Unwanted Christmas Gifts Statistics 2026: 50 Facts on Regifting and Returns

Every December, millions of gifts miss the mark. Some go back to the store, some go to a cousin, and some go to the back of a closet.

Retailers count the cost in billions. Shoppers count it in awkward thank-you notes. The National Retail Federation tracks returns every year.

This page collects the most reliable US numbers on unwanted gifts, regifting, resale and returns. Every figure links to its source. For the rest of the season, from travel to movies, see our Christmas statistics for the US.

How many gifts miss the mark

1. More than half of Americans open an unwanted gift

Finder's 2024 forecast, built on its 2022 and 2023 surveys, puts the share of American adults who open at least one unwanted present at 53%, or roughly 140 million people.¹

2. The average unwanted gift costs $72

Finder forecast the average unwanted gift at $72 in 2024, up from $66 in 2023. That adds up to about $10.1 billion, against $9.1 billion in 2023.¹

3. Clothing is the gift people least want

In Finder's survey data, clothing and accessories top the list of unwanted gift categories at 43%, followed by household items (33%) and cosmetics and fragrances (26%).¹

4. One in three got a gift they did not like in 2016

In a YouGov poll published in January 2017, 34% of US adults said they had received a gift over the holidays that they disliked or that did not fit.⁴

5. Nearly half of Americans got a gift they did not want

An eBay survey of 1,000 US adults aged 18 to 55, taken on December 25 and 26, 2016, found that nearly half had received a holiday gift they did not really want or would not use.⁵

6. Friends miss most often, then co-workers and in-laws

In the same eBay survey, respondents named friends (30%), co-workers (20%) and in-laws (19%) as the top three givers who did not quite hit the mark.⁵ How gift exchanges play out at the office is covered in our workplace Christmas statistics.

7. An economist put the waste at up to a third of the value

In a classic study of Yale students, economist Joel Waldfogel found that holiday gift-giving destroys between 10% and a third of the value of gifts.⁶

8. Givers paid $438, receivers valued the gifts at $313

In Waldfogel's January 1993 survey of 86 students, friends and family paid an average of $438 for the gifts, while the recipients said they would pay only $313 for them.⁶

9. 42% of people with a dud gift regifted it

Among Americans who received an unwanted gift in the 2016 holidays, 42% regifted it, 40% returned it for store credit and 40% stored it away.⁴

10. 30% simply threw the gift away

The same YouGov poll found that 30% of people who got a gift they did not like tossed it in the garbage.⁴

11. Ill-fitting gifts are usually exchanged

When a gift did not fit, 47% exchanged it for another item of similar value and 19% discarded it.⁴

12. 39% regift, 35% keep it, 32% exchange it

According to Finder's most recent survey, 39% of people regift their unwanted items, 35% hold on to them and 32% exchange them.¹

13. More than half admit to regifting

In a November 2025 survey of 2,013 American consumers, 54% of respondents said they had regifted items.⁷

14. Nearly one in five pretended to like a gift

In the same survey, nearly one in five consumers said they had pretended to like or use a gift in front of the giver, and 48% had avoided returning a gift because they feared offending the giver.⁷ The wider pressure to look happy at Christmas is covered in our Christmas stress and loneliness statistics.

15. 69% kept an item because returning it was a hassle

Nearly seven in ten consumers (69%) admit that they kept an item they wanted to return because the return process was too much trouble.⁷

Is regifting acceptable?

16. 59% of Americans say regifting is acceptable

In the YouGov poll, 59% of US adults called regifting acceptable and 32% called it unacceptable. Women (62%) were more accepting than men (56%).⁴

17. In 2025, 52% planned to regift to stretch their budget

Deloitte's 2025 holiday survey of 4,270 consumers, fielded from August 27 to September 5, found that 52% planned to regift items they did not like or want.³

18. 42% said they would regift to manage costs in 2024

In a 2024 survey for the financial firm Empower, 42% of Americans said they would regift that holiday season to manage expenses.⁸

19. Receivers overestimate how offended givers are

Researchers found that people who imagined regifting expected the original giver to be more offended than givers whose gifts were regifted actually reported feeling.⁹

20. Receivers see regifting like trashing a gift, givers do not

Across five studies, receivers viewed regifting as about as offensive as throwing a gift away, while givers clearly preferred regifting to a gift being thrown out.¹⁰

21. Gift cards and cash beat regifting in the 2025 poll

An AP-NORC poll of 1,146 adults, fielded December 4 to 8, 2025, found that gift cards and cash are seen as more appropriate presents than secondhand items or regifting.¹¹

Resale and secondhand gifts

22. Younger adults are far more open to secondhand gifts

In the AP-NORC poll, 73% of adults aged 18 to 45 said giving a secondhand gift is appropriate, compared with 58% of adults 45 and older.¹¹

23. Nearly 40% of holiday budgets could go to resale

ThredUp's 2025 holiday report, based on a GlobalData survey of 2,000 consumers, found that shoppers plan to put nearly 40% of their holiday budgets toward secondhand gifts.¹²

24. Two in three are open to giving secondhand

Nearly 66% of consumers in the same survey are open to giving secondhand gifts, a figure that rises to 80% for millennials.¹²

25. 47% plan to sell their own things to pay for gifts

Nearly 47% of respondents said they plan to, or are considering, selling their own items to help pay for gifts. Millennials (70%) and Gen Z (57%) are the most likely to do so.¹²

26. One in four may buy pre-owned luxury gifts

Deloitte's 2025 survey found that 25% of shoppers may buy pre-owned luxury items as gifts, and 49% plan to make their own gifts.³

27. Most people would rather pick their own present

In the eBay survey from December 2016, 63% of Americans said they prefer to buy a gift of their own choosing, and 53% said they wanted to declutter their home in the new year.⁵

How many gifts go back to the store

28. Nearly $850 billion in returns in 2025

Retailers estimated that 15.8% of their annual 2025 sales would be returned, a total of $849.9 billion. In 2024, returns totaled $890 billion, or 16.9%.²

29. Retailers expect 17% of holiday sales to come back

For the 2025 holiday season, retailers surveyed by the NRF and Happy Returns expected 17% of holiday sales to be returned, consistent with previous years.²

30. Online sales are returned more often

An estimated 19.3% of online sales were expected to be returned in 2025, more than the overall rate of 15.8%.²

31. $181 billion of holiday online sales already returned

Salesforce reported that more than $181 billion of global online purchases made between November 1 and December 31, 2025 had already been returned by early January. That is 14% of all purchases and 10% more than a year earlier.¹³

32. Returns grew almost twice as fast as orders

Narvar found that holiday order volume rose about 6% year over year in 2025, while return volume rose about 11%.¹⁴

33. $685 billion came back in 2024

A study by Appriss Retail and Deloitte found that consumers returned $685 billion worth of items in 2024, or 13.21% of total retail sales, with $103 billion in losses tied to return and claims fraud.¹⁵

34. Retailers put return fraud at 9% of all returns

The NRF and Happy Returns report found that 9% of all returns are fraudulent, and close to two-thirds of consumers admit to at least one costly returns behavior such as wardrobing or bracketing.²

When and why gifts are returned

35. Nearly two in three have returned a holiday gift

In the Shorr survey from November 2025, 65% of consumers had returned a gift during the holiday season, and 40% expected to return at least one this season.⁷

36. Half return gifts within a week

About half of shoppers return gifts within a week. Another 23% wait two to three weeks and 27% wait three weeks or more.⁷

37. One in seven returns happened in the last six days of December

Adobe Analytics found that about one in every seven returns during the 2025 holiday season took place between December 26 and 31, and returns in those days rose 4.7% year over year.¹⁶

38. Gifts bought in the final days before Christmas come back most

Salesforce found that items bought in stores in the last four days before Christmas had the highest likelihood of being returned in January.¹³

39. Nearly half of returns are "not as described"

Signifyd data show that returns for items "significantly not as described" accounted for 48% of all returns in 2025, including damaged items.¹⁶

40. Poor fit is the main reason

In a 2025 survey of more than 6,000 consumers in five countries including the US, 61% cited poor fit as the main reason for returning items and 33% said the product did not match its online description.¹⁷

41. Over a quarter of recipients returned or planned to return a gift

CivicScience polling in the first week of January 2025 found that over a quarter of holiday gift recipients had either returned or exchanged a gift or planned to.¹⁸

42. Amazon's holiday window ran until January 31

Most Amazon items bought between November 1 and December 31, 2025 could be returned until January 31, 2026. Apple-branded products had a shorter window, until January 15.¹⁹

43. 82% say free returns are a major purchase factor

In the NRF and Happy Returns survey of 2,006 online returners, 82% cited free returns as a major consideration when making a purchase, up from 76% a year earlier.²

44. 47% have walked away over a return policy

Rithum found that 47% of consumers have stopped shopping at a retailer because of an unfavorable return policy, and 88% expect free returns.¹⁷

45. 75% prefer a refund to store credit

In the Shorr survey, 86% called free return shipping non-negotiable and 75% prefer a full refund to store credit.⁷

46. 43% of Americans hold an unused gift card

In a YouGov survey for Bankrate in August 2024, 43% of US adults had at least one unused gift card, voucher or store credit, worth $244 per person on average.²⁰

47. A third have lost, expired or stranded a card

About 34% of Americans in the Bankrate survey had let a gift card expire (20%), lost one (17%) or seen the store go out of business before using it (12%), with some overlap between groups.²⁰

The money behind the gifts

48. Holiday sales were forecast to pass $1 trillion

The NRF forecast that November and December 2025 retail sales would grow 3.7% to 4.2%, to between $1.01 trillion and $1.02 trillion.²¹

49. The average shopper planned to spend $890.49

Consumers planned to spend $890.49 per person on holiday gifts, food, decorations and other seasonal items in 2025, the second highest in the NRF survey's 23-year history.²¹

50. Gift budgets shrank 10% in the Deloitte survey

Deloitte's respondents planned to spend an average of $1,595 in 2025, down 10% year over year, on about eight gifts.³ Gift cards were on par with clothing and accessories as the top gift category.

The numbers point to one problem: the giver picks, the receiver pays the price in effort. A gift only works if the person wants it, and about half of Americans say they get at least one that they do not. For a company that gives gifts to customers or staff, that is a real risk to the goodwill the gift was supposed to build.

A digital advent calendar avoids the problem by giving small things every day instead of one big bet: a coupon, a quiz, a short video, a giveaway entry. Nothing needs a gift receipt or a return label. See how it works for customers, as a marketing campaign or for employees. For the money side of the season, read our Christmas spending statistics.

My take

Frequently asked questions

How many Americans get unwanted Christmas gifts?

Finder forecast that 53% of American adults, roughly 140 million people, would open at least one unwanted gift in 2024. An older YouGov poll found that 34% of US adults had received a gift they disliked or that did not fit.

How much money is spent on unwanted gifts?

Finder forecast about $10.1 billion for 2024, at an average of $72 per unwanted gift. Economist Joel Waldfogel estimated that gift-giving destroys between 10% and a third of the value of gifts.

How many Americans regift?

Deloitte found that 52% of holiday shoppers planned to regift items they did not like or want in 2025. In a November 2025 Shorr survey, 54% of consumers said they had regifted items.

How much of holiday spending is returned?

Retailers surveyed by the NRF and Happy Returns expected 17% of holiday sales to be returned in 2025. Across the full year, they expected returns of $849.9 billion, or 15.8% of sales.

When do people return Christmas gifts?

About half of shoppers return gifts within a week, according to Shorr. Adobe found that about one in seven returns happened between December 26 and 31, 2025. Many retailers, including Amazon, allow returns until the end of January.

Where can I use these statistics?

You are welcome to quote them in articles, reports and presentations. Please link to this page as the source.

Sources

1. 1Finder, Unwanted gifts forecast 2024 (company's own survey research) (finder.com)
2. 2National Retail Federation and Happy Returns, Retail Returns Landscape 2025 (nrf.com)
3. 3Deloitte US, Holiday retail survey 2025 (deloitte.com)
4. 4YouGov US, Unwanted holiday gifts (January 2017) (yougov.com)
5. 5eBay, Holiday gift survey December 2016 (ebayinc.com)
6. 6Joel Waldfogel, The Deadweight Loss of Christmas, American Economic Review 1993 (jstor.org)
7. 7Shorr Packaging, America's Return Habits 2025 to 2026 (shorr.com)
8. 8Fox 9, citing Empower's Gifted study 2024 (fox9.com)
9. 9Association for Psychological Science, Proof there is no shame in re-gifting (psychologicalscience.org)
10. 10Adams, Flynn and Norton, The gifts we keep on giving, Psychological Science 2012 (lbsresearch.london.edu)
11. 11AP-NORC Center, Holiday gift poll December 2025 (apnorc.org)
12. 12ThredUp, 2025 Holiday Report (GlobalData survey) (newsroom.thredup.com)
13. 13Salesforce, Holiday shopping data 2025 (salesforce.com)
14. 14DC Velocity, citing Narvar, holiday returns 2025 (dcvelocity.com)
15. 15Appriss Retail, citing its 2024 returns study with Deloitte (apprissretail.com)
16. 16Digital Commerce 360, citing Adobe Analytics, Signifyd and Rithum, holiday returns 2025 to 2026 (digitalcommerce360.com)
17. 17Rithum, Global Returns and Profit Impact Report 2025 (rithum.com)
18. 18CivicScience, Holiday returns poll January 2025 (civicscience.com)
19. 19Amazon, Holiday return policy 2025 (aboutamazon.com)
20. 20Bankrate, Unused gift cards survey 2024 (fielded by YouGov) (bankrate.com)
21. 21National Retail Federation, Holiday forecast and survey 2025 (nrf.com)