Unwanted Christmas Gifts: What People Do With Them

How many Christmas gifts go unwanted

The Finder survey found three in five UK adults had received at least one unwanted Christmas present, at an average value of £41 each. Younger people get the most: 80% of Gen Z and 74% of millennials said so, compared with around a third of people over 60.

The usual suspects top the list. Clothes were the most common unwanted gift at 29%, followed by deodorant gift sets at 21% and soap gift sets at 20%, with bath bombs, novelty socks, hats, scarves and candles close behind. These are the presents people reach for when they are not sure what someone wants.

What people actually do with them

A Which? survey of 2,071 people found most unwanted presents get a second life of some kind. 27% were given to charity, 26% were passed on to someone else as a present and 8% were sold. Only 1 in 20 people told the giver and asked to swap it.

Plenty of gifts never leave the house either. In a UK Gift Card and Voucher Association study, around one in five unwanted presents were put away and forgotten. A present in the back of a cupboard is not in landfill, but nobody is enjoying it, and the money and materials that went into it are spent all the same.

How many unwanted gifts end up in the bin

You will often see the claim that up to 19% of unwanted gifts go to landfill. That figure comes from the UK Gift Card and Voucher Association in 2019, an industry body for gift cards, and the sample size was not published. Other surveys put the number much lower: 5% of people in the Which? survey said they threw an unwanted present away.

The honest answer is somewhere between one in twenty and one in five, depending on who you ask. Either way it adds up to millions of presents a year, plus the wrapping, packaging and delivery miles behind each one. The most reliable way to cut that waste is not better recycling. It is buying fewer things people do not want in the first place.

Asking is more thoughtful, not less

Many of us worry that buying from a list feels less personal than picking something ourselves. The research says the opposite. In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology in 2011, Francesca Gino and Francis Flynn found people appreciated gifts they had asked for more than surprises, and saw them as more thoughtful. Givers got it backwards, assuming the surprise would land better.

Economists have measured the gap too. In The Deadweight Loss of Christmas, published in the American Economic Review in 1993, Joel Waldfogel found people value the presents they receive at between a tenth and a third less than the giver paid. The thought still counts. It just counts for more when it is aimed at something they will use.

What to do with unwanted Christmas gifts

If you are holding an unwanted Christmas gift right now, you have four sensible options. Give it to a charity shop, pass it on to someone who will use it, sell it, or swap it with the gift receipt. In the Which? survey those were the most common routes, and charity was the most popular at 27%.

Check the gift is new and unopened before you pass it on, and keep a note of who gave it to you so it never goes back to the same circle. Only 1 in 20 people asked the giver to swap it, which is a shame, because a quick and kind message is often all it takes.

How to give fewer unwanted gifts this Christmas

Ask early and ask everyone. A shared Christmas list removes the guesswork for family and friends, and the surprise stays in which thing they get and who it is from. Adding your own list helps the people buying for you just as much.

Agree on a Secret Santa for big families or office groups, so each person gets one present they actually want instead of five they do not. Go for experiences or consumables when you are unsure, include a gift receipt, and if you do receive something you will not use, pass it on to someone who will or give it to a charity shop rather than the bin.

If you want one place for everyone's ideas, a HintDrop list works with any shop, so the people you love can see exactly what you would like without anybody buying the same thing twice.