Can you believe your eyes? Marks & Sparks have made an all vegan chocolate liqueur, so if the temptation of a Baileys on ice makes you go back to plain vegetarian at holiday time, now you can stick to your guns and sip their Coconut Chocolate Vegan liqueur of an evening (see below).

Lots of the speciality drinks are on offer right now, which I will share with you in this post, but with the liqueurs especially you can buy two bottles for £16, or even buy a crate online at £8 each here.

In the deal you can mix and match flavours, so you can try the exotic Yule Log Flavour Liqueur, or Salted Caramel, Egg Nog Cream, or Chocolate Peanut.

There are also offers on their mulled wines, both red and rosé (see further below), and their traditional Non Alcoholic Mulled Punch is a reasonable £2 a bottle.

Mulled Rosé seems super posh, doesn’t it?

The wines & spirits aisle in Marks & Spencer is a veritable treasure trove right now, with a tonne of different delicious concoctions to serve at parties and gatherings to wow your friends and family.

As I said many of the speciality drinks have the bonus of being on offer too, so it’s well worth having a nosy in store if you have a few more gifts to buy, as they are great value, look substantial and festive too.

There’s up to 30% off Christmas drinks here, and you can save £3 off bottles of spirits and cocktails from this selection.

Another mix and match offer in store that I love, are these boxes of hot toddies in several different flavours (below). You can get 3 for 2. There’s Gingerbread Brandy Hot Chocolates and Salted Caramel Rum Hot Chocolates, £6 for a box of two, and they include the glasses.

You Just whizz them in the microwave for 45 seconds. It’s pretty cool that the cream in the drinks comes from a Northern Irish farm, just outside Coleraine too.

So there’s plenty of choice of tipples for the adults for this weekend and the holidays beyond, but for the teetotal amongst us, and under 18s, there are lots of tasty, seasonal drinks in M&S to try too.

There’s the Non-Alcoholic Punch I mentioned before, as well as two different Mulled Juices in the fridges that can be enjoyed hot or cold.

My absolute favourite however is the Spanish Clementine Juice. I buy it throughout the year too, but I challenge you to try it and not get the massive wave of nostaligia I always get when I drink it. It doesn’t taste like ordinary, fresh orange juice, it tastes EXACTLY like the orange you got in your Santa Stocking every year. It’s so sweet and delicious. The usual two for £3 applies to the mix and match fresh juices.

In the lunch and snack fridge section you can try a mini Clementine drink (below), as they have that and an Orange, Pomegranate & Cranberry variety bottle. They are £1.50 each with a portion of sale going to Shelter, the homeless charity M&S heartily support every Christmas period.

So make sure you check out all the fab offers in store this weekend, and the drinks gifts online . It’s a great weekend to pop into your local Marks & Spencer’s though, as they have the £10 Dine In Offer on all weekend.

Also I noticed all their beauty gifts are 50% off, which is huge, so if you still have some gifts to buy, M&S is your place.

New York Wings : Bourbon Wings : Sparkling Fizz : Wings 4 for £10 : Fizz free

It's holiday time in Northern Ireland tomorrow, and whether you are heading towards or away from the Twelfth Celebrations, a picnic could very well be on the cards. This current M&S deal isn't listed in the food offers on their website, but I can fill you in on how this one works so you can decide if it's a good deal for you.

Sadly the Bangor Bloomfields store was out of picnic bags, but when you buy the four mix and match items you can choose either the cutlery roll, or a bottle of red or white wine, or a fancy Spirit of Summer fizzy. I got two versions of the deal with one set of cutlery and one fizz. The drink to buy alone is £6 so it's a great freebie, you know how much I rave about the dine in for £10 deal.

I chose quite a lot of meat and fish as my 'four items', and it's worth noting if you are on the Atkin's Diet, or eat a lot of protein for training, this deal is a great way of getting a lot of snacking meat at a good price. There are half a dozen flavours of cooked chicken including tubs of wings ready to eat.

If someone took me on a picnic and instead of pulling out some sandwiches they whipped out a colourful bottle of bubbly and a tub of bourbon chicken wings just for me, I would fall in love with them on the spot.

If you want something more carbsy for the whole family there are little wraps, quiches, that sort of thing to mix and match four for £10 too.

LOOK AT THE COCONUT! There are two drinking coconuts, £3 and £3.25, and one has a ring pull! I don't like coconut water but it's so kitsch that I couldn't resist. I wonder would the browner looking one (further down this post) keep for a few days after use? They would be class for serving cocktails in, or even as decor in a home bar.

I buy the calamari rings in the picture above quite regularly. They make a tasty snack rather than a bag of crisps. These are the mix and match four for £10 cooked meats and fish I mentioned. Then you pick your wine, fizz, picnic bag or cutlery.

The cutlery included is plastic, but of course you could use your own.

I'm a fan of the 'Just Add' salad pots. They also do pots of hard boiled egg, tomatoes, red onion, crispy bacon, croutons. For £1.50 that little pot is a lot more handy than guessing when your whole avocado is ripe, then trying to get it cut up.

So here us my little plate of picnic lunch. As you can see I monopolised the calamari. I just love squid. The pulled pork wrap was my other favourite.

If you are reading this hungrily but only need to feed one person, the Spirit of Summer lunch deal can allow you to join in with the exotic tates during your lunch hour. You get a sandwich, pasta or salad main, a side or dessert and a drink for £4 or under. It's also mix and match with the all year round lunch items included in the deal (look for the price label or sticker on the product, because unlike Boots, some of the lunch items aren't included in this deal).

I chose a pulled pork and apple brioche bap, a fruit salad and a pineapple juice. There's also a gorgeous watermelon juice in the deal to try.

Carrying on the snacking, Spirit of Summer migrates to the savoury snack aisle too. There are packs of nuts, sweet potato crisps, and these hearty corn chips for around £2 a pack. Pick up the Spirit of Summer salsas for a really authentic taste. I love the heavy-on-the-sweetcorn dip in the £2.50 Three Salsa Selection, it reminds me of the corn salsa from Boojum.

Fruit is always summery and melon is my favourite fruit. The shaker and platter are both £2 each. This is the coconut with the ring pull!

Now I featured a lot of the Spirit of Summer dessert range last week, but not all of it is suitable to travel to a picnic. These 85p yoghurt are, and you've little spoons in the free cutlery roll, so you are ready to go.

A little heads up- M&S fudge is terribly good. They've a lemon meringue variety right now in these £2 sized packs, it's not Spirit of Summer, so I didn't pick it up, but if you see it, I highly recommend it.

Enjoy your holiday week! Follow me on Snapchat to see what we get up to. I post there daily. Username Rudedoodle, or scan the image on the left with your Snapchat app.

I will try to follow everyone back to nosy at your holidays too.

Also tell me what you like from the M&S Spirit of Summer range, on there or on Twitter, also @rudedoodle

And if you want to follow our vlog channel, that's over at Smix Brix YouTube. Thanks!