Why not download our free ebook (originally £8.99) "How to get anything for free!" right here for free Send us any product, We'll review it FREE!

Mystery Christmas Gift #9: Squirrel Nut Cracker
Life is strangely poetic at times. After seeing the Nutcracker ballet on Saturday I was chuffed when a mere few days later an actual Nutcracker should pop through the door from Eddingtons. Even better I’d missed out on buying a Nutcracker at the show so this product was already in my good books on arrival.

Mystery Christmas Gift #8 Christmas Tree & Wreath
It wouldn’t be Christmas without a Christmas tree review and what better than a real Christmas tree once again provided by the excellently named Turf and Stuff.com. This year they’ve gone one better by also including a Christmas wreath for review alongside a 6ft Nordman Christmas tree.

Mystery Christmas Gift #7 Go! Go! Asian
Generally when a product arrives I can take one look at the packaging and ascertain straight away what it’s for and how to use it. So when “Go! Go! Asian, Koi Garden Green Tea Antioxidant” arrived I wasn’t at all sure what to do on name alone. Something to do with fish lapping at your feet...

Mystery Christmas Gift #6 eJay Virtual Sounds 1-3
There used to be a point where every video game included a sound test mode where you could listen to second long sound clips from the game. So you’d hear Sonic grab a ring or Mario go “hoo-hoo I got it”. Playing Virtual Sounds is almost exactly the same experience, a sequence of sound clips you can play one by one.

Mystery Christmas Gift #5 DKNY and Tommy Hilfiger
The best Christmas presents are often the most unexpected, so when a bumper box of treats arrived from DKNY and Tommy Hilfiger we were more than a little eager to see what surprises lay in store. With the wrapping out of the way we discovered an aftershave, two lip glosses, perfume and body lotion.

Mystery Christmas Gift #4 Cat Playhouse Fire Engine
I've been sneaking pictures of my cats in to product reviews to see if anyone would notice and send them a product to review, and voila today we have the first product for them to test: a cat playhouse in the shape of a fire engine. Cat Carnage will ensure (videos included!)

Mystery Christmas Gift #3 - JML Tribod Massager
Littering a press release for a massager with tag lines such as "It's a mini massager and can be taken anywhere" and "you can use it on any part of your body" is always going to cause a few giggles and this is definitely the case with the Tribod. Not to mention its easy on switch and blue flashing lights.

Mystery Christmas Gift #2 - Parissa
For the second of my 'unusual Christmas Gifts' I turn to Parissa and their range of waxing products which I was thankfully assured on arrival are for men and women despite the prevalence of women on the boxes, joy! I was also encouraged by the PR spiel to try a "boyzillian" which I'm not quite sure what that means...

Mystery Christmas Gift #1 - Gamewright
Last week you had our guide to getting Christmas for free, and now we commence our own attempt, starting first with small gifts and working our way up. So to start the ball rolling, here's our first mystery product, very nicely wrapped up by Gamewright, what could it be....

How to get Christmas for free
Last year, I was lucky enough to get my entire Christmas for free, from the tree to the turkey, the gifts to the festive hamper.
But how did I do it? And more importantly how can you do exactly the same thing? From free meals and days out for the family to gifts and the tree I show you how to do it all.


£600 worth of Paintballing - Free
If you see an offer for free paintball be skeptical. Many companies will let you in for free and then charge for your protective gear and paintballs. Knowing this all too well, it was with some relief when Rednal Paintball Arena offered us free entry for ten and 600 paintballs each as well.

Crunchy Nut Bites - Nuts and Caramel
On receiving this latest freebie I couldn't help but feel a little like one of those Crunchy Nut addicts Kellogg's are keen to show in their advertising. From a secret rendezvous to Crunchy Nut thieves this story tells the tale of the lengths one man will go for nutty, caramel coated cereal.

Anthony Sport Male Grooming Range
It may not look it but this is nearly £100 worth of male grooming products, ranging from Shaving Cream to Spot Cream. But in a market so crowded do Anthony Sport have what it takes to stand out from the crowd, and more importantly to make you stand out from the crowd?

Xbox 360 and Dominos Pizza
Is there any better combination? I go undercover to find two companies whose excellent customer service (and little mistakes) makes freebie grabbing a breeze. £200 worth of free stuff without once mentioning Mikeessex.co.uk? Here's how it was done...

Why not download our free ebook (originally £8.99) "How to get anything for free!" right here for free Squirrel Nut Cracker Review

Where can I buy one? Eddingtons
I'm in the blagback auction.

Life is strangely poetic at times. After seeing the Nutcracker ballet on Saturday I was chuffed when a mere few days later an actual Nutcracker should pop through the door from Eddingtons. Even better I’d missed out on buying a Nutcracker at the show so this product was already in my good books on arrival.

Although it doesn’t match the toy soldier nut cracker of the show, it instead takes the shape of a silver squirrel whose mouth is ready for some serious biting. You simply pop in the nut (in to a rather large cavity which is a relief for big brazil nuts) move the squirrels tail to apply force and voila the nut is cracked. Any bits left inside the mouth can be swept out or pushed down to fall out of the backside of the squirrel in a rather amusing touch.

The squirrel nut cracker also seriously packs the cute chic factor, with a nice stainless steel shine that will make it fit in with any other appliances you have to offer (well unless they’re white). It comes well packaged and would make an excellent gift for anyone that is in need of a unique touch for their kitchen.

Oh and it works well too. We tried it on a bag of almonds, brazil nuts and monkey nuts, all of which were quickly crushed under its mighty jaws. Cleaning was as simple as sticking a finger in the mouth (don’t worry it’s not sharp in any way) and flicking the excess bits away. Handy and effective.

Why not download our free ebook (originally £8.99) "How to get anything for free!" right here for free Nordman Christmas Tree and Wreath Review

Where to buy Christmas trees: Turf and Stuff.com – Supplier of real Christmas trees with free delivery.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without a Christmas tree review and what better than a real Christmas tree once again provided by the excellently named Turf and Stuff.com. This year they’ve gone one better by also including a Christmas wreath for review alongside a 6ft Nordman Christmas tree.

Nordman Fir Christmas Tree
Ordering a Christmas Tree online may seem as safe as asking someone to carry a pottery collection to you on a bicycle, after all these are delicate items, they should be worn down very quickly by a van journey halfway across Britain. Testing this to the extreme I missed the delivery of my tree twice, picked it up from a depo, shoved it in my car and then drove home, so if anything was going to damage the tree that journey should have done it.

And yet rather miraculously on opening the tree I found not one damaged branch, and not a single dropped needle. This is somewhat down to doubled up packaging which first wraps the tree in mesh and then seals it in a plastic bag. As the bag can only be opened by cutting it to it, any tree damage would be immediately obvious, and despite the hundreds of miles travelled the tree looked as good as the day it was chopped with no needles in the bag at all.

The vacuum seal of the plastic bag also helped keep the scent of the tree intact, a fact my cats rather enjoyed by the way they huddled under it once it had been set up. The needles were healthy, green and vibrant and as for the branches they were nothing but nice and crisp and even. In terms of longevity, the tree has been chopped down for over a week and shows no signs of ageing, and the Norman fir tree we received last year, (also from Turf and Stuff.com) stayed green long up to the 6th January end date so there’s no reason not to expect this year’s trees to last as long.

Holly Wreath
If delivering a tree seems a tough job then delivering a wreath seems like a statistical impossibility. After all they are in essence just flowers held together with wire, one drop and you’d expect them to shatter in a sea of beads and green leafs. It’s rather clever then that Turf and Stuff.com hid the wreath inside our tree and covered it in bubble wrap. This allowed the tree to shelter the wreath and made everything tight and compact for transport. It also looked like a rather festive present tucked beneath the branches of our tree.

Even without the packaging it is clear the wreath is very well made, and it made our ASDA £7 wreath look an absolute shambles. The solidity of the wreath can similarly be felt with a quick touch as it’s very sharp, so keeping it away from children is advised. Other than that it’s the perfect decoration for any door which an owner can display proudly for all to see.

Don’t forget you can read our guide on how to get Christmas for free here.

Why not download our free ebook (originally £8.99) "How to get anything for free!" right here for free Go! Go! Asian, Koi Garden Green Tea Antioxidant Review

I’m in the blags to riches auction.

Generally when a product arrives I can take one look at the packaging and ascertain straight away what it’s for and how to use it. So when “Go! Go! Asian, Koi Garden Green Tea Antioxidant” arrived I wasn’t at all sure what to do on name alone. I wasn’t given any more guidance by the bottle talking about ‘gentle water lapping at my toes as jewel-toned koi fish glide below’.

Was it foot lotion? A tea supplement? Garden spray? A drink? I was flummoxed, so the only solution seemed to be to poor it out and try it. Thankfully I didn’t need to drink anything, as it became apparent the lotion was nothing more than a simple moisturiser almost instantly.

As a moisturiser it ticks the right boxes, ‘not tested on animals’, ‘nice scent’ and ‘good consistency’ being three key points to take away. So simple I’d say it does exactly what it says on the bottle, if it did. As a brand and marketing tool it’s great, but as a product tool it left me stumped.

Why not download our free ebook (originally £8.99) "How to get anything for free!" right here for free eJay Virtual Sounds 1-3 Review

I’m in the BlagBack auction

There used to be a point where every video game included a sound test mode where you could listen to second long sound clips from the game. So you’d hear Sonic grab a ring, a car crash, a basketball bounce or Mario go “hoo-hoo I got it”. Playing Virtual Sounds is almost exactly the same experience, a sequence of sound clips you can play one by one.

Each of these packages includes 25,000 royalty free wav samples - which is great news for any aspiring video maker, or music maker - and these are broken down in to categories such as Techno, Garage, HipHop across three packages and six disks. You can grab a short 3-10 second long clip, give it a quick listen and import it in to any music software you like. Should you compose an instant dance classic you won’t even have to pay any royalties.

It will take a while to find the best songs on each collection and even split into sub categories most folders contain over a hundred samples. There’s also no real indication of what samples go well together or any user comments/ reviews so each CD can be a little overwhelming and you will still have to rely on extra software to alter the clips in any way. For those who have mastered music software like eJay it’s the logical step up, and like the sound tests of old it really just serves to make you hanker more for the real game underneath.

Why not download our free ebook (originally £8.99) "How to get anything for free!" right here for free Donating unwanted press samples to charity

Through this site I’ve been able to get a ridiculous amount of products for free, all by offering a product review, yet it occurred to me that a lot of the products I have sitting around serve no purpose now they’ve been reviewed. So rather than keeping them for the next photo opportunity I’ve instead decided to auction off a selection of the products to charity.

Which also got me thinking about the number of companies that also have products sitting around waiting for a journalist to review them, or a competition to enter. To this end I am also encouraging every company and PR agency in the land to get rid of the old stock they have sitting around. What’s more I’ll even give you the PR coverage you crave by showing off the products here to over 30,000 visitors.

So far we’ve been featured on BBC Radio 5Live, BBC News, USA Today, ABC News and the Times but we need help spreading the word as well. Blog about us, twitter about us and tell the world, or even contact a company telling them what we’re up to.

The auction is currently set for the end of January to give us as much chance to get products in as possible.

I’ll be running updates on the tally and products received very soon and you can follow me on twitter for live updates.