Some 59% of people say they’ve ‘recycled’ unwanted presents at some point by passing them on to someone else, and one in five say they’re likely to do so this Christmas with women more likely to do so than men.The research, by parcel comparison website Parcel2Go, also found that while 20% of people would re-gift, 25% would prefer to benefit others and pass the unwanted item on to a charity. Meanwhile 33% are grateful for anything they’ve been given and would use it even if it wasn’t what they might have purchased themselves. A further 15% would be more likely to put it away somewhere and forget about it while 8% would try to sell it online.

Those aged 25-34 are the most likely to re-gift presents, with 85% admitting to doing so, while the 65+ group are the least likely (34%). And the youngest adult consumers, those aged 18 to 24 are the most likely to try to sell the gift online (17%).And with women more tempted to re-gift than men (63% compared to 54%), it looks like there could be plenty of opportunities to do so as the kind of gifts people tend to buy for women are among the least favourite items people receive.The research showed that while people are happy to receive books, vouchers and electronics, they’re less happy about toiletries (43% say these are their leat favoured present), clothing (30% and jewellery (24%).