Cranberry sauce, Brussels sprouts, Nintendo Wiis and digital photo frames have been condemned for their negative impact on climate change.

Christmas dinners in Britain have been calculated to produce 51,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. The amount is equivalent to a car travelling 148 million miles, slightly less than the distance between the Sun and Mars.

Turkeys were responsible for the most emissions, and cranberry sauce was singled out as having a disproportionately high carbon footprint.

The main ingredients of a Christmas dinner were largely found to be easily available as home-grown products, which kept the transport emissions to just 4.5 per cent of the total carbon footprint.

Cranberry sauce, however, is mostly imported from the US and accounts for half of the transport emissions for each Christmas dinner, despite providing barely a mouthful of the food on each plate. Professor Adisa Azapagic of Manchester University said: “Food production and processing are responsible for three quarters of the total carbon footprint, with the largest proportion – 60 per cent – related to the life cycle of the turkey.”

Another study carried out by the New Economics Foundation highlighted Wiis, digital frames and Brussels sprouts as bad for the planet. A report, The Carbon Cost of Christmas, found that Wii consoles will generate enough emissions to match 90 return flights from Heathrow to New York. The photo frames were estimated to be responsible for emissions equivalent to 7,000 return flights between Britain and the US.

Brussel sprouts, they said, should be removed from the Christmas menu because of their methane emissions.

Sending fewer cards, but “with more thought and feeling”, was urged, as was turning off the television.

Others included going outdoors to exercise instead of running on the spot in a gym, and growing food at home instead of at the supermarket.

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