What Can I Buy My Vegan Friend For Christmas?

Vegans are notoriously difficult to buy for at Christmas or any other time of year.  There are lots of things you should NOT buy because they have been derived from animal products.  These include wine, honey, silk (produced by boiling silk worms), cakes or biscuits made using butter, leather goods etc etc.  Some vegans even find books hard to accept because book binding involves glue which is derived from gelatine.  (Gelatine is made from cow spines and other bits of offal).
Sometimes health food shops carry ranges of ethically produced (and vegan) body lotions (if your friend is female) and various vegan suitable shampoos/conditioners etc which can be unisex.  
You could try thinking about buying them a plant or if they have a garden, something for that.  A herb kit or something similar can also be acceptable.  If they live in a flat, then a window box may be more suitable.
If you choose the gift with love and care, then you shouldn't go far wrong and at least you are thinking about it, which shows you respect their views.

I know, it's been years, but I'm only just finding your question.  

You could get your vegan friend a soup sampler perhaps.  

Visit health101.wholefoodfarmacy.com for lots of options for vegetarian, organic, raw, and vegan folks, and everything is very convenient, so their products are also good for busy folks like myself <hint,hint>.  

From their site FAQ:  Do any of the foods contain dairy products?
                

None of our foods contain dairy products.  

From the site homepage:

All of our  foods are vegetarian, most are raw and vegan as well.  

It is my understanding that if it is vegetarian, meaning without meat, eggs, or fish, or other animal products, and it also does not contain any milk, that it would be considered vegan as well.  Not all of their products are completely raw.  The sentence from the homepage could have been worded differently.  These phases speak of foods, they do also have bath and beauty products where not all products have all ingredients listed, but most of them do have the ingredients listed and are vegan.

I love basically all of their products except their detox farina, but my neighbor friend enjoyed it.

Alice N.