"giveaways" news and stories

When money is tight, it's nice to be able to throw your hat in the ring for a giveaway and try your luck. What's even nicer is when you can throw it in over and over and over again. If at first you don't succeed ... well, you know the rest.

Holidash has whipped up a month of giveaways called Season of Schwag to celebrate the holidays. Each day there's a new prize and they run the gamut -- fashion and beauty products, kid-centric fare, guy stuff -- you name it. For today, December third, one lucky winner can make their kid's Christmas all the more special by winning "a Letter by Santa (valued at $12.99) a Cat in the Hat - I Can Do That! Game (valued at $19.95) and a Horton Hears a Who - You to the Rescue! game (valued at $19.95)."

Good luck!

Are you a writer who also enjoys tea? There's a contest going on over at Felicitea that offers an opportunity to showcase your writing talents for free tea and other prizes. There's only about a week left, so don't waste any time if you read about the contest and want to participate!

Here's the overview, straight from Felicitea's site:

Write: We're looking for poetry, prose, whatever you like. Feel free to haiku or make up a limerick, or write out a concise little paragraph. Just write about tea and it's relationship to you, your friend, or your last cup of coffee.

We want to connect new drinkers to tea, convert a coffee drinker (or other non-tea drinking people) or two over (at least get them to try good tea!) and reconnect tea lovers with what it is they love about tea.

• Tea drinkers it is your responsibility to help the coffee drinkers of the world. You are charged with helping them understand the joy of tea. If you are a convert tell your story. If you love tea, but still enjoy an occasional cup of coffee it's okay, but what about the tea keeps you coming back to the pot all day? Share with the Internets why they should kick that coffee habit. If you have a friend you're nominating, be specific.
• Coffee/Non-tea drinkers this is your chance to tell us why you drink coffee (or something else) instead of tea. This is your chance to tell all us tea drinkers what it is that makes you go for the espresso instead of the Earl Grey. Did you have a bad tea bag experience? Convinced all green tea is bitter? Are you willing to give it a shot but don't know where to start?

For the detailed rules and the prizes, click to read on!

This doesn't quite apply to me because I wake up before sunrise without an alarm (probably because I have coffee pulsing through my veins in place of blood), but for anyone who happens to be "morning impaired," the Society for the Morning Impaired wants to bribe you out of bed with a free Sausage McGriddle from McDonald's. You sign up to join the society, then supposedly an electronic coupon appears in your email inbox. We say "supposedly" because we tried to sign up -- we may not be morning impaired but we fall all over ourselves for anything off of McDonalds' breakfast menu -- and were told that the offer is not available in our area (we're on LA's westside). Obviously, this is a marketing program from McDonald's but we certainly don't have a problem with that. Market away if it means free food!

[via: Bargainist]

As much as you'd love to twirl around the kitchen either 1) without ever making a mess to begin with or 2) have an assistant follow you around cleaning up your spills as they happen, we know that that kind of fantasy just doesn't exist. Kitchens are supposed to get messy.

Bounty (the paper towel people) knows that, and is giving away a $30,000 kitchen makeover to a lucky winner who enters their contest, the One Sheet Challenge. All you're supposed to do is put a sheet of Bounty Paper Towel to the test on a mess in your kitchen, then share the details at www.onesheetchallenge.com. Go ahead! It never hurts to enter! (I'd do it myself except that I live in a rented apartment!)

We always love a good giveaway here at Slashfood, and even if we're not the ones who are doing the giving away, we still like to let our favorite Slashfoodies know about other opportunities.

ThisNext.com is giving away a set of stainless steel cooking utensils from Tovolo.com on their site for participating in their weekly contest. Since summer entertaining is right around the corner, this is the perfect time to stock up on highly-heat-resistant silicone and stainless steel utensils. Here are just a few of the goods in the prize package, but head over to ThisNext.com for the details on how to enter:

• Stainless Steel Hemisphere Measuring Cups with handles that are also measuring spoons
• Silicone Spatula with a stainless steel handle
• Stainless Steel Perforated Colander
• Stainless Steel Double-Sided Measuring Spoons
• Silicone Trivets
• Stainless Steel and Silicone Barbecue Brush