Retail

Many Americans Don't Like What They Get for Christmas

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: December 22, 2016 9:10 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 4:30 pm

Often people say they have a friend or relative who is “hard to buy for” as the holidays approach. A subset of that is “people who already have everything they need.” It turns out a lot of people are hard to buy for, to the extent that they do not like many of the gifts they do get.

According to Finder, $9.5 billion is spent on “wasted gifts.” The site found some people keep them, but a lot of people also throw them away. Some probably get used for regifting.

Some of the findings:

• Finder estimates Americans waste over $9.5 billion on unwanted gifts every year.
• More than half of Americans, 54%, don’t like at least one gift they receive for Christmas every year. Men are fussiest, with 55% admitting this, compared to 54% of women.
• These people receive 2.3 unwanted gifts on average each year; 2.2 for women and 2.6 for men.
• These presents are worth $31 each ($30 for women and $33 for men) — that’s $71 wasted on each of these people every year.

• Some 39% of people keep these gifts anyway, while a quarter (26%) exchange them, one in five give them to someone else, 3% donate their unwanted gifts to charity and 1% even throw them away.
• Most unwanted presents are clothing and accessories (46%), followed by household items (13%), cosmetics and fragrances (12%), literature (6%), technology (5%), food and drink (4%) and music (3%).
• Other unwanted gifts (11%) include sex toys, gift cards, jewelry, wall calendars, scented candles and gag gifts.
• Friends give the worst presents, followed by parents, then in-laws and then partners. Some 8% of Americans said their partners give the worst gifts.
• More than one in 10 Americans (12%) admitted that they have deliberately bought a present they knew the recipient wouldn’t like. Men are the biggest culprits of this, with 21% admitting they have done this, while 8% of women have.
• Just 1% of people said getting drunk was their favorite part about the holidays, while 4% said there’s nothing they like about Christmas.
• Others said they love everything about the holidays, decorating and Christmas lights, celebrating the birth of Jesus, and some said their favorite part is when it’s over.
• Bosses are who Americans most don’t want to buy presents for, followed by their mothers-in-law.
• Almost one in five (18%) Americans said their partners are hopeless at buying presents for them.