The BBC's Jill Carver: "Too early for festive overkill"

The survey of 1,000 shoppers conducted for Supermarketing magazine found that that 69% of people do not want to see Christmas goods filling the shelves in the first week of October.

And almost three-quarters of female shoppers questioned accused the big stores of festive overkill.

The age range who objected most to consumerism taking over Christmas were those aged between 45 and 54.

Christmas wheel of fortune

Safeway, which introduced its Christmas lines in mid-September last year, jumped to the the defence of the supermarket chains.

A spokeswoman said: "We wouldn't use up valuable shelf space if they did not sell. Some customers want Christmas lines early as they provide a service.

"A lot of people shop on budgets and don't have the luxury of being able to buy all their Christmas things in the third week of December.

"They don't notice the cost as much if they can gradually buy gifts and food."