Give the gift of socks this holiday season

December 16, 2015, 2:35 PM GMT+0

Most Americans say that they like to get socks as a gift, and a quarter of under-30s say most of their socks were bought for them as a gift

Giving, and getting, socks as a Christmas gift is almost as much a part of the modern American holiday season as turkey and Santa. But, despite the jokes about socks being a boring gift, most Americans may actually appreciate a few pairs in their stocking this year.

YouGov's latest research shows that socks are definitely a safe gift choice for most Americans, at least those under 65. Over all 56% of Americans say that they like it when they get socks as a gift and only 20% say that they dislike it. A majority of every age group under 65 appreciate being gifted socks, but over-65s are cooler on woolen gifts with only 48% saying that they like socks as gifts. Women (64%) are also a lot more likely than men (46%) to say that they like receiving socks.

Receiving socks as a gift is so ubiquitous that 13% of the country (over 1 in 8) say that most of the socks that they have were actually given to them as a gift. This is particularly true of under-30s, a quarter of whom (23%) say that most of the socks that they have were given to them as a gift.

Full poll results can be found here and topline results and margin of error here.