McDonald's is giving away free food and merchandise from now until Christmas

McDonald's is giving away free food from now until Christmas (Image: AP)

McDonald's is spreading holiday cheer with their latest "Gift Drop" campaign, promising free food and exclusive merchandise. The event runs from now until Christmas, offering customers the chance to score some McDonald's goodies.

Starting November 20 and lasting until December 19, the fast-food giant is dropping 'gift tags' across the UK, giving fans the chance to potentially win daily prizes.

While some codes will be blatantly visible on McDonald's billboards and within their restaurants, others will take a little more sleuthing to uncover, hidden both online and in the real world.

Discovering a tag means you simply punch the associated code into the McDonald's app to get complimentary eats, accrue MyMcDonald's reward points or even bag some exclusive festive merchandise ranging from cozy Christmas jumpers and pyjamas to unique baubles.

Additionally, every entered code guarantees two culinary offers: a main offer expiring at 11:59pm on the day of finding and a breakfast special good until 10:59am the following morning, reports the Mirror.

Gemma Collins served up the new McDonalds festive menu in Swansea (Image: McDonald's)

Coinciding with the start of this event, November 20 also marks the launch of McDonald's much-anticipated Christmas menu, featuring:

• The Big Tasty and Big Tasty with bacon , featuring a beef patty, Emmental cheese, onions, tomatoes, and a smoky sauce
• The Cheesy McCrispy : a chicken breast in a crispy coating, lettuce, crispy onions, pink pickled onion chutney, bacon, two slices of cheese, and cheese sauce are all layered in a toasted bun to create the ‘levelled up’ version of the classic McCrispy.
• Camembert Cheese Melt Dippers (with a rich tomato dip).
• Terry’s Chocolate Orange Pie : crispy chocolate pastry filled with a Terry’s Chocolate Orange-flavoured ganache.
• Terry’s Chocolate Orange McFlurry : soft dairy ice cream swirled with Terry’s Chocolate Orange chunks and topped with a Terry’s Chocolate Orange sauce
• Galaxy Caramel McFlurry topped with adorable little chocolate stars and Galaxy Caramel Sauce
• Galaxy Caramel Latte : a smooth latte, blended with Galaxy Caramel flavour syrup, topped with caramel cream and Galaxy Chocolate stars.
• Galaxy Caramel Hot Chocolate
• Grinchmas Meal: The Grinch will be making his way to McDonald’s Happy Meals and each limited-edition box will come with one of eight Grinch and friends toys, featuring plush Christmas decorations, Grinch family card games, or the exclusive ‘Twelve Days of Grinchmas’ tale.

McDonald's say these are the Gift Drop rules (you can see the full terms and conditions here):

• Only one code per day per account can be used.
• Customers cannot use one code more than once – once a code is entered, it cannot be entered again.
• Upon entering a Gift Tag code, the customer will instantly receive two food offers – a main food offer that will expire at 11:59pm that same day and a breakfast offer which will expire at 10:59am the next day.
• Codes are multi-use so as many people as desired can enter the same code into the app.
• Customers will be able to airdrop and Bluetooth codes with their friends.
• The maximum number of codes across the campaign that can be entered per person is 30.