths expects to sell more than 50 million hot cross buns in the lead-up to last Easter

While it's not unusual for hot cross buns to appear in stores while Christmas trees are still up, many consumers were stunned by Woolworths' breakneck speed.

'Really Woolworths, hot cross buns in December,'' tweeted mother-of-three Sonya Dunn. 'Unbelievable!'

Members of the clergy were quick to join in the condemnation, pointing to the sacred symbol atop the buns.

'It's disappointing,' Uniting Church Reverend Bruce Johnson told Nine News this week. 'They could sell them without the cross on the top and people could buy them all year round'.

Even a baker - of all people - urging the supermarkets to restrain themselves.

'I want my children to enjoy the anticipation and excitement that comes from having to wait for something special,' said Steve Plarre, the CEO of the Ferguson Plarre Bakehouse.

Coles will roll out their buns in early January. A spokesman said they are a favourite of shoppers, and had a special aside for critics.

Christmas favourite: Hot cross buns are a popular buy at both major supermarket

'Clearly customers who would prefer to wait until Easter before buying buns have that choice,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

A Woolworths representative said they release the buns the same time every year. 'Our customers love them,' a spokesman said.

They certainly do - the supermarket expects to sell more than 50 million buns in the lead-up to Easter.

The grocery giants are far from the only Australian stores to muscle in on big holidays.

Several Australian department stores are known to hoist up their Christmas trees in early September, four months before the special day.