Nobody has announced a 2026 date. Here is the 2025 timetable, the Ocado deadline that has already passed, and why the 2026 tables you find are last year's.
No UK supermarket has published a booking date for Christmas delivery slots 2026. That was still true on 8 September 2026, when we checked all six, and it is normal rather than late. In 2025 the earliest release was Waitrose on 24 September and the last was Tesco on 4 November, and the announcements landed a week or two ahead of each release. One 2026 deadline has already gone, though, and it is Ocado's: priority access this year went to Smart Pass members who signed up before 1 September.
No. Ocado is the only one of the big grocers with anything 2026-specific on a public page, and what it has published is the eligibility rule rather than the date. Its help centre article on early access reads, checked on 8 September 2026:
As a part of their membership, Smart Pass customers who signed up before 1st September 2026 will get early access to Christmas slots before general release. These slots get booked up really quickly, so we can't guarantee everyone will get one. We recommend you book your slot as soon as you're notified that they're available.
Three things fall out of that. The cut-off is a sign-up date, so buying a pass in October does nothing for this Christmas. It is not a new rule either: MoneySavingExpert reported the same 1 September cut-off in September 2024, when bookings opened for "Smart Pass customers who joined on or before 1 September 2024". And Ocado says members are notified, which is the part nobody outside the scheme gets. Our Ocado page covers the rest of it, including the awkward bit where Smart Pass delivery benefits stop during Christmas week.
The 2025 timetable is the most useful thing anyone can give you right now, as long as it is labelled as 2025 and not dressed up as this year's schedule. Booking dates below are from Which?, updated 24 October 2025. The delivery windows are from MoneySavingExpert, edited 11 November 2025.
| Retailer | Pass holders | Everyone else | Delivery window |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waitrose | 24 September | Open by 24 October | 20 to 24 December |
| Ocado | 23 September | Staggered general release | 20 to 24 December |
| Morrisons | 1 October | 10 October | 20 to 24 December |
| Asda | 15 October | 20 October | 21 to 23 December |
| Sainsbury's | 16 October | 23 October | 18 to 24 December |
| Tesco | 4 November, 6am | 11 November, 6am | 20 to 24 December |
Where both dates were published, the head start ran from five days at Asda to nine at Morrisons, with Sainsbury's and Tesco both on seven. So the pass is worth roughly a week, and a week is the difference between choosing a Christmas Eve morning slot and taking whatever is left.
It was, and then it stopped. When Tesco opened its 2024 booking on 5 November for Delivery Saver members and 12 November for everyone else, The Grocer noted on 8 October 2024 that this was "a week earlier than last year, which itself was a week earlier than in 2022". Two years running, a week each time. Then 2025 came in at 4 November and 11 November, which is one day earlier, not a week.
That matters if you are planning around it. Extending the old trend would put Tesco in late October 2026, and there is nothing behind that. Early November is the better assumption, and the honest answer is that Tesco has not said.
Because a lot of them are older pages with the year changed in the headline. Searching for Christmas delivery slots 2026 turns up tables that look authoritative, and checking one takes a few seconds. A page titled "Christmas Delivery Slot Dates for Supermarkets 2026", read on 8 September 2026, gave its Asda delivery pass entry as:
Conformed to open on October 3rd 2023
Its Tesco row was marked "CONFIRMED" for 5 November 2024, its Morrisons row was from 2024, and the page said it was last updated on 22 July 2025, which is before any 2026 date existed to know. The tell is always the same: a date carrying a year that is not the one in the title. When you find a table like that, go to the retailer's own Christmas or help pages instead, which is where Ocado's 2026 rule turned up.
Co-op and Iceland. MoneySavingExpert lists both as taking no special Christmas bookings, with the ordinary rule instead: book up to five days before the delivery you want. There is no early release to wait for and no pass to buy, which makes them the least stressful options here and the two you cannot plan around in September.
M&S is collection rather than delivery, and MoneySavingExpert put its 2025 collection window at 21 to 24 December. Its 2026 booking has not opened. The Christmas Food to Order site said this when we read it on 8 September 2026:
PSST - Christmas Food To Order is coming soon! M&S Christmas Food to Order 2026 will be back soon. Check back to discover this year's range of showstopping festive food.
"Check back" is the actual instruction, and there is no notify-me box on the page to save you the job. That is the problem in one line for anyone without a delivery pass. A public page that will change on a date nobody has published, and nothing to tell you when it does.
Decide about a pass now, not in October
Ocado's cut-off for this year was 1 September and it has gone. The others gate on holding the pass rather than on a sign-up date, so far as any of them have published, but every one of them opens the pass window first. If you are buying a pass for the head start, buy it before the release rather than after.
Watch the retailer's public page, not the slot picker
The booking screen is behind a sign-in, so nothing can watch it for you. What is public is each retailer's Christmas hub and help pages, and those are what change when booking opens. Ocado's early-access article is the model: the 2026 rule appeared there first.
Be ready early in the morning
Tesco's 2025 release ran at 6am on both dates, per Which?. Where a retailer publishes a time at all, it has tended to be first thing.
Know which window you are booking into
Sainsbury's covered 18 to 24 December in 2025, the widest of the six. Asda was 21 to 23 December, the narrowest, with no Christmas Eve at all. If Christmas Eve is the point, that difference decides where you shop before the dates do.
Have a fallback
Co-op and Iceland take bookings five days out with no Christmas release to miss, and every supermarket keeps click and collect running when home delivery is full.
On the tooling: StockWatch cannot watch a delivery slot picker, because that sits behind your account and we are not logging in as you. What it does is watch a public page and tell you the minute the wording on it changes, which is exactly the job the M&S "check back" line describes. The free plan covers five pages at 60-second checks, which is more than enough for six supermarket Christmas pages. If you want the reasons alerts sometimes arrive late anyway, we wrote that up, and our guide to watching a page for changes covers the setup. The beauty advent calendar page is the same problem in a different aisle.
No UK supermarket had published a 2026 date as of 8 September 2026. On the 2025 pattern, expect Waitrose and Ocado in late September, Morrisons in early October, Asda and Sainsbury's mid to late October, and Tesco in early November. Those are last year's dates and not a promise about this year.
No, but it buys you a head start. In 2025 pass holders booked five to nine days before general release across the retailers that published both dates. Ocado goes further and gates early access on having signed up before 1 September, which cannot be bought retrospectively.
From Ocado, if you hold a qualifying Smart Pass: its help centre says to book as soon as you are notified. Nobody else publishes a notify-me for slot releases, and M&S Christmas Food to Order tells you to check back instead. Watching the public page is the only option left for everyone else.
In 2025 it was Ocado on 23 September, with Waitrose the next day. Tesco was last by a clear margin at 4 November.
Not as a special release. MoneySavingExpert lists both as taking no advance Christmas bookings, with the usual rule that you book up to five days before the delivery you want.
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