Christmas is knocking on our door, and it's getting louder and louder!
Perhaps you aren't quite ready for Christmas yet; I know it's only November, but you can't help but notice that every shop, coffee shop, restaurant, basically everywhere is looking a lot like Christmas, but perhaps you need something more to get you into a Christmas frame of mind?
So here are a few FREE Christmas-themed things that might start your festive journey off for 2023 and get your Christmas juices flowing!
1. Tesco is offering a free visit to a Santa's grotto this year, at your local Tesco supermarket! That's not always the first place you expect to find a Santa Grotto, but it's a lovely opportunity for your kids to meet the jolly man at no cost! You can book a visit via the Tesco Christmas Grotto page, and this page will show you which store is participating in the free offer. Spaces are limited, so you'll need to hurry to book this.
What's included: One of Santa's helpers will welcome you into the grotto, where you'll see Christmas gifts being brought to life in the elves' workshop.
Your little ones will have the chance to write their wish lists to Santa in the workshop and pop them into the speedy post box.
Then, you'll receive a happy hello and a ho-ho-ho from Mr Claus himself.
Finally, each child will receive a free, age-appropriate gift from Santa and a digital photo to remember the day they met him.
2. Cadbury's has relaunched their Secret Santa postal service, and it means you can send a Cadbury chocolate bar for free to somebody you think will really appreciate it! You get to choose which bar you want to send, subject to availability, with 120,000 being made available, and Cadbury will send it directly to your nominated recipient. In previous years, you were able to send loads of bars if you wanted to go through the sending process over and over; however this year, they've introduced mobile phone numbers as a requirement when sending, and it will only allow one bar per mobile phone number, which is good as some people were getting literally dozens of bars and other people getting zero! They are only giving out X number per day, so if it tells you there are no more bars left today, then pop back again tomorrow, and hopefully, you'll be able to get one.
To claim yours, you need to scan the QR code that can be found on posters dotted around the UK, and this code will take you to the claim page. If you cant find the poster, keep your eye on social media as many people are sharing the links when they find one!
3. Christmas isn't Christmas without a festive movie, right? There is not much better than sitting in front of the telly watching a Christmas film with her hot chocolate and a mince pie and this year there's a whole channel there's nothing but Christmas films for you to watch and best of all it's absolutely free! The Great! Christmas channel is available now until January 2024, and has a wide selection of Christmas films that will suit the whole family. The channel can be accessed on Freeview: 52, Freesat channel: 303, Sky channel: 319, Sky Glass/Stream channel: 317 and Virgin Media channel: 424. The films are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
4. Royal Mail is once again offering their free letter from Santa service, where your children write to Santa and let him know what they'd like for Christmas and, in return, will receive a letter from the big man himself!
You need to send the letter, by NOVEMBER 30th, to:
Santa/Father Christmas Santa's Grotto Reindeerland XM4 5HQ
You need to remember to stick a stamp on the letter. If you'd rather save the cost of the stamp, you can download and print the reply, or if you'd prefer the response in Welsh, you can get this here.