I don’t really like shortbread, but…

I love shortbread and can eat it till the cows come home. No interest in the tin - as long as it's a really big one with a long sell-buy date I'm happy.

Yes, I buy for the tin, if the tin is a good one. They used to be slightly narrower (possibly) and a lot deeper, now they seem to be incredibly shallow! (A few years ago, at £3.50 a tin, Cadburys Chunks were in Tesco, and the tins were a good depth and full. The following year, the price was £5, I bought 3, another tin for me (my 2 empty tins now house some of my chocolate stock hidden under cupboard for when I'm desperate....) and the other 2 tins, one given to mum and one for us to share! Though she kept those tins and uses it for her stuff, begins with C!)

Back to the shortbread, I LOVE it, BUT I only buy Tescos and Lidl fingers as it's butter! Even Walkers and Pattersons, though they declare ALL BUTTER on the front, they have palm oil in and I can taste it, it's vile. Shortbread, I was taught, is Butter, Sugar, Flour.

Not sure why you need to throw away a perfectly good tin when it gets a bit tatty. Surely it still keeps the contents fresh. Still using a tin from donkey's years ago. Yes it's tatty, but I never get stale contents.

I am 80 now and biscuit tins figured large in my childhood. The big square box of biscuits - usually Huntley and Palmer I think - were the very special christmas treat, but there was a family rule that only my mother was allowed the bourbon biscuits - her favourites- and I still think of them as that to this day - and of course any visitors must be offered the selection before family members. Then after christmas these tins became the cake tins in the days before tupperware etc.
My mother was an excellent cook and we had the old type pantry, with a step down into a stone floor and a cold slab to put milk and cream etc on. The tins were piled on top of each other on the very cold floor, and my mother was totally in charge of them all. So the pictures and colours mattered a lot as we would be told to get the scones from the purple tin, or not to touch the ginger parkin now softening up in the blue topped tin and of course the bottom couple would have the precious fruit cakes maturing away in them and were not to be touched by us under any circumstance as my mother would be adding a little precious brandy to make sure that it was just right for christmas time. Never to mix pastry and cake in the same tin, except for of course the wonder of bakewell tart. Ah I am sure that todays holders are probably more airtight and clean, but the joy and anticipation of waiting to see the red tin opened was part of our christmas joy.

There would be one or two tins diverted to sewing use, as my mother used them for storing cotton bobbins and spare embroidery skeins. These would usually be the older boxes, fine for holding things but perhaps not so airtight, and we even had one old tin which was in our bedroom for the big jigsaw that the box had split up from and we cut the picture out to be able to look at to know what we were trying to make. It was the very big one that we used a christmas time, which needed a leaf pulled out from the dining table. It was put out after the christmas feast and all the family and visitors would join in making this jigsaw, which was of course of the most difficult consisting of ships on sea with blue sky so were hard to finish, but I think also gave adults the chance to take a break from annoying visitors whilst they gave the excuse of coming to "help"us at an awkward bit. Dont think that anyone these days sees it as part of the wonders of christmas to have a whole box of biscuits. Ah well fun to look back at. - and bags I dont have to have the horrid fly cemetery biscuit (garibaldi) and my sister loved that lurid pink wafer thing.

It’s a tradition I always buy a tin of M&S shortbread for DD2 every year. It got to be the tin with the stag on ! No other store will do . I never think to reuse the tin do cake as I have a set bought do me as a present, which I use. I think daughter may have used tin do other purposes of her own in the past

I’ve never tried M & S shortbread. Here in the north east of Scotland Deans’ is the best!

My sewing box is a lovely round metal panettone tin from the year Matalan closed down.

I am eating a piece of shortbread finger right now!

I do too like a shortbread but i dare'nt start on them or i will overdo it.And i need to keep my new heart valve unclogged.😟

Yes i do admit i do buy them for the lovely tins,which often do play music or have glowing lit up scenes etc as well (i gave a lovely starlight one to my DD projecting stars onto my granddaughters nursery ceiling whilst playing a lovely tune) And this year i've now got 4 light up buildings to display for christmas.In my case its one of my sons who eats the shortbread.

I make my own shortbread using a recipe from my school
Domestic Science class book, 1970. It’s the best recipe ever.

I’m approached by M & S periodically for feedback on specific food items. Interestingly, recently there was a survey relating to the re-using of their biscuit tins, and people were asked to send pictures of tins showing the use to which said tins had been put .

We've been given two tins of biscuits.

There is a limit to the number of tins you need for other items!

Biscuit tins are pretty and useful once the contents have been snaffled.Biscuits don’t last long in our house.🙈

I was an unintentional tin collector!
Such pretty ones and loath to throw them out. But oh the disappointment when the DGC find they're full of sewing things.

I love shortbread and the cheap ones from Iceland are absolutely delicious !

Best shortbread is Lidls deluxe version.

Some years she buys a tin in an unusual shape, which we ditch.
😲 Those are the ones which are probably collectable.
Believe it or not, people collect tins!

A Huntley & Palmers biscuit tin, which was made in 1929 and doubles up as a clockwork double decker motor bus, exceeded expectations at Derbyshire’s Hansons Auctioneers. (on Nov 19) It sold to a private UK buyer for a hammer price of £2,500.

Some have sold for far more.

I'm not sure about the M&S shortbread tins though. 😁

I don't especially like shortbread, but we get a tin of it every year from my daughter's mother-in-law, so DH eats most of it and I usually save the tins for my leather making bits and bobs.

Some years she buys a tin in an unusual shape, which we ditch. I suppose I could ask her for a nice rectangular tin and give her measurements, but I don't think it would go down well!

Do enjoy shortbread byt it's got to have rice flour in it to give the "crunch" when eating.

We were disappointed that the biscuit assortment we like at Christmas is only available in a box. DH bought 2 lovely tins with flower patterns on Amazon which are the exact same dimensions. We have put the biscuits in still in the plastic insert.

What a great idea I will go out and get one later we have a local small M&S and give the contents to my Community Gardening project for our tea time. Brilliant

My dear late husband loved shortbread with a glass of ginger wine on Christmas Eve, a real tradition that I miss so much. Haven’t bought any this year

Ah unfortunately I like the tins AND the shortbread, end up stuffed and a cupboard stuffed full of tins from each year !

I've bought a tin of Adi's "all butter" shortbread for a friend. The picture of a robin on the tin is so nice that I'm tempted to keep it for myself! (Can't face returning to Aldi before Christmas: perhaps they'll have them reduced, next weekend!)