There are a few signs that Christmas is well and truly on the way. ITV2 start playing Love Actually on repeat, the Coca-Cola truck starts doing the rounds and you can’t move for red Starbucks cups.
The final way you know Santa’s coming is the seasonal menu at McDonald’s kicking in, bringing with it tasty treats only available at this time of year.
Until December 27th, hungry fans will be able to tuck into the new Beef and Cheese Feast burger, or a spiced Christmas Chicken Warmer.
And on the dessert side of things, there’s a Terry’s Chocolate Orange McFlurry which to be quite honest already has us drooling.
Returning favourites Cheese Melt Dippers make a welcome comeback, as do some of the seasonal drinks including Spiced Cookie or Toffee Lattes.
And for the calorie-counters, “Reindeer Treats” – aka a bag of crunchy carrot sticks – are available too.
Sound delicious to you? No doubt it does. But did you notice something missing, perhaps with a minced-pie flavour?
That’s right, the fan-favourite Festive Pie has been stricken from the menu this year, and snackers are not impressed.
As soon as McDonald’s sent out a tweet alerting consumers that the time to get Christmassy in their restaurants was upon us, a string of people asked the same question.
One replied saying: “What about the festive pie?” while another asked: “No festive pie, is it even Christmas without a festive pie?”
A chocolate version also didn’t make it back this year, which saddened respondents further.
One Twitter user – who claimed to work for McDonald’s, although this is unverified – said the reason was they simply didn’t sell enough last time around.
So there you have it – no festive pies this time around! We’ll have to make do with the Chocolate Orange McFlurries – which is no bad thing…