Easter treats already on sale, and not everyone's happy

While many of us have barely breathed a sigh of relief at the fact our Christmas eating is done for the year, we get greeted with rows of Easter treats in some stores.

Supermarkets have this week brought in trays of the usual array of chocolate eggs, including the year-round favourite Cadbury Creme Egg.

But not everyone is so happy at seeing these holiday treats appear so soon after Christmas.

One woman was so anti she started a Facebook page called "Take Easter out of our shops ... we are still eating Christmas cake."

Donna Bregmen said it was time "put an end to this madness"!

It has gathered almost 150 members in the week since it was established.

One woman, Wendel Berry, said it made the holiday season less special.

"What it's doing is taking the mystery and wonder out of these special days for our children. They won't have the same excitement that we had because it will be so normalised," she said. "Just so very sad that the dollar is more important than keeping these days precious for the children."

Countdown spokesman James Walker said the supermarket's most popular Easter product -- hot cross buns -- went on sale about the same time every year, which was usually in the first week of January.

"We start rolling out a few other Easter products at the same time, with the majority of the chocolate products going sale in the month leading up to Easter," he said.

While our sales and volumes are commercially sensitive, we can tell you that Cadbury Creme Eggs are one of our more popular products, together with marshmallow eggs, and that's why you'll see these on sale fairly early. Other traditional treats such as boxed eggs and hollow bunnies are also very popular with our customers at Easter."

Foodstuffs spokeswoman Antoinette Laird said Easter products were starting to come in this week to New World, Pak'n Save and Four Square stores nationwide.

"Easter products normally start to appear on shelf a couple of months prior to Easter as this gives customers the ability to shop without time pressure," she said.

"Our customers tell us they appreciate being able to purchase products connected to key occasions such as Christmas and Easter over an extended period of time.

"There are a number of reasons for this but essentially by having a couple of months to shop consumers are able to spread the cost of these special occasions across a few weeks hence avoiding budget pressure. And for those who are short on time, they appreciate having the flexibility to shop over a period of weeks versus days.

"In January, the range of Easter products is still quite limited but as the holiday draws closer customers can expect to see the full range of Easter products appearing on shelf.

"Occasionally specific items such as hot cross buns are only available in the lead-up to Easter but you will find flavoured fruit buns, which don't contain the traditional 'cross', are available year-round in many stores."