December 1, 2011 1.07 pm This story is over 146 months old

Shoppers hunt for city-wide advent calendar

Advent trail: Lincoln shoppers get discounts and a chance to win great prizes with a city-wide advent calendar hunt.

Lincoln is getting its first advent calendar trail, which invites shoppers to win over £2,500-worth of prizes this month.

Starting December 1, 24 businesses will take part in Lincoln’s Big Advent by decorating their shop windows red on different days with various displays.

Shoppers can pick up an entry form at the Visitor Information Centre to take part in the calendar trail, and must find the windows and note what is in them for a chance to win all the items in the trail, worth over £2,500.

Some of the business will also offer discounts when people quote a code word — the codes can be found online or by following Visit Lincoln on Twitter.

One shop taking part in the Advent Trail is Greenwoods Menswear on Sincil Street, who will host a display on December 3, as well as offer 50% off on its own-brand items in the store.

Cinderella and Buttons from the Lincoln Theatre Royal pantomime will open up the advent window to shoppers on Saturday.

Store Manager Mike Willis said: “This is a great way to start the Christmas Advent Trail and we are very excited to be the third retailer and to have these special guests to open the event.

“We suffered last year with the terrible weather and the Christmas Market being cancelled but we are very positive with this promotion and with the support we receive from local customers and tourists alike.”

The White Hart Hotel on Bailgate has the first window display to celebrate the start of the competition.

The hotel will is offering today a 10% discount on all hotel gift vouchers when the code “Mince Pie” is quoted.

As for the main competition prize, its head chef and waiter will cook a meal for four at the home of the winner.

Answers should be submitted to the website in order to be entered for the Big Advent competition or by filling in the forms, which can also be found at businesses in the city.

To get a hint at where the shops with window displays will be, take a look at the trail map below: