diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-02-12-11-20-00.gh-issue-140009.dictxor.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-02-12-11-20-00.gh-issue-140009.dictxor.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..f6a518f313167a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-02-12-11-20-00.gh-issue-140009.dictxor.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Optimize :meth:`dict.items` symmetric difference by using :c:func:`PyTuple_FromArray` instead of :c:func:`PyTuple_Pack`.
diff --git a/Objects/dictobject.c b/Objects/dictobject.c
index ae7bf61767dc3b..4c457a01b66a8c 100644
--- a/Objects/dictobject.c
+++ b/Objects/dictobject.c
@@ -6292,7 +6292,8 @@ dictitems_xor_lock_held(PyObject *d1, PyObject *d2)
             }
         }
         else {
-            PyObject *pair = PyTuple_Pack(2, key, val2);
+            PyObject *items[] = {key, val2};
+            PyObject *pair = PyTuple_FromArray(items, 2);
             if (pair == NULL) {
                 goto error;
             }