Shefford Morrisons is giving customers free wonky carrots for Rudolph

Morrisons in Shefford High Street is giving away wonky British carrots to customers who want to leave out refreshments for Father Christmas and his reindeer on Christmas Eve.

They are all either oversized, misshapen or scarred - but still good enough to eat - and will be handed out in bags labelled 'Carrots for Rudolph' from today (Wednesday).

The move has got a more serious message as the supermarket aims to introduce children to wonky veg and encourage families to buy large, misshapen or slightly scarred carrots.

During the festive period, our carrot sales soar, from a typical 500k bags-a-week in Morrisons to over 1.4 million in Christmas week - although wonky carrots only account for between 10 per cent to 15 per cent of sales.

Andy Todd, carrot buyer at Morrisons 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.”

The tradition of leaving food and drink out for Father Christmas and his reindeer can be traced all the way back to ancient Norse mythology where children would leave out food for Sleipner, the eight-legged horse ridden by Norse God Odin, in the hope that he would stop by on his travels and leave gifts in return.