Im new to Lidl and Aldi at Christmas .

I don't usually enjoy ready meals but Lidl lasagne, shepherds pie and the frozen cauliflower cheese (as Hooty said) are lovely.

I bought an Aldi 18 month matured Xmas pud last year and it was divine! Rushed back for more, but of course they had sold out and despite my poring over all the Christmas goods week after week, there were no more! I am keeping my eyes peeled for them this year and shall buy several...they are delicious, moist, tasty and light...everything a great Xmas pud should be!

good vegetarian selection in Aldi and Lidl have fish sustainability

I bought the lobster a few years ago when good housing recommended it and they were awful no flavour and full of water.
Don’t like their cleaning products WS as they have an overpowering smell
Love their steaks and wine

The Aldi chocolate Christmas Santa (priced at under £1.00) is good quality chocolate. (We had to try one, in the interest of research.) These make a nice little Christmas gift/stocking filler.

I love Aldi florentines. They sell out very quickly but as they are on sale now, I shall stock up. (Especially now that I’ve recommended them to all of you!)

I love the Aldi scallops in pea puree and the chicken parfait, which tastes home-made. Last year I got a treat, which was the word festival spelt out in chocolate with rum raisins. Each letter was a single serving and so delicious. A couple of weeks ago we bought a 'steak sandwich'. A huge piece of steak with rolls and some sort of relish. Cooked the steak yourself and it was delicious! Not seen it since though.

Salted caramel mince pies? sound disgusting, why change something so traditional and so good?

I don't buy anything from either of these stores. A friend bought some Halloween cupcakes, and I couldn't believe the list of ingredients, some we'd never heard of, and some we would avoid at all costs.

I like Lidl's reduced things as unlike other supermarkets they reduce about 3 days before the best before date. Great for cheap good meat.

aldi are a bit greedy at Christmas I find. I shop there every week so notice when they remove their all year smoked salmon 200 grams for 3.99 and replace this with 100gms specialist types for around £6.00.
I don't know about Lidl, ours was not there last year.
However the non food special buys they both have are not always the best value. Compare with Argos first before you buy

DS1 trained as a chef and used to be sniffy about Aldi. Then, on holiday in France, he discovered it and has rarely shopped anywhere else since then.

We don't have local branches of these shops- yet anyway.

Does anyone know their policies on animal welfare- is their meat/ eggs free range etc.?

Lidl's humus is great and so cheap.

The Aldi Belgian choc mousse is addictive. You could scoop it out and put it in a nice bowl, add a mint leaf, and serve it up in a fancy restaurant and get away with it.

I wish they'd fix their website. I can't see any items for sale at all, just blank white space!

Aldi do almond milk and non dairy yoghurt both good, they also have a wine advent calendar - very tempting.

I am a real fan of Lidl. Started using them when redundant but food is good quality and much cheaper. Have found the Christmas biscuits, stollen etc very good and the same as you would find in Germany. DH likes looking at their gadgets (different every week) and these are good value too.

I love the Lidl Christmas Stollen bites.

Those cherry liqueurs are yummy, Teacheranne. They probably are the same as M and S. We spotted a Battenberg cake in Aldi with all the others and it was wrapped in an M and S wrapper. The ingredients were identical. I don’t expect the price would be though.

If you try Aldi Irish Luxury Layered yoghurt you will never want to eat ordinary yoghurt again! It is wonderful!

My son gave me a bottle of Aldi's Christmas edition gin last (sorry can't remember which one) which was really nice. It was a little stronger than expected though - hic!!!

Mary doll? "That put his gas at a peep".

Never heard this phrase before, but will be using it in future!

LuckyFour, it must be a Scottish expression.

Mary, I love that. It reminds me of my Grandma who spoke Doric and had many brilliant phrases.