Like the workshops of the North Pole, we get a little busy in the office towards the end of the year, so my fellow elves and I are in need of some festive fuel in the form of limited-edition festive sandwiches.

What can these humble supermarket sarnies tell us about the underlying cultural meanings being communicated, and about the ways culture is moving more broadly?

This lunchtime, I enjoyed a sandwich – but not just any sandwich, an M&S Christmas sandwich. This sandwich was a little different from other M&S offerings. This was an M&S Christmas ‘sando’, a combination of “breaded chicken, pickled slaw, cranberry chutney with gochujang mayo”.

This sando represents an emerging cultural code – that of traditional Christmas flavours remixed. ‘Sando’ is the Japanese word for sandwich, and gochujang mayo combines mayonnaise with Korean red pepper paste. Gochujang is increasingly popular in the culinary-conscious foodie cultures of the UK and US. (An NYT Cooking recipe for ‘Gochujang Caramel Cookies’ currently has over 6,000 five-star reviews.)

Eric Kim’s viral Gochujang Caramel Cookies

Here, M&S have combined a star ingredient of the current moment with more familiar Christmas flavours: cranberry chutney, pickled slaw – representing a vision of the M&S Christmas that is imaginative, worldly, and for the culinarily curious.

There are other common themes emerging across UK supermarket festive sandwich packaging. Let’s take a deeper look.

  • Levity & Revelry: In medieval and Tudor times, the Lord of Misrule was a nominated official accompanied by a jester responsible for overseeing Christmas festivities. It was a time of permissive excess where the normal rules were suspended, and festive fun and indulgence were encouraged. Stay with me here – a thread of this runs through festive sandwich offerings. We see wordplay with naming conventions (e.g. Waitrose’s Merry Club’Mas, Tesco’s Jingle Brie, and Sainsbury’s vegan offering: No Pigs Under Blankets). There’s a sense that consumers expect departure from the ‘norms’ of packaging, TOV, and marketing around Christmas time: we also see novelty come through in the pack designs themselves: sticking with Sainsbury’s, we see jokes on the sides of the sandwich packs (e.g. Why was the snowman looking through the carrots? … He was picking his nose!). This brings us to another code…

  • Seasonal Nostalgia & Emotional Connection: Unsurprisingly, the use of traditional festive ingredients (sage & onion stuffing, pigs-in-blankets, turkey, cranberry sauce, brie, smoked salmon & cream cheese) dial up cues of nostalgia and family for consumers across the country. By tapping into longstanding culinary traditions, supermarkets offer consumers a moment to connect with their own personal Christmas pasts – utilising flavours and ingredients as signifiers of times gone by, time spent with loved ones, and a comforting sense of dependable seasonal consistency and a sense of British Christmas heritage.

  • Christmas Card Kitsch & Care: Also, perhaps unsurprisingly, festive sandwiches borrow cues from Christmas cards; both in terms of illustration style (see Sainsbury’s sandwiches mimicking hand-painted festive designs, with individual brushstrokes visible; or Morrisons faux wrapping paper & bauble illustrations); but also, in charitable donations. Morrisons sandwiches support Marie Curie, Sainsbury’s supports Comic Relief, and 5% of sales from M&S Christmas sandwiches go to Shelter.

  • Fusion formats: If you don’t want a sandwich, there’s M&S’ Turkey feast pasta – or their festive Surf ‘n’ Turf offering: 2 brioche rolls, one with beef and mustard, one with prawn cocktail – or the ‘Let it Spice’ festive curry wrap from Asda – demonstrating awareness that there are plenty of British people celebrating Christmas who might not subscribe to the idea that festive food = turkey, stuffing, and pigs in blankets. Increasingly, non-Western flavours are being introduced into the Christmas repertoire, signifying broadening consumer appetites, as well as an understanding that not only white, and not only Christian, Brits celebrate the festive season. Dishoom’s Christmas menu sparks buzz every year; complete with everything from Mince Pie Kulfi to Chai Eggnog to Christmas Turkey Raan. Last year, London-based foodie influencer @seemagetsbaked created a whole series of recipes for an Indian Christmas dinner, including: Masala Gravy, Turka Roast Potatoes, Brussel Sprout Pakoras, Turmeric and Ginger Bread Sauce, Herby Chilli Stuffing, Ghee and Mango Chutney Parsnips and Carrots, Tamarind and Cranberry Chutney, and Mulled Apple Juice (an alternative to pigs in blankets was not offered – Seema says they’re perfect as they are).

Dishoom’s Christmas Menu

3 Key Takeaways for Brands:

  1. Food is an obvious and brilliant way to emotionally connect with consumers – and this also works year-round. Think the scene in Ratatouille where Anton Ego, the cut-throat Parisian food critic, tucks into a plate of the film’s namesake – and is instantly transported back to his humble roots, and to times spent with his mother. Music may be the food of love, but food is also the food. This connection is demonstrated in Waitrose’s Christmas sandwich offerings, all of which feature a stamp saying, ‘Made with Love’. If Christmas is a time in which brands can push the boat out with different flavours; it’s also a time where emotional cues can be dialled up, and brands can get away with more earnest and sentimental cues, as well as more frivolous ones – especially when talking about food. Add to this consumer desires to engage in charitable giving during the festive period – any product that enables people to give to charity via their lunchbreak supermarket meal deal will dial up the Christmassy cues.

  2. Sometimes, the old ways are the best. Embrace traditional Christmas cues in packaging designs: stars, baubles, wrapping paper, and reds and greens and gold. All of these will signify to consumers that a brand is engaging in Christmas spirit. Several different illustration and graphic styles can be utilised to do this, depending on desired meanings communicated: Tesco Finest* Christmas sandwiches feature photorealistic imagery of fir tree branches and dustings of snow, while Morrisons’ The Best Christmas Club features a teal and gold star pattern like you’d find on wrapping paper, mimicking constellations.

  3. Consumers are increasingly curious and increasingly willing to try new flavour combinations. Christmas no longer equals turkey and dry potatoes. Non-Western flavours hold year-round appeal, and fusion food holds joyful novelty for consumers beyond the Christmas period. Brands should be experimental and ambitious with their flavour combinations – take gochujang caramel cookies and Dishoom’s Mince Pie Kulfi as the gold standard. Be aware, however, of culinary appropriation. Brands have an opportunity to centre voices and platform the people behind cuisines.

Freya Ward-Lowery, Senior Semiotician

Semiotic Seasons Eatings: Christmas sarnies culturally unwrapped