Great Aunty Joan has bought you the Wiggles to watch over your 17th summer, Dad is sporting the on-trend Hawaiian shirt and Mum scored the carefully chiselled miniature plaster replica of Michelangelo's David for the patio.

Glorious, glorious, junk.

On a national scale, that pile of kooky, quirky and ultimately unwanted presents is growing rapidly .

Australia amassed up to $520 million in unwanted gifts this Christmas, research by Galaxy, commissioned by classifieds website Gumtree, showed.

Few would have a greater mountain of unwanted Christmas gifts to climb than primary school teacher Kathleen Bevis, who splits her time between four Christmas's and one "Friendsmas" each year.

"There has been some absolute shockers," Bevis, 30, said.

"Last year I got a Mariah Carey perfume that smelt like feet and lollies. Then there was the perpetually re-filling beer that lights up. It was the most annoying thing - it looked like there was always cold beer but you couldn't drink it."

The Galaxy survey suggested Australians received up to 20.3 million unwanted gifts in 2014, up from 14.2 million in 2013.

New South Wales residents are the worst gift-givers in the country, spending more than $190 million on unwanted gifts in 2014.

But is it because we are buying more of the wrong gifts for the wrong people, or the practice of re-gifting has become more visible?

An American Express survey from December reported that 76 per cent of Americans found re-gifting acceptable now.

It is a trend that has been echoed in Sydney. "It's definitely becoming more widespread," Ms Bevis said.

"Rather than just throwing them away, it is far better to give it to someone who might get to use it. That way, at least the effort of getting the gift hasn't been wasted."

Gumtree had noticed a surge in unwanted gifts being listed after each Christmas, spokeswoman Niki Hennessey said.

"Online re-gifting works because there is that degree of anonymity," she added.

But there was still the risk of the gift giver finding out about your re-deployment of the unwanted treasure, she said.

"If it is something unique, then there is always the risk that someone might recognise it. Give it a few days grace and maybe try to sell it through a friend who doesn't have the same address."

As for the beloved Mariah Carey perfume.

"I couldn't get rid of it," Ms Bevis said. "I re-gifted it to a friend at Friendsmas, only to find it left behind."

While plenty of gifts can't be re-gifted, there is little point in sending them all to the scrap-heap, the St Vincent De Paul society said.

"If there is something you don't need or want, there are plenty of people who do," spokeswoman Annette Ellis said. "Hold on to it until January 5, then bring it into a local store and we can take care of it from there."