There’s no better sign of the festive season beginning than the arrival of the Christmas sandwich. Taking pride of place on supermarket shelves from this month, the humble festive sarnie is the ultimate prelude to the traditional Christmas Day roast, deliciously packing all our favourite trimmings into a glorious, triangular package.

Fear not vegetarian and vegans readers, IndyBest have already compiled a tried and tested list of Christmas sandwiches perfect for you right here. But for this roundup, we’ve munched on every traditional (and unusual… one involves a full Yorkshire pud) festive sandwich on the market to deliver you our top pick.

Our testing criteria included bread to filling ratio, moisture (or lack of), quality of ingredients and festiveness. Mr Claus himself would be proud of the bellies we’ve grown in the process of this review…we hope you enjoy tucking into the best Christmas sandwiches of 2018.

Starbucks Turkey Feast Panini: From £4.25, Starbucks

Starbucks are the experts of festive marketing, our Instagram feeds will be full of their creme brulee lattes in no time. But we aren't Scrooges when it comes to their festive food range, the Turkey Feat Panini didn’t disappoint.

It combines all the elements of a traditional Christmas sandwich but heightens them with a luxury take on simple ingredients; pulled turkey and maple-cured bacon are piled onto perfectly toasted cranberry-studded sourdough panini, the saltiness of the meat is cut through with molasses gravy and a delicious layer of cheese.

Struggling after a rough Monday morning at work? Eat this. Recovering from too many Christmas work drinks on a Thursday? Devour this. It’s excellent, and worth the £4.

Festive Full Works On Malted Wheat Baguette: From £4.25, EAT

We were immediately struck with how fresh this baguette tasted, the malted wheat bread felt like it had blessed us straight from the oven and the filling that followed was a Christmassy joy to behold.

The sandwich lives up to its name, packed full with moist turkey, herby stuffing and crispy bacon. But it was the clever sauce placement that made this sarnie such a strong contender: a generous helping of cranberry spread on one side, and a dashing of “chicken mayonnaise” spread on the other offers a rich sweetness and much needed moisture to a baguette of this size.

This is a very traditional offering with top quality ingredients and a great bread to filling ratio. EAT’s packaging also proudly wears the hashtag “carbe diem” which we feel are words to live by.

Asda Christmas Triple Sandwich: £2.90, Asda

We’ve seen the Christmas triple become popular this year, and Asda’s option was the most impressive of the bunch. The non-festive triple supermarket sandwich is usually reserved for a real lunchtime feast, so naturally we were excited by the prospect of a triple reminiscent of a full blown Christmas Day meal.

And what better way to start than a prawn cocktail sandwich? The prawns were juicy and plentiful with a generous amount of sauce. Approved. But the showstopper of the bunch was the turkey and stuffing sarnie, it’s a real monster packed full of filling including slices of sausage – if you’re a Christmas meat lover, it’s a winner.

But just as we all usually hit a food coma by the time the Christmas pudding is rolled out, the “dessert” cheese board sandwich falls a little flat. It felt like a normal cheese sandwich to us, we were left wanting far more chutney and something a bit more festive than a slice of Cheddar. But if you’re into a serious Christmas lunch on the go, we’d still recommend this trio.

Pret Christmas Lunch Sandwich: £3.75, Pret a Manger

Pret are the holy grail when it comes to festive launches. With strong vegan and vegetarian options this year, we were excited to get our hands on the classic Christmas Lunch Sandwich. Out of all the products we tasted, Pret’s high-quality ingredients stood out the most. Thick slices of wonderfully moist free-range turkey are married with a port and orange cranberry sauce, which is subtle enough to not overpower the traditional taste while providing a refreshing tang. Pret’s “crumbly pork stuffing” is unashamedly stacked generously on-top, it’s herby and fresh.

A few spinach leaves add a welcome touch of green amid all the festive gluttony, but the star ingredient has to be the crispy onions. They deliver a welcome crunch that we never knew we needed. A dab of free-range mayo sets everything off perfectly. Pret are also donating 50p from every sandwich purchase to The Pret Foundation Trust, founded to "help break the cycle of homelessness". We’re sold.

Sainsbury’s The Big Beef: £3, Sainsbury’s

Sainsbury’s have taken the view that some of us may be a bit sick of turkey and stuffing sandwiches to unthinkable heights. The Big Beef sees a whole gravy-soaked Yorkshire pudding take centre stage, stacked with tender slices of rare beef, all between an egg-washed white roll.

The bread is slathered on one side with a gravy mayonnaise, and the other a cheese fondue sauce. We were slightly alarmed at this combination, but Sainsbury’s have cracked the sauce-in-a-sandwich conundrum with the festive mayonnaise, it somehow works.

The decadence is balanced with a handful of spinach leaves, but only just. We felt this was more Sunday roast than Christmas dinner but found this impressive take rather refreshing amid all the sweeter cranberry options.

Starbucks Turkey, Ham & Cheese Toastie: From £4.25, Starbucks

Who doesn’t love a toastie at the best of times? A warm, cheesy sandwich is the dream lunch of many – but some can be soggy, or too conservative with the cheese, both inside and on top. This is the least festive of our Christmas sarnie bunch, but deserves a mention for how delicious it is.

First off, its size is impressive – we’d certainly recommend it if you’re in the market for a post-Christmas do hangover lunch to see you through work. The soughdough is perfectly toasted and topped with heaps of cheese, while the inside oozes with béchamel sauce, Emmental cheese, hickory smoked ham and deli sliced turkey.

The standout ingredient that sets this all off? The salty pickles than run through the filling, they cut through the creaminess, alongside American mustard. Beware that you’ll need a napkin as it’s pretty greasy, but oh-so worth it.

The Verdict: Best Christmas sandwiches of 2018

The competition was tough this year, but the Starbucks Turkey Feast Panini wins our vote for taking the traditional flavours of a Christmas sandwich to new heights. We’re also obsessed with the crispy onion addition to Pret’s Christmas Lunch Sandwich. And if you’re feeling brave, try The Big Beef from Sainsbury’s.

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