Britons will have received £2.4 billion worth of unwanted Christmas presents this year, a new survey suggests.

One in five people said mothers were the worst culprits for giving inappropriate gifts, followed by mothers-in-law (18%) and aunts (16%).

Every UK adult will have been given up to two presents they did not want this Christmas, each worth £48.41 on average, research for online classifieds website Gumtree.com found.

A third of unwanted gifts end up gathering dust in the loft or the back of a cupboard, 15% are given away to someone else, and 2% are binned.

But half of Britons are too polite to express their true feelings about undesired presents and will thank the giver enthusiastically, according to the survey.

Just 10% of people will admit they do not want the gift and ask for a receipt, and only 4% will be completely honest about what they think of the offering.

Hamish Stone, from Gumtree.com, said: "From our research it's clear that despite many people's best efforts, homes across the UK are going to be cluttered with lots of unwanted Christmas presents this year.

"Rather than letting them take up valuable space in cupboards and garages, we'd encourage people to sell the unwanted presents online and convert the bloopers to cash."

:: One Poll questioned 2,000 people in November.