Marks and Spencer to open at midnight on Christmas Eve for first time Some 103 stores, including 54 of its smaller "Simply Food" shops, will open from midnight. Customers will be able to order food to collect from the store in the early hours as well as dropping in to browse. Due to Sunday trading rules, we can only open for six hours on one of the busiest days of the year. We hope that these early bird hours on Monday will ease the pressure and give busy shoppers a bit more time to pick up Christmas food orders or last minute presents. Waitrose stores will also open earlier. More than two-thirds of its branches will open at 7am on Christmas eve, an hour earlier than usual, and will remain open until 6pm. Most of its supermarkets will stay open until 10pm the previous week, with some not closing until 11pm. The company said it would open its branches for 4,700 more hours than usual in total.