New research from St. James’s Place (SJP) reveals that a fifth (18%) of children’s Christmas gifts are wasted each year. This amounts to £760 million worth of presents that are annually unused, unwanted, exchanged or thrown away across the whole of the UK, on average.
This Christmas, however, two in five parents (39%) plan to gift a financial investment to their children, by either setting up or contributing to an account or product that will benefit them in the future, as a third (32%) say the pandemic has made them think more about the importance of saving money.
Wasted gifts
The survey of more than 1,000 parents reveals that each child receives an average of £352 in gifts at Christmas, with an average of £63 spent on ‘wasted’ presents.
The proportion of wasted gifts varies regionally with over a third (35%) of gifts going to waste in London, 20% in the East Midlands and 18% in Yorkshire and Humberside.
Four in five (79%) parents agree that this level of waste is a worry, with 30% citing concerns over the potential financial loss of spending money on wasted items, and 21% concerned about the environmental impact of discarded gifts. A further 28% are concerned about the example it sets for their child.
Read the Full Research on SJP