2016 Vegan Holiday Gift Guide

Last winter I made a promise to myself to break out of old habits, to stop impulse purchasing things, and to try harder to support awesome businesses and people with my money. I have to say that I've been nailing it! I've been buying more stuff from charity shops, thinking about my purchases for longer, and I can't remember the last time I had anything from Amazon delivered to my house. I kept these things in mind when I put my gift guide together and I hope that you'd also like to give people things that they'll love, use, learn from, or treasure forever. Supporting both small businesses and vegan businesses is the best so over half of my gift suggestions come from vegan artists, chefs, and small biz owners who are doing really cool stuff with their time. I hope that you love these suggestions for your Christmas, Festivus, Hanukkah, Pancha Ganapati, or Yule shopping as much as I loved putting them together!

1. Lush Christmas Candy Box This sweet gift is stuffed with four gorgeous sweetie scented products including Snow Fairy Shower Gel, Rock Star Soap, the Luxury Lush Pud bath bomb, and the Candy Mountain bubble bar which really does make mountains of soft candy scented bubbles. £17.95 from your closest Lush store.
2. Adopt Don't Shop Tote This totes adorbz tote (yeah I went there) from vegan owned and operated store All Glamour No Guts is the perfect gift for the fashionable animal lover in your life. The classic black and white colour way goes with anything and it was designed by vegan artist Veronica Kolinska. Totes are £10 and 10% of that goes straight to the animals living at Hillside Animal Sanctuary.
3. Superfun Times Holiday Cookbook You can't go wrong with a cookbook penned by superstar chef Isa Chandra Moskowitz and this one is perfect for the holidays. Hardback and packed full of recipes for every occasion from Chinese New Year to Hannukah and many more in-between, your giftee will be cooking up a storm in no time. Purchase a copy from Foyles for £23.99
4. Crazy Rumours Peppermint Twist Lip Balm It took me way, way too long to decide which Crazy Rumours lip balm to include in my gift guide! Festive flavours range from Orange Clove to Cinnamon Bun so you're definitely going to want to pop at least two into your basket. £3.50 each.
5. Sea Salt and Almond Caramel Truffles These truffles are made by one of my favourite ethical Chocolate companies Booja Booja. They're a year round fave' for me but they also make the perfect host / hostess gift during the festive season. Bonus points for buying something Food Empowerment Project certified! These are available from all good health food stores including Planet Organic and Infinity Foods for around £3.99
6. Hex Your Ex Nail Polish You can pick up Unicorn Polish's holographic ice blue and lilac hued nail varnish from indie beauty shop Make Up Without Malice for £6.95 from December 1st. 
7. Hand Painted Birch Wood Sloth Tree Ornament This cute as hell ornament is hand painted by vegan artist My Zoetrope and it would make the cutest addition to any tree. The range also features a bear and a cat just in case you want to go all out! £16.50 each from MyZoetrope on Etsy.
8. Teapigs Pick 'n Mix Sample Pack This is the perfect gift for the tea loving friend, relative, or co-worker in your life. Hand pick 12 teas from Teapigs range of Rainforest Alliance certified whole leaf teas. Pick up your sample pack for £13.99 from the Teapigs website.
9. The Good Immigrant This is on my wishlist and it should be on yours too! It brings together the voices of 21 black, Asian, and minority ethnic people in Britain today and explores why immigrants come to the UK, why they stay, and the challenges they face. It's the perfect challenge to the racist trash your mum / cousin / nephew reads in the right wing media. Purchase a copy from Foyles for £14.99