Vegan Christmas gift guide: 18 unique ideas from the best vegan brands
Do you have a difficult-to-buy-for vegan in your life? Not to worry, here are 12 unique gift ideas they’ll be sure to love.
You might think that buying for a vegan friend or family member is no different from buying for anyone else. As long as you don’t opt for food or drink, it’s fine, right? Well, not necessarily.
A whole host of lifestyle, beauty and fashion gifts contain animal products, which means they won’t be suitable for anyone who subscribes to a vegan lifestyle.
Not to worry, however, as there are a whole host of brands dedicated to creating vegan-friendly products. Gone are the days when tracking down vegan products was an impossible task. In fact, the demand is higher than ever, with one in four Brits having reduced the amount of animal products they consume since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
With so many people changing their eating habits, there’s no one-size-fits-all gift to buy for someone who is vegan. Fortunately, there’s something out there for everyone, whatever the person you’re buying for is interested in.
Here are 11 vegan-friendly gift ideas to treat someone to this Christmas.
Lush Deck The Halls Gift Set
LUSH Deck The Halls gift set. Lush products might be a bit of an obvious choice for a vegan, but for good reason. It was one of the first every beauty brands to promote vegetarian and cruelty-free products and 85% of its current product range is vegan (with the aim to make all of the products vegan in due time).
Lush have 67 gift sets that are suitable for vegans - we love the Deck The Halls gift box which includes a delicious cinnamon bubble bar and two of its most popular shower gels.
Feeling particularly generous? Why not buy a loved one a gift card for the Lush spa, where its entire experience will be vegan-friendly.
Matt & Nat Alik Vegan Shoulder Bag
Matt & Nat Alik Shoulder Bag Matt & Nat create vegan, recycled and cruelty-free accessories, perfect for the fashion-lover in your life. Its Alik Shoulder Bag is the perfect mid-size bag and it comes in five colours, including this khaki green, which is sure to be a crowd-pleaser.
Planthood gift card
Planthood is a vegan meal kit service. Planthood is a vegan meal kit service, providing restaurant quality plant-based food for people all across the UK. Whether you know someone who has just gone vegan and is feeling a bit lost at where to start or you have a longtime vegan friend who has run out of ideas and resorted to tofu every night, they’re sure to appreciate a Planthood gift card.
With a gift card, they can either subscribe to the meal kit service or order some of the individual foodstuffs from their site (which, FYI, includes something called The Ultimate Vegan Christmas Cheeseboard – what’s not to love?)
Aery Living Dream Catcher Scented Candle
Aery Dream Catcher Candle. A candle is a Christmas gift that nearly everyone loves. But did you know some candles aren’t suitable for vegans? Most of them contain animal-based ingredients like stearic acid or beeswax.
Aery Living creates beautiful, luxury vegan-friendly candles in a range of different candles. The Dream Catcher candle is made with lavender, patchouli and orange creating “calming aromatherapy that feels like a hug”.
Hortology Rattlesnake Plant
Hortology Rattlesnake Plant. Vegans are often environmentally-conscious and if you know someone who has chosen this lifestyle in order to live in a more eco-friendly way, a houseplant could be the perfect gift for them. You can be sure it’s not a gift that will end up in the back of a cupboard or in landfill because plants naturally decompose.
If you’re looking to spend a bit more, you could also buy a pot for the plant to sit in and some other houseplant accessories.
Organic Basics Tencel Lite Bra
Organic Basics Tencel Lite Bra. Finding vegan clothes can be difficult, with so many items containing animal products like wool and leather. Organic Basics offers a range of sustainable and vegan clothing products, however, including this gorgeous bralette.
If you’re looking for something a little bit more personal, this is a great option. It comes in 10 different colourways.
Amie Wine Gift Case
Amie wine gift set. One thing many people don’t know about veganism is that many wines and beers aren’t suitable for people who follow plant-based diets, mostly due to the products used in the filtration process.
Fortunately, many smaller wine brands use processes that are suitable for vegans. One of them is Amie, which has developed its own variety of red, white and rosé wine. Its gift set is perfect for anyone who is trying to make the most of party season as a vegan
Dingbats Ātopen 6-Pack Dual Tip Fineliner/Brush Pens - Pastel
Dingbats Ātopen 6-Pack Dual Tip Fineliner/Brush Pens - Pastel Pens are another thing that often aren’t vegan. Not only are many popular marker pens derived from animal products but they are also tested on animals.
If you have an arty vegan friend, they’ll love these pastel plant-based pens from vegan stationery brand Dingbats. Crafted in Japan, they’re sure to be a thoughtful gift for the art-lover in your life.
Shop Dingbats Ātopen 6-Pack Dual Tip Fineliner/Brush Pens - Pastel, £20.95
Vegan JapanEasy: Classic & Modern Vegan Japanese Recipes to Cook at Home
Vegan JapanEasy You can’t go wrong with gifting a cookbook and Tim Anderson’s vegan take on the world of Japanese food is sure to please even the pickiest of eaters. And with a shelf-friendly cover, who wouldn’t want to display this cookbook in their kitchen?
Shop Vegan JapanEasy: Classic & Modern Vegan Japanese Recipes to Cook at Home, £22
The Vegan Kind Subscription Box
The Vegan Kind Subscription Box. Everyone loves a hamper and The Vegan Kind offers boxes tailored to your recipient’s interests, with lifestyle and beauty options. The lifestyle boxes include a range of sweet and savoury snacks, while the beauty boxes contain a range of cruelty-free, vegan products.
You can either buy someone a box as a one-off or gift them a subscription, so they get The Vegan Kind boxes delivered every month.
Above & Beyond Eco Lip Balm Box
Above & Beyond lip balm Above & Beyond create refillable lip balms designed to last a lifetime. Their Eco-box one-off comes with one lip balm case and three eco refills all made from natural ingredients and coming in the flavours Comforting Coconut, Sweet Vanilla, Tropical Mango and Mixed Berry. The boxes are also available via a subscription model.
Hand Woven Cotton Throw
Wearth throw. Do you have an interiors’ obsessed friend in your life? This hand woven cotton throw comes from Wearth, a website stocking over 250 eco-friendly and ethical brands. It’s handmade, plastic-free and, most importantly, vegan-friendly and it would make a beautiful addition to anyone’s home.
The Humane League Gift Voucher
The Humane League Gift Voucher If none of the above gifts appeal, maybe the vegan in your life wouldn’t enjoy a gift in the traditional sense at all. Instead, they might appreciate you donating to a charity on their behalf instead.
The Humane League is a charity that aims to end the abuse of animals raised for food a cause close to most vegans’ hearts – and they offer gift vouchers that would make the perfect Christmas gift.
Kult Kitchen Vegan Christmas Hamper
For the vegan foodie in your life how about one of London health cafe Kult Kitchen’s alternative Christmas hampers? Packed with sustainable, naturally gluten free, refined sugar free, vegan and primarily organic delights to keep them well fed into the new year.
All the products are made in house by Kult Kitchen proprietor Moon Bedeaux and this year’s hamper comes with Three spirit drinks, banana bread buttons. chocolate truffles, rainbow candles and Refield almond and fig nut butter and sunflower and date butter. Yum!
Bronze Body-Normative Necklace
Bronze Body Positive Necklace. Trippy Tuesday is a female-founded vegan and eco-friendly independent brand challenging unrealistic body expectations with its range of body-normative candles and jewellery. Handcrafted in north-east London, this dainty bronze necklace is the perfect unusual and body-positive gift.
La Pochette Anywhere Everywhere Pouch
La Pochette small pouch Chic storage and organisation is something we’d rarely invest in for ourselves, making it the perfect, useful gift for others. La Pochette offers a collection of accessories for purpose driven individuals made from sustainable materials including recycled plastic bottles, biodegradable TPU and vegan leather. This small pouch would work as a liquid bag for travelling or as a pouch to keep at the bottom of your handbag to keep your valuable safe.
Flomacy 'I Can' Drops
Flomacy I Can Drops Ever heard of flower essence therapy? Formulated to overcome common emotional barriers, the brand Flomacy combines the essence of various flowers to create easy-to-use drops. Its ‘I Can’ drops are designed to help people deal with feelings of inferiority, loss of confidence and fear of failure. They’re made from 100% vegan formulas so they’ll make a great gift for any plant-based friends who might need a bit of a boost this Christmas.
Lethally Her 2022 Productivity Planner
Lethally Her Productivity Planner A diary is a classic Christmas present for a reason. Not only is it a practical choice but there are so many beautifully designed ones out there now. Lethally Her’s Productivity Planner is made from vegan leather and is printed on recycled paper. Plus, it’s full of unique illustrations, planning and budgeting tools and self-care practices.
Images: courtesy of brands and retailers
Additional words by Katy Harrington