What to do with unwanted Christmas pressies?

“Oh thank you... no honestly, it’s just what I wanted. It’ll come in so handy, you really shouldn’t have.” Sound familiar? Most of us have the good grace to accept whatever ill-fitting garments and musical socks come our way on Christmas Day. Come Boxing Day, we scoot down to the nearest charity shop with a Santa sack full of unwanted, unloved items. According to research by Ebay, a third of the presents we are given each year are unwanted and we dispose of later. London is the capital of unwanted gifts, with an expected 1 million, while those in the Northeast are most thoughtful, giving less than 300,000 of the wrong gifts. But never mind the figures, here's how to dispose of crap presents...

Have a swap party with friends at home - or in the office during lunch hour. While you may now be in possession of a dozen hot water bottles, Cheryl in finance might have cold toes. Meanwhile you might be glad of her sixth pair of gloves. It doesn’t have to be just Christmas presents, bring in anything you want to get rid of.

Rehome gifts online. Aside from Ebay, there’s Whats Mine is Yours for designer items and the Clothes Agency. The charity My Shoes also collects decent, ideally designer, shoes to raise money for MS sufferers. And I spotted a newstory about The British Heart Foundation asking people to donate their gifts.

A few words on charity shop giving. Don’t dump stuff overnight in front of the shop window. Staff hate this: by morning, everything has been plundered by waifs and strays or ruined in the rain. Stick with the bigger, established charity shops if you're concerned that your items might not be put to the best use. If you are lucky, Cancer Research or Oxfam will post a bag through your door that you simply fill up and leave outside your house on a specified day. Personally, I’m deeply suspicious of the bins outside supermarkets that you shove clothes into - especially since I saw a group of kids pouring beer into one.

Regifting is a polite American term for doing what many of us have probably done: passing off an item given to us as a present to another. Despite its obvious dangers - mind you don’t give back to a friend or relative what they originally gave to you, which is easily done -
it is a green way of dealing with unwanted gifts. It also comes with its own etiquette: never pass on a homemade item such as a knitted scarf or pot of chutney. This American website has more tips.

Give your friends unexpected New Years presents. It’s up to you whether you want to be upfront and tell them where their gifts came from or not. I recommend ‘fessing up. It saves embarrassment later and people are always grateful for a gift whatever it’s origin - or maybe they’re just being polite and wondering who they can palm it off on.

Comments

[Sarah Holt]

Anna - I try to preempt this sort of thng by giving people clear pre-Christmas instructions not to buy presents for me just for the sake of it. I'd rather my children and family surprised me with a gift mid-year than dashed out for a Boots set of bath salts on Christmas Eve.

[Billy Thurfield]

My tip on re-gifting is always stick a post it note on the gift telling you who gave it to you before it goes in the present cupboard. THen you wont give it to the same person!

[Joanna Carpenter]

You could offer your unwanted present on your local Freecycle® network - someone might be very happy to receive it. Or you could request something that you depserately wanted but that no-one took the hint and gave you (perhaps not an iPod!) Check out uk.freecycle.org

[Anna Shepard]

Thanks Joanna. I've yet to join a freecycle network. Last I'm tried I got muddled in the logging in process. But I'm going to try again. It's one of my new year green resolutions.
There's also gumtree.com which has a swapping section for free stuff.

[Nat]

Freecyle is a great place to pass on unwanted items, so I'll second that!

The best way not to get cruddy presents is to just agree to not buy them for friends and relatives. We decided we weren't going to exchange or give gifts and if we did it was to be something we had made or bought from the charity shop, that we knew would be useful and suitable. To be honest it appeared to be a huge relief all round!

I did make foodie presents as small offerings and they were received gratefully.

[Ian James]

Re-gifting is a nasty habit that is never anything but transparent - whether or not it is green. Don't tell me that you can't guess immediately when you've been passed a tatty box of After Eights?

[Andrew Haining]

As well as "re-gifting" your presents, why not pass on your Christmas Tree?

If you or your office has got a Christmas tree (with roots, of course!) that you need to get rid of, let me know and me and my Guerrilla Gardening chums (www.gruerrillagardening.org) will re-plant it in an urban space that's crying out for greenery :)

And next year, why not buy a tree with roots so it can be re-planted or just hire one?

[emmathegreenfairy]

If your family is potty for doing this, then so is mine. Don't worry. Ann. We have a speciial place under the stairs for unwanted presents, secondhand wrapping paper and other gift detritus. It must have saved us hundreds of pounds over the years. Just toher day I ventured in their to find something for a friend.