Tesco and Morrisons are giving away free carrots this Christmas in a bid to spread festive cheer and tackle food waste.
Morrisons confirmed it will give away 10,000 “wonky” versions of the root vegetables across its almost 500 stores.
The bags will be labelled “carrots for Rudolph” so children can leave them out for Santa and his reindeer on Christmas Eve.
Kids are traditionally supposed to leave out a mince pie and glass of milk for Santa, plus carrots for Rudolph and his seven fellow reindeer.
But as well as helping families celebrate Christmas, Morrisons says the move is designed to help food waste - with “wonky” carrots only accounting for 10% to 15% of total sales of the vegetable.
Morrisons started giving away the carrots on December 22 and availability will likely vary between stores.
Morrisons’ carrot buyer Andy Todd said: “Leaving out a carrot for Rudolph is a magical Christmas tradition and we want to make it easy for our customers to get involved.
“At the same time, we want to highlight that wonky carrots are just as tasty as perfect-looking carrots and help support our farmers.”
Tesco is also handing out free carrots in stores this Christmas, as it did in 2019 and 2020.
A photo posted by a Tesco shopper showed a green box of the root vegetable with the sign “Carrot for Rudolph or Dancer, Prancer and Vixen...” above it in one store.
The image was posted by the customer on the Reduce Your Supermarket Spend group on Facebook, who called it a “lovely idea”.
The Mirror has asked Tesco if it is giving away carrots in all its stores and we’ll update this article when we get a response.
Are you worried about the cost of Christmas? Let us know: mirror.money.saving@mirror.co.uk
In previous years, the supermarket offered the free veg in its larger supermarkets - and shoppers didn't need to buy anything else to get the carrots.
But again, whether you'll be able to get your hands on some does depend on availability and whether your nearest shop still has carrots in stock.
Tesco has around 3,400 shops in the UK, including large stores and smaller Express stores.
McDonald's is also giving away free carrots today only (December 24) and they'll be playfully renamed as "Reindeer Treats".
You don't need to buy anything else - you just need to ask for your carrots when visiting your nearest Maccies.
Bags of carrot sticks from the fast food chain are usually 99p.
If you don't manage to get any free food, Aldi has just slashed the price of some Christmas vegetables to just 9p.
The discounter had previously reduced the price of veggies including carrots and parsnips to 19p.
