Inventors come up with novel idea to avoid getting unwanted Christmas gifts

THE ghost of Christmas-Gift-Unwanted could be consigned to history if a leading online retailer has its way.

Unlike Gobnait Ó Lúnasa giving false thanks to Nuala for that hand-biting partridge in Frank Kelly’s parody of The Twelve Days of Christmas, you may soon be able to stop the unwanted laying geese or woolly socks before they even packed up for shipping.

Under the formula set out in patent documents lodged in the United States, inventors Colin Bryar and Jeffrey Bezos have come up with various permutations for avoiding unwanted presents.