Loblaws Holiday Giveaway!

When my friends at Hill and Knowlton asked me if I’d be interested in sponsoring a Loblaws / President’s Choice holiday giveaway, I was torn. I have a very intense relationship with Loblaws, even though I’m pretty sure Loblaws doesn’t even know I exist. (Seems alarmingly like most of my high school relationships, now that I think of it.)

See, on the one hand, I love Loblaws. I shop there or at the Independent across the street every single week, and I love their stuff. I especially love the Insider’s Report, and I’m absurdly and perhaps unhealthily excited when new products come out. On the other hand, Loblaws does occasionally make me so crazy that I want to divorce them and run away with Sobey’s. On the other other hand, you know I love Hill and Knowlton and the fun projects they bring to us. And when I accepted their offer of a bunch of new products from the Insiders Report based on a caveat that we could also put together a giveaway for you guys, they didn’t blink an eye. Really, I got on board this bloggy giveaway as much because of H&K as because of Loblaws.

So I knew I would be getting a big box of samples to try, and I knew we’d set up a giveaway for you to share in the bounty. What I did not expect was this:

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I mean, that’s a REALLY big box. And do you know what was inside? I so love this! They had individually wrapped and labeled 25 packages with the numbers one through 25. The box arrived on December 1st. Yes, they mailed me a giant grocery advent calendar full of President’s Choice products from the Holiday Insider’s Report. How awesome is that?

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The boys were beside themselves with excitement at this amazing box of presents, and had a great time lining them all up in numerical order. (Lookit me go, presents + free food + teaching opportunity! What fun!) Then they opened up package number one, which was a bottle of PC Mulled Cider (I looked, but couldn’t find a link. Another thing that makes me squirrelly about PC – the search engine is questionable at best). The boys don’t really like pop, but they asked for a sample of this with dinner and both agreed it was a sparkly twist on plain old cider.

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The December 2 package contained a shiny (ooo, shiny!) new PC Cake Server. I’m not sure if I can be patient enough to keep opening just one package per day when I know there are some really yummy treats in there, but so far we’re having a lot of fun with this.

(As you’ll see in the background of the photographs, we’re in the middle of transitioning from carpet to laminate, and finding a place to put 25 23 individually-wrapped grocery items is proving to be a lot more of a challenge than it might have posed on an ordinary week, since everything from the living room and dining room has been moved elsewhere in the house, including my overstuffed and oversized love seat and sofa taking up the entire kitchen. Currently, most of the treats from Loblaws are stacked in the front hall closet!)

So while this has been an unexpectedly delightful bloggy event (can we pause again to say how much I love H&K?) on my part, it gets better! Our friends at H&K have put together an amazing gift basket that one of you lucky bloggy peeps will win just in time for holiday entertaining season. (Or, the holiday “go away, it’s MINE, get yer own!” season, depending on how it rolls at your place.)

The gift basket is loaded with some of the best items for the PC Holiday Insiders Report, with holiday entertaining in mind.

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The gift basket includes:

  • PC Mulled Apple
  • PC Raspberry Martini Mocktail
  • PC Chocolate Egg Nog
  • PC Mini (6รขโ‚ฌย) holiday crackers
  • Belgian chocolate cookie tin
  • PC gingerbread bites
  • PC Scottish Shortbread
  • PC Apple Pecan Gourmet Topper
  • PC Holiday Chocolate Figurines

And lookit how they packaged it all up in a reuseable PC Green Bin tote for you. Awesome, eh? So here’s the details:

The contest is open from now through noon on Monday, December 7, 2009. There are three ways you can earn a ballot to enter this contest:

  1. Leave a comment below and tell me one treat you look forward to during the holiday season. Grandma’s shortbread? Your special-recipe stuffing? Swiss Chalet’s Festive Special? What taste tells you it’s holiday time?
  2. Write about the contest on your blog, linking to this post, and come back and leave me a comment with the URL to let me know about it.
  3. Tweet the contest on twitter using hashtag #PC_Holiday and linking to this blog post, and leave me a comment with a link to your status update. (You can create a direct link to your Twitter update by clicking on the time of the update and saving that link.) You can use tinyurl http://tinyurl.com/ye6ayq2

The fine print: this contest is open to Canadian residents only. One winner will be chosen by using the random number generator at random.org, selected from all eligible entries. The winner will be announced the afternoon or evening of December 7, 2009. You must be willing to share your mailing address with me, and I will share it with Hill and Knowlton Canada, who will ship the prize directly to the winner.

You can buy President’s Choice products at Loblaws, Independent, Extra Foods, No Frills, Superstore, Fortinos, ValuMart, Zehrs, Maxi, Provigo, SaveEasy and Dominion — here’s an online store locator!

Thanks to Loblaws and Hill and Knowlton for another fun giveaway. Good luck to all!

Author: DaniGirl

Canadian. storyteller, photographer, mom to 3. Professional dilettante.

190 thoughts on “Loblaws Holiday Giveaway!”

  1. I know it’s Christmas when we have nanaimo bars and shortbread, and those little oranges, and turkey dinner…apparently it’s all about the food for me…

    Please enter me in the draw, I’d love to win the basket. Also, I voted for your blog yesterday…

    thanks!

  2. Cool giveaway, it would totally be unfair if I won your last one and this one… but still I will enter ๐Ÿ™‚ I am greedy that way!

    I am crazy for turkey dinner at Christmas, I get all giddy just thinking about it. And with the new baby on the way I am on the hook for exactly NOTHING! This is the best year ever!

  3. I know its’ Christmastime when we pull out the Bailey’s. It’s the only time of year we have it and oh how I love it ๐Ÿ™‚

  4. I would love to win this draw!

    I know it’s Christmas time when the clementines start to come out. I also look forward to our family’s annual gingerbread people decorating bonanza. It’s always very creative!

  5. How cool is that, the way they packaged your box? Very nice. The gift box looks yummy – love that it’s in a Green Bin.

    I like the turkey, the mandarin oranges (though they were better out west), but I really miss my mom’s cabbage rolls – that was Christmas for me. (I know, I could make my own – but it’s a lot of work!). ๐Ÿ™‚

  6. Oh yum, y’all are making me drool! I should have never read this before lunch!!

    Karen, not at all — please feel free to enter just by leaving a comment here. But you can earn *extra* entries into the draw by blogging or tweeting about it. Sorry if that wasn’t clear!

  7. We celebrate “both” of the December holidays in our family, so I know it’s Hanukah when the house smells of oil and we are eating delicious latkes, and I know it’s Christmas when we eat my MILs nanaimo bars, peanut butter squares, and lemon squares. I skip the date squares. They look so darn healthy.

  8. When I have my first Starbucks gingerbread latte ! Thanks for the contest, Dani, love PC products too !

  9. For me it is sugar cookies. Not actually my favorite type of cookie but one that we only make at Christmas – once the sugar cookies are made, the holidays have officially begun.

    Captcha is coffers weak

  10. It’s really all about the eggnog and the war cake for me. I bought some egg nog yesterday when I spotted it, and somehow the 3L are already half gone…

  11. It’s Christmas for me when shortbread is made – best served with Mint hot chocolate ๐Ÿ™‚ and Christmas rice krispie squares… and sitting with all the lights out except for the christmas tree lights and listening to christmas music…. *sigh*

  12. For me it’s the clementine oranges! I always had one on the toe of my stocking and now the kids will too! I let out a little *squee* when I saw them at the store a few weeks ago! Also, the Festive Special…but I so miss the Toblerone days. ๐Ÿ™‚

  13. I’m looking forward to family and food and eating food that my family has made (my BIL is an AMAZING baker!). And Christmas lights and listening to all the old Christmas records (yes records!) that I listened to as a child and that my parents still play each year.

  14. There are so many treats I love (my nanny’s date squares in particular) but Turkey dinner is hard to beat!!

    Also, for those wondering, while I hate eggnog, I bought the PC Chocolate Egg Nog for my husband and apparently it’s incredible. ๐Ÿ˜‰

  15. I know it is Christmas when I get the craving for shortbread chocolate chip cookies (that has less than 4 ingredients). Delicious! The kids love them and they can easily help make them!

  16. I am looking forward to my sisters amazing Ice Cream Log Cake she always makes for dessert on Christmas.

  17. I love my mom’s homemade peanut butter cups! She only makes them once a year but they are soooo worth the wait!

  18. My Mom’s veggies rings! We practically tear at each other to get our hands on these — so yummy!!!

    Awesome giveaway. Awesome PR people to do a creative approach.

  19. Christmas to me means tasting the same ginger crinkle cookies I’ve made each year since I was a little kid in Sunday school. And squirreling away cartons of the PC candy cane fudge crackle ice cream in the freezer – that is, if there is any available at my Loblaw’s at all. (I have my own love/hate relationship with Loblaw’s…)

  20. I know it is Christmas when we are breaking into a piece of Broken Glass Tarte. My FAVORITE holiday dessert, and one my husband has learned to make REALLY REALLY WELL!

  21. Oh, what a fun and festive giveaway, Dani! Your boys had an early Christmas present right there, huh?
    I know it’s Christmas when we put up our Christmas trees… when I start stocking up on wrapping paper and buying presents for everyone, and when the radio starts playing Christmas songs… I look forward to our big Greek Christmas feast at my parents and inlaws homes… and looking at the look of happiness on my children’s faces come Christmas morning!

  22. Choose one treat???? I’m all about a month of treats for Christmas? I love making my grandmother’s ginger snaps and sugar cookies – not as good as hers but her recipe so it still feels nice!

    Add me to the list of Loblaws love and hate club. I go back and forth all the time!!

  23. well – for us it is Hanuka Latkes we are waiting for. but i do enjoy all the decorations…

  24. I love to bake for christmas and there are three recipes that are always there…lemon shortbread, sugar cookies and turtle brownies (these are killer!!)….baking (and eating) these treats always get me into the holiday spirit!

    on another note…I am a relatively new reader of your Blog and I absolutely love it…I eagerly anticipate each post….I have been meaning to comment for some time now so I thought I would use the opportunity to say thanks and great job ๐Ÿ™‚ (btw, I voted for you in the blog awards)

  25. Mmm, reading these comments made me hungry. I have to say that Christmas treat I love the best are my homemade bailey’s truffles. There is nothing like having chocolate all over your hands from rolling truffles ๐Ÿ™‚

  26. I am a PC product fanatic as well ๐Ÿ™‚ And sadly, I look forward to the holiday insider’s report each year too (thought I was the only one!) ๐Ÿ™‚

    What makes me look forward to the holidays? Well, so many things. I love my shortbread recipe that I make each year. My 5 year old is now my helper, so it is a tradition that I am passing down. I love the big family breakfast and turkey dinner that are both filled with things that we only indulge in once a year.

    I don’t have a blog to post about this contest, but I am going to tweet about it right now…

  27. Sweeet! What a yummy giveaway.

    My fav holiday food is my mom’s iced butter cookies. Super thin, with just the right amount if icing. After 5 years of practice, mine are almost as good as my mom’s – I can tell because the kids gobble them up and love to help ice them.

  28. Best Advent Calendar Ever!

    My mom makes a great pineapple cheeseball that we have on the buffet table every Christmas Eve. She considered switching it out for a different recipe, but was voted down!

  29. I know you said only one thing, but here are 3 treats I look forward to during the holiday season:
    1. Food processor shortbread topped with a red cherry. The shortbread melts in your mouth and then there’s a piece of cherry – almost like a bonus treat!
    2. One of the PC tins of cookies…the old school tin with the chocolate-dressed cookies. My favourite are the super thin cookies rolled up. I think they may be called pralines or something. Yum.
    3. Watching The Boy experience his first Christmas. It’s corny and not technically a treat, but we’ve been waiting for this for such a long time.

    Ho Ho Ho!

  30. my Grandmothers shortbread recipe ( even though mine taste good they NEVER look like hers did ๐Ÿ˜‰ My mothers Birdsnests cookies…..yum, yum!!!

  31. Wow, the fun you must have ๐Ÿ™‚ I look forward to making butter tarts from my mother’s recipe every year. She died in 1984 and I think of her, remembering all the years of me helping when it was her thing to do for Christmas. Christmas brings back lots of memories of the people who are no longer here to share the love with, but they are in our hearts and I will hold them there forever รขโ„ขยฅ

  32. What a great idea to send you the box done up like an advent calendar! And what a great prize.

    My favourite thing in the festive season is mince pies, I already have my fruit mince bottled in the pantry just waiting! Yumm.

  33. I LOVE PC. Let them know that the giveaway was a success; I’m going down to my local PC purveryor after my son’s Parent/Teacher interview this evening and grabbing some of that mulled cider and other assorted goodies.

    But, I would LOVE to win this contest, too!

  34. What do I look forward to every year? Tortiere on Christmas Eve. My dad was born in Montreal and spent his childhood in the Eastern Townships, and this French Canadian meat pie is a Christmas Eve tradition. (Though my dad is always appalled, because I eat it with ketchup.)

  35. My Mom’s Christmas fruitcake(yes, I may be the only person who loves fruitcake!) is right up there with her amazing shortbread sparkling with shiny red and green sugar sprinkles. These two things mean Christmas to me. Yum.

  36. Mum’s chocolate chip cookies. Really, they’re the best things every to come off a cookie rack.

  37. Quite honestly, my fave holiday treat are the PC frozen appetizers, specifically, the cheese pastry ones (though we got the mini salmon wellingtons last year and they are also delicious).

  38. I love receiving cheesy holiday updates and photos from dear friends both near and far. I am always amazed to read that kids that were 2 yrs old a year or two ago (it seems) are already in high school! I am already a huge fan of everything President’s Choice but wow what an amazing marketing machine the blog world is!

  39. I look forward to our annual cookie exchange…coming this weekend. It’s really Christmas once we neighbour friends have swapped treats.

  40. Awesome giveaway! And how cool they sent you something gift wrapped for you to open every day! I most look forward to sweets. A license to eat 25 days worth of Lindt chocolate! ๐Ÿ™‚

  41. Wow, Dani! That is a really nice Giveaway and just in time for Christmas. I am looking forward to my Grandma’s Punch. I may even share the recipe this year, we will see if I dare pass it out. It is like Sangria without the wine and just a little sip brings me back to my childhood in an instant. And makes me miss my Grandma, just a little more than I already do.

  42. Every year I look forward to Egg Nog. I just love it! Sometimes I think I’d love it if it were available year round, but maybe just being available around the Christmas season is what makes it so special.

  43. Hi Dani,

    Fellow Ottawan here. I recently found your blog while looking for information on the downtown parade. And let me just say, your blog is like a goldmine for newbies to the Ottawa area. I love it! I love reading other people’s blogs but it is that much more fun to read the blog of someone in my own area, with landmarks I am familiar with.

    Anyway, my favourite treat during the holiday season is a Cherry Bundt cake that my mother and I make together every year and have since I was about 12 (many years ago!). We deliberately don’t make it any other time of year just so that we can keep it extra special for Christmas.

    Hope I win!!
    Jennifer

  44. fantastic contest. I absolutely love my grandmothers shortbread. It is sooo buttery and melts in your mouth.

  45. There are already 69 submissions for this contest so I have no chance of winning, but I do have a something I look forward to at Christmas. The Christmas I was pregnant with my daughter, Canadian Living had a day-by-day plan that got you ready for a whole Christmas feast by doing a little bit each day. This worked perfectly for me as I was in university and December means exams. Plus we were hosting Christmas dinner that year. So I patiently made every single recipe ( except for the Christmas pudding becuase I find them too rich after a filling meal) and most of them were deliciious.

    The one recipe that I have made every year since then is one for Christmas cookies. You make a big batch of sugar cookie-type dough and then divide into 3 portions. One stays sugar cookies, one becomes ginger cookies ( yum!) and the final portion is chocolate. these are a really yummy and all my kids have enjoyed the cutting out and decorating. I imagine I will be making them with my grandchildren one day as well.

  46. I am looking forward ot my husband’s caramel slice! We’ve only been having it for a couple of years but it has become his signature dessert offering.

  47. Christmas would not be Christmas for me without an assortment of my mom’s Swiss cookies. Most especially the Springerle — an anise-flavoured hard cookie with a picture pressed into the top using a wooden mold. They are perfect for dunking into a mup of tea while curled up beside the fireplace. Mmmm.

  48. I love shortbread and really can not get enough of it during the holidays-even though I know all that is in it is butter, flour and sugar!

  49. Being born and raised in Nanaimo, it has to be the Nanaimo Bar. Growing up, as soon as my mom started buying copious amounts of butter you knew it was ‘mo bar season. When I moved to Ontario I foolishly mentioned that only people from Nanaimo can truly make the best bar and so now I end up with a lot of requests during the holidays – which I’m glad to fill! I’m looking forward to introducing my two year old to the treat this Christmas.

  50. awesome product review. loblaws have got their act together on this one. and a yummy giveaway to boot!

    my favorite holiday treat is my friend’s sucre a la creme. her and her dad do it the old fashioned way with a candy thermometer and everything. it’s divine and they only do it at christmas time.

  51. I am most looking forward to the mocha torte my mom will be making for dad’s birthday (CHristmas Day). It’s a recipe from the ‘old country’, and I only get to taste the awesomeness when I’m home for Christmas (which I will be soon – first time in 4 years!).

  52. Every year I look forward to a tin of Quality Street chocolates. We used to buy one for my Grandfather every year and since he has passed I now buy one for my own family. I know its Christmas when I see the tins pop up in the stores!

  53. I always love our annual boxing day spectaular. We host family on the 26th, and I make wicked appetizers, turkey, stuffing.. I also love the PC Shrimp Rings. We only get them for Xmas, and they’re so yum. ๐Ÿ™‚

  54. I look forward to Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark – It goes so well with a nice glass of wine. Great way to watch the snow fall (if we ever get any that is)

  55. Strange as it may sound, I really look forward to deep fried cauliflower.It’s something I only ever make on Christmas Eve and it’s very yummy without being overhwelmingly rich. I guess I must about the only one for whom caulifllower is a treat!

  56. even though you can get them year ’round now, i still look forward to Terry’s Milk Chocolate Oranges… so good!

  57. My mom makes THE best shortbread cookies ’cause she whips the batter. Or something. She still won’t tell me, so I have to wait until December to get my fix.

  58. I am looking forward to my luneburg coleslaw made by my husband’s side of the family Yummy.

  59. I look forward to my mom’s treats: nanaimo bars, shortbread cookies, butter tarts.. oh I’m getting hungry now…
    thanks for the chance!

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