Londoners received almost £600m worth of unwanted Christmas presents – more than anyone else in the UK - a recent survey has shown.

Across the UK Brits will have received 115 million gifts that weren’t right for them for Christmas, according to online marketplace eBay.

This works out to about 2.31 unwanted gifts per person with an average cost of £18.95.

For the people of London however, each person will receive over £68 of unwanted gifts – an average of 3.22 unwanted gifts per person.

11 per cent of people resell their unwanted presents in London, with the highest number of sales listings posted last year was on December 29.

25 per cent of Londoners donate their unwanted presents to charity, while a third of people simply leave their unwanted presents to gather dust.

Patrick Fagan, consumer psychologist and associate lecturer at Goldsmiths University London, said: “Christmas can be an emotional roller coaster and studies indicate that receiving gifts that aren’t right for you can add stress.

“There’s an important changeover period, when people are putting Christmas behind them and moving on to New Year.

“Not only are people ready psychologically, but the financial benefit also boosts happiness.”