IT'S NOT EVEN NEW YEAR AND EASTER EGGS ARE ALREADY ON SALE

By Tamara Cohen 30th December 2010

After all the indulgence of Christmas, many of us will surely be glad to see the back of turkey and mince pies.

What is less certain, however, is whether we are quite ready to stomach Easter eggs.

But such thinking did not deter one supermarket which started selling them on Christmas Eve, four months before Easter.

The store’s Christmas tree is still standing, yet next to shelves of leftover festive food sit treats including Disney Easter Egg Hunt Buckets and Cadbury Easter Egg Trail Packs.

Hard to stomach: Easter eggs are already on the shelves of the Tesco Metro store in Portslade, East Sussex, with customers accusing them of jumping the gun

Customers were shocked to see staff putting out the eggs in a decorative Easter display at the Tesco Metro in Portslade, East Sussex, and many accused the store of jumping the gun.

Carol Weatherhead, from London, pointed out the confused religious symbolism of blurring the festivals, one celebrating Christ’s birth and one commemorating his death.

She wrote on the social networking site Twitter yesterday: ‘He’s no sooner been born than they are trying to crucify him – my local Tesco Metro is full to the rafters with Easter eggs already.’

James Devile, from London, wrote: ‘On the fifth day of Christmas I bought everyone Creme Eggs from the new Easter aisle in Tesco.’

A Tesco spokesman said: ‘Basically we put them on sale now because that’s what people want. There is a huge clamour for Creme Eggs as soon as they go on sale.

‘We think that at least for the week between Boxing Day and the start of the New Year they will be our most in-demand chocolate treat.’

This is believed to be a record early start. Last year a Tesco in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, came under fire for selling Easter eggs in January.