UNWANTED gift sets and valuable china crockery are among many items being donated to west Wiltshire charity shops as the festive season comes to an end.

With Christmas now behind us, we can often feel cluttered with old belongings as we clear room for new ones. If it’s time for a post-Christmas clear-out, or even just to get rid of that one present you know you will never need, charity shops will be more than happy to take it off your hands.

Rowena Midgley, operations manager of Dorothy House in Westbury said: “We have had lots of donations over and after Christmas, which has been really great. We really welcome donations from the local community.

“Also our Christmas cards, calendars and diaries have been selling brilliantly, and all the profits go towards patient care. They are half price at the moment so you can stock up.”

The British Red Cross in Trowbridge has has some particularly funny experiences when being given unwanted Christmas gifts.

Manager Sara Tiso said: “Often people have brought in unwanted presents still with the gift tags on saying who it is for. We have to take them off so no one comes in and discovers the offering they bought for their relative as a Christmas gift has been donated to us.”

The shop has also been lucky enough to recently receive a fascinating donation of a silver spoon, dating back to 1940, with a military arrow engraved on the handle.

“We think this could be of some value as it is certainly an interesting piece, and could also be a collectable,” Sara added.

Other charity shops have also got lucky as many locals have big clear-outs after Christmas. Mercy in Action in Trowbridge, which opened in May, has just received a donation of a duck egg blue Royal Doulton crockery set, along with a couple of Wedgwood plates.

Supervisor Hayley Stevens said: “It’s so nice that people chose to donate this valuable stuff to a good cause, rather than deciding to sell it on eBay.”

As charity shops stock up with all sorts of wonderful goodies from the Christmas aftermath ready to sell in the months ahead, they are also often looking for more volunteers to help with this busy time. Oxfam in Trowbridge are currently looking for more volunteers to come and help on the shop floor, as well as with behind-the-scenes jobs such as pricing and preparing donations for sale.