MINCE pies may unanimously be seen as synonymous with Christmas, but those fruit-filled pastries alone can be very divisive.

Although this traditional seasonal pastry may date back hundreds of years, it has evolved over time from a lamb (or mutton) filled savoury pie to the sweet "mincemeat" delicacy we know today.

And with history has come superstition.

The sweet treats are left with brandy for Santa on Christmas Eve and one custom from the middle ages suggests if you eat one pie for each of the 12 days of Christmas you will have happiness for the following year.

Still popular today, we are surrounded by pie upon pie on supermarket and delicatessen shelves, but none are quite the same.

The Westmorland Gazette put mince pies to the test on the street, to see which ones came up top trumps this year.

In the race for the top spot was Greggs Mince Pies at £1.50 (six pack), Morrisons Mince Pies at £1 (six pack), Aldi Specially Selected Mince Pies at £1.19 (six pack), Booths Mince Pies at £1.19 (four pack), Booths All Butter Mince Pies at £2.49 (six pack).

First to the table were 17-year-old pals Bronte Ashton and Shauna Allsop, of Kendal.

After blind tasting the five pies, Shauna was won over by Morrisons, whose pies were "nice and sweet" with "not too much mixture", while Bronte preferred Booths Mince Pies which were "just the right balance" despite being keen on a festive dusting of sugar.

Next up was student Katrina Bell, 19, of Kendal and Kane MacFarlane, 20, of Witherslack who both settled on Booths All Butter Mince Pies as a firm favourite, but gave the nod to Aldi too.

"I prefer when the pastry is not too thick because the middle is the best bit for me," said Katrina. "The All Butter pie was much sweeter and there was plenty of mincemeat compared to some."

And the last to test the festive wares was self-confessed mince pie lover Christine Broadley, 58, landlady at Kendal's Castle Inn.

"You've got to have nice juicy mince meat and short crust pastry with a little bit of sugar!" she said.

And though she found Booths All Butter Mince Pies were "melt in the mouth", Christine preferred the thin pastry and "juiciness" of Greggs Mince Pies.