Thanks for your present ... what can I do with it?

Oh dear, Santa socks... Jon Robins offers some suggestions for gifts you could have lived without

Do any words encapsulate the spirit of Christmas today more than 'I've got the receipt if you need it'? According to research by eBay and YouGov, we spend £31 on average per gift but more than a third of us (34 per cent) can't even remember what our partners bought us last year, let alone anyone else.

From staple seasonal howlers such as 'Santa' socks and garish hand-knitted jumpers through to the crushing disappointment of receiving anything which isn't a Nintendo Wii, what do we do with those unlovable Christmas presents? As the festival of rampant consumerism is almost upon us, let's spare a thought for, according to Oxfam, the £1.2bn spent on 87.6 million unwanted Christmas gifts. One of them is bound to be heading your way (and probably in the form of a jumper). Cash offers you a guide to what to do with those well-meant but ill-received gifts while being true to the Christmas spirit.

Remember your manners

According to those arbiters of good manners, Debrett's, it is unacceptable to throw a hissy fit upon receiving a dud. 'Make sure that the person who has given you the present always has the impression you're absolutely delighted,' insists Jo Bryant, editor of Debrett's Etiquette For Girls And Manners For Men. 'If you don't like it there's always the option of putting it back in the cupboard.'

Where does she stand on 'recycling' presents? 'The idea of re-gifting should only be done with caution. Make sure you keep an up-to-date list of who has given you what. There could be nothing more embarrassing than giving someone something they've already given you.'

What's the worst present she's had? A set of saucepans, she replies, before adding (somewhat ungallantly) 'from my mother-in-law'.

Take it back

Good luck. You might find that the festive spirit on the high street evaporates pretty quickly as a result of sluggish pre-Christmas sales. 'There's certainly a lot of fobbing off at this time of year,' says Joanne Lezemore of Which?'s legal service. What about our rights as disgruntled recipients? 'Bear in mind that there's no legal right for retailers to take goods back and offer a refund, repair or replacement unless goods are faulty or not fit for purpose. So when it comes to unwanted Christmas presents you're at the mercy of retailers.'

However, Lezemore says that returns policies range from the good - such as Marks & Spencer (where you get 90 days' amnesty from date of purchase to return goods plus full refund with receipt) - to others where they won't change it unless it's in the original packaging, unopened and with a receipt.

'If you haven't got a receipt, you could try producing a bank or credit card statement from the person who bought the present - but normally the money will go back on the same card,' points out Rosalind Pearson, of Citizens Advice. For help, see and

Do your bit for charity

Last year Help the Aged's 360 shops received more than 4,000 unwanted Christmas presents in the new year. Anthony Waller, PR manager for Help the Aged retail, says they are much needed. 'The level of donations drops in December,' he explains. 'So when we are opening after the Christmas break, stock levels can be quite low and extra donations are really handy.' He adds that their shops will take any presents no matter how questionable their taste, as long as they aren't broken or 'too adult-orientated'.

Oxfam attempted a pre-emptive strike against Christmas waste with its campaign for decent Christmas presents, urging shoppers to buy 'life-changing' gifts for people in the developing world such as water, seeds and books.

'If you have something you're really not going to use, we can convert it into cash,' says Barney Tallack, deputy trading director at Oxfam. 'If we sell one of your old presents for £8 we can buy a couple of textbooks for kids in West Africa. If we sell a couple of CDs for £6 we can provide 100 school dinners. It's better than them lying in your cupboard and far more in the spirit of Christmas, which is about thinking of other people.'

A hypothetical question: say a certain relative insists on buying you lively knitwear, how do you know it isn't going to end up at her local Help the Aged? No problem, Waller says. Their distribution system means goods are likely to travel out of your area.

Recycle it

Alternatively, try a recycling service such as Freecycle (, a network that allows people to give away things they don't want and perhaps get items they need. Hazel Roethenbaugh, the network's UK media officer, says: 'It's about passing on items that still have a serviceable life and stopping them going on to landfill. It's basically doing someone a good turn.

'People think that it's a place to get something for free - that's true as long as it is free, legal and appropriate for all ages.'

Roethenbaugh set up the Stevenage freecycle four years ago and today it has 4,000 members. There are now 457 local groups with close to a million members. 'What's of no use to you will nearly always be of use to someone else - even soap-on-a rope,' she says.

Flog it

OK, perhaps not quite in the spirit of Christmas, but due to the cultural force that is eBay, off-loading presents online has become as much a part of the festive landscape as the Christmas sales. 'We expect over six million new listings between Boxing Day and New Years Day - double the number we'd get it the week running up to Christmas,' predicts eBay spokesman Richard Kanareck.

'As the world turns to sales after Christmas, it's an opportunity to think about creating your own personal sales and getting rid of the clutter.'

EBay now has 20 million members and the site has 14.4 million visitors every month, so, as Kanareck says, 'there will always be someone out there' who wants your festive tat.

'If all this feels a bit mercenary, then you [as the seller] can donate upwards of 10 per cent of the final sale to a charity of your choice. There are thousands of charities now registered on the site.'