Christmas whizzed by so quickly this year, and despite my lack of preparation it was surprisingly successful. Here’s a little roundup of some of my festive highlights.

As always, we started our Christmas eating in Prague. Like last year, Puro was serving up traditional Czech Christmas dinner every Saturday in December, and we were happy to tuck into the traditional carp and potato salad, all veganised.

And as usual, we went to the vegan Christmas festival to pick up a box of Christmas cookies from Nebeske Dorticky, a Brno-based vegan baker extraordinaire. It was a really good selection this year – I especially loved the little round triple decker cookies.

Dr HH can always be relied on to provide an exciting advent calendar for me, and this year was no exception. This time, along with a daily sweet treat, he provided me a festive dot-to-dot to draw and then colour in. It was great fun!

Back in the UK, we became even more festive! We made a beeline for Morrison’s to try the accidentally vegan gingerbread doughnuts. They were good and creamy and flavoursome, and I think they should be a staple all year round, not just in December!

My mum treated us to a few treats from Truffle Pig, a vegan chocolatier from Sheffield whose sweet treats I absolutely love (and have mentioned several times before). She got us the Christmas box and the classic box, and I’d highly recommend both. The Christmas box included a festive tiffin, a gold-dusted chocolate orange, and a praline. The classic contained a peanut butter truffle, a caramel, and a regular chocolate truffle. Needless to say, everything was wonderful!

And for savoury snacks, I was powerless to resist these pigs and blankets crisps from Tesco – the ‘pigs’ were basically meaty Wotsits, and the ‘blankets’ were like Frazzles. They were extremely moreish!

On the drinks front, we were very excited to spot this ginger and orange drinking chocolate in Holland & Barrett. Rather than powder, it’s actually in dark chocolate discs that you stir into the hot milk. The ginger doesn’t come through much, but the orange is lovely.

And of course, I did some of my own cooking too. We started the day itself with the orange and pecan sticky buns from The Superfun Times Cookbook, which has become something of a tradition already. I love making these because it’s one of the rare occasions when Dr HH and I work together on a culinary project. And I also love eating them, because they’re sticky and sensational!

For Christmas dinner, I hadn’t had much time to experiment so we largely stuck to the classics. I made the same vegetable pot pie from The Superfun Times Cookbook that we enjoyed last year, and my mum prepared all the usual sides. I added the cauliflower cheese from Vegan Christmas, and we allowed Dr HH to bring some chilli flakes to the table this year: he made some delicious spicy Brussels sprouts. It was a proper feast!

And from the same book, and the same as last year, I whipped up a pecan pie for dessert. It’s a good choice because (a)it’s really delicious, and (b)you can make it a day ahead. Win-win!

Of course, I got some solid vegan gifts as well. The Rosejam bubble bar is my favourite thing from Lush. I asked for one, so of course my mum got me four. I’ll have a very fragrant bag on the journey back to Prague, at least.

I’m making the move away from plastic goods as much as possible, so my mum helped out with a nice deodorant and lip balms in metal tins. Excellent!

Back to Truffle Pig, we got these hot chocolate spoons – very chocolatey, with mini marshmallows as well. They made for very delicious hot chocolates!

I think there are few things more exciting than getting a new lunch box! This one is metal, leak-proof, has a divider, and has a fork strapped on. This will serve me well on my lunch breaks.

And of course, I got a cookbook, as is tradition. I’ve seen this one mentioned a lot over the year, but didn’t know much about it. At first glance, I want to cook pretty much everything, so I have very high hopes for it! I’ll keep you all posted in January!

So that’s it for another vegan Christmas at HH HQ. I hope you’ve all eaten all the good food and received some top notch gifts, or just enjoyed putting your feet up and reading some books!