National Christmas Tree Association | Consumer Reports

No gift is truly safe from the postholidays exchange line.

In fact, according to a recent Consumer Reports survey, 19 percent of people plan to return gifts after the holidays. But what if a well-meaning aunt or co-worker bestows upon you the ultimate disappointment: a gift card you don’t want or can’t use? Thanks to exchange sites such as Cardpool.com, recipients of unwanted gift cards aren’t stuck with a useless piece of plastic. Now you can trade it in for cash or, well, other gift cards! Looking to save? You can also hit up the site for cards discounted up to 30 percent off their actual value.

By the Numbers Approximately 2.6 billion square feet of wrapping paper is used each year around the holidays. / 25 to 30 million live Christmas trees are sold in the U.S. each year. / For every live tree that’s harvested, one to three seedlings are planted the following spring. / 1.5 billion Christmas cards are sent each year. / From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, household waste increases by 25%. / If every family reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the roughly 50,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the planet.

Sources: Consumer Reports, National Christmas Tree Association, Hallmark, EPA, Use Less Stuff, writer’s own amazing math skills