Tesco and Morrisons are giving away free carrots this Christmas to help shoppers “prepare for Santa and Rudolph”.
Tesco customers will be able to get their hands on the free root veg from December 20, while Morrisons shoppers can take advantage from December 22. Each supermarket will run the scheme until December 24.
The free carrots will be available in 829 larger Tesco stores, while Morrisons will have them in 496 branches. They will be available in stands at the front of stores and shoppers will be able to help themselves. You don't need to make any other purchase.
Kids are traditionally supposed to leave out a mince pie and glass of milk for Santa, plus carrots for Rudolph and his fellow reindeer. But as well as helping families celebrate Christmas, the supermarkets say the move is designed to help reduce food waste.
Andy Todd, carrot buyer at Morrisons said: “The spirit of giving is what Christmas is all about, and we’re thrilled to help add a little bit of magic to our customers’ celebrations by giving them a delicious wonky carrot to leave out for Rudolph. Our tasty wonky range helps our British farmers reduce waste and offer customers a delicious alternative at a fraction of the cost.”
Morrisons says its carrots are classed as "wonky", meaning they oversized or misshapen, but are still fine to eat. If you don't manage to pick up any freebies, lots of Christmas vegetables normally get reduced this time of year.
Aldi this month kicked off the annual supermarket Christmas price war by slashing the price of some vegetables to 15p, including bags of 2kg white potatoes, 1kg of carrots, 500g of parsnips, red and white cabbages, 500g of brussels sprouts and swedes.
Alongside this, Aldi says the deals this year do not come at the cost of the supplier. This means that growers receive the same price for their product no matter the promotion or offer in-store.
In previous years, some supermarkets including Asda have given away other Christmas vegetables for free, or for as little as 5p, on Christmas Eve to get rid of any excess stock. Of course, this all depends on availability and how much stock each store has left to sell before December 25.