It’s official. Women certainly
don’t want novelty gifts for Christmas this year
and men definitely don’t want to open socks and
handkerchiefs, according to a survey of 1,200 shoppers
conducted by DVLA Personalised Registrations.
In answer to the question, “what is the worst gift
you have ever received?”, 27% of women pointed to
‘novelty gifts’ while another 14% admitted
to smiling through gritted teeth when receiving ‘things
for the kitchen’ and a further 10% have quietly
slipped that special item of ‘clothing’ to
the bottom of the drawer.
For men the picture is simple with almost half claiming
their worst ever Christmas gift was ‘socks or handkerchiefs’
and 10% also citing clothing other than socks.
When asked about the DVLA’s own product, personalised
registrations, 27% of women and 23% of men say they will
consider buying someone they know a personal plate for
Christmas and 60% say they would be happy receiving one
in their stocking.
Louise Pierpoint, publicity manager for DVLA Personalised
Registrations, said: “Christmas shopping can prove
incredibly frustrating for even the most creative of thinkers.
Just coming up with ideas can be challenging.
“Our research shows that one in five of our customers
now buy personalised registrations as gifts - they are
highly personal and I think this helps make them popular
this time of year.”
Not everyone shopping this Christmas will be doing so
in the shops. Twenty eight per cent of those polled claim
they will do most of their gift shopping on the internet
and another 23% say they will do some online. Less than
one per cent will use traditional telephone mail order
to get most of their presents while 48% still prefer to
browse their high streets and shopping centres.
When it comes to the experience of shopping for Christmas,
only 57% of women say they enjoy it and 3 out of 4 men
claim to dislike it.
“There’s a lot of pressure at Christmas and
I’m sure this takes the shine off the experience
for many people. That may well be contributing to the
rise in the use of the web where choosing gifts can be
so simple,” commented Louise Pierpoint.
Anyone interested in a personalised registration can choose
from over 24 million potential plates by logging on to
the DVLA’s official website www.dvlaregistrations.co.uk
