The same saver would have to wait more than a year to earn enough to purchase a Waitrose Christmas pudding.

And even with the best high street one-year savings rate, it would be 2048 before they’d earn enough interest to buy an X-Box One S.

Peer-to-peer lending platform Octopus Choice published these figures to highlight the “painful reality of earning interest on the high street” today.

Richard Wazacz, head of Octopus Choice, said: “Christmas can be a financial headache at the best of times but if you’re relying on the Scrooge-type rates available on the high street to buy your turkey, tipples and stocking fillers, you’ll be in for a shock. With interest rates stuck at record lows for many years, and this situation unlikely to change in the short to medium term given concerns around the economy, there’s no light at the end of the tunnel for savers.”

Methodology: Octopus Choice calculated how many years it would take for £1,000 saved in the best, worst and average one-year high street savings accounts (HSBC, RBS, Lloyds, Santander and Barclays), to generate enough interest to buy various Christmas gifts and staples. The figures above assume interest is compounded. Prices were correct as at 27.11.16