Now that Christmas is over, we have the opportunity to enjoy the gifts we received – but some gifts can be, er, more unpleasant than others.
Research by consumer organisation Which? has shown that one in four Britons receives an unwanted or inappropriate gift during the Christmas period.
The survey of 2,000 people asked participants to name the worst present they had ever received. The answers were pretty shocking, including a bag of onions, toilet paper, a fly killer and a broken toy.
Others received inappropriate or downright offensive gifts, such as the respondent who received chocolate from her father despite her lactose intolerance, or a woman who received anti-wrinkle cream from her husband.
One respondent who is vegan said he received a dead chicken from a friend who is a butcher.
The research, conducted in January 2023, found that more than a quarter (27%) of those who unwrapped an unwanted gift admitted to either having given it away or planning to do so.
One in seven sold the gift on an online marketplace or planned to sell it, while 8% either returned it or plan to do so.
Another 5% threw away the unsatisfactory gift and 3% even gave it back to the giver – which must have been a pretty unpleasant situation.
This comes after accountancy firm KPMG conducted a separate study asking 3,000 Britons what they would do if they received a gift they didn’t like. The most popular answer was to donate the gift to charity, with respondents from the north of England most likely to do this.
In the southwest of England, the data painted a different picture: Here, 21 percent of respondents said they would sell their unwanted gifts on second-hand websites as quickly as possible.
17 percent of respondents said they would put the gifts away and think about what they wanted to do with them later. 14 percent plan to pass the gifts on next year.
Harry Kind, a consumer expert at Which?, said: “Whether it’s a fly killer or a broken toy, our research shows that a quarter of us have wondered what to do with a disappointing Christmas present.”
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“It’s always worth having a gift receipt so your loved ones have the option to return their gift if necessary.”
But Which?’s research found that the majority (78%) of respondents who received an unwanted gift were not provided with a gift receipt and therefore were unable to exchange the item for something they liked better.
“Often, only the buyer can request a refund or exchange,” adds Kind. “However, if the item was marked as a gift when ordered, the recipient may be able to return or exchange it under the retailer’s return policy.”
Which? also points out that most retailers extend their return policies during the holidays, so if you’ve received a gift you don’t want, don’t be discouraged – you may be able to exchange it for another item or a voucher if you have a gift receipt.
If you don’t have a gift receipt, don’t worry. You could donate the gift to charity in the hope that someone else will find it more useful, or sell it on a second-hand marketplace like eBay or Vinted.
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