Vegan Christmas: Divine Fairtrade Chocolate Coins

Kids love chocolate coins. There's something about the double joy of something you can play with... and then eat. If you're looking for an ethical stocking filler for children, these Divine fair-trade coins are ideal. Although they're 70% dark chocolate they're not too bitter. These dairy-free treats are sure to please as a Christmas gift:

Vegan Christmas: Kingsway Chocolate Liqueurs

Dark chocolate brand-name liqueurs bought from... Wilkinsons. Yes, following our recent trip to Poundland we extended our budget browsing to include Wilkos. To be fair to Wilkinsons they've gone upmarket recently, but this is no good thing for their vegan selection, which is now limited to one or two items like these chocolate liqueurs filled with Cointreau, St Remy and Teachers:

Vegan Christmas: Celtic Chocolates

Free-From specialist Celtic's christmas chocolates are now on sale at Holland & Barrett. Celtic have a great range of faux-milk chocolates but this is strictly a dark chocolate selection. Mint crisps for the after-dinner table and a box of mixed dark chocolates that would make a nice gift:

Vegan Christmas: Divine Fairtrade Chocolate

More vegan chocolate from Oxfam. Divine's Christmas range includes a few vegan options although they do decline to label them as such. Mint Thins and Ginger Thins are joined by Chocolate Christmas Trees as the dairy-free options. The mint and ginger thins clearly have an after-dinner role but we couldn't quite figure out where the chocolate trees fit in:

Vegan Christmas: Speculoos Cookies from Lidl

Dutch Windmill Cookies as they're sometimes called, or Speculoos as we prefer. Lidl have avoided the German name Spekulatius and gone straight for the rather dull Spiced Biscuits. These are traditional caramelised cinammon biscuits enjoyed at Christmas in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany. Lidl have plain and almond ones on offer and both are vegan this year (not every year). We picked up the almond speculoos:

Vegan Christmas: Fairtrade Pralines at Oxfam

Organic, Vegan, Fairtrade and Handmade - pralines from the Christmas range at Oxfam. These could hardly be more removed from the Poundland confectionery we covered yesterday, but then the price is a little different too. Six quid for six. That's the same cost as our entire haul from Poundland. The vegan market is polarised like that...really cheap stuff (with no butter or other 'luxuries'), or really expensive stuff aimed at the discerning shopper. Are they worth the outlay?

Budget Vegan: Christmas at Poundland

Chocolates, Jellies and Wafers, all vegan, all one pound. Welcome to Christmas at the nation's favourite pound shop. Poundland isn't the first place you'd think to look for vegan confectionery at Christmas, but there are bargains to be had there. Our haul comprises three types of jellies, two sorts of choccies and a huge bag of wafers: