The season of giving gave way to the season of returning as Cullman shoppers hits stores Monday to exchange gift that were the wrong size, wrong color or just plain wrong.

Martha Carter was working a returns counter at J.C. Penney the day after Christmas for the 24th year in a row, she said. Returns Monday were about the same as in recent years.

While Carter faced a line of people waiting to bring back merchandise, she said not everyone brings their unwanted gifts back Dec. 26.

“Everyone says, ‘You’ll be glad when Christmas comes,’ but I say no, we’ll be hit with returns through January,” she said.

Angie Cleveland of Welti waited in Carter’s line to return three pieces of wrongly-sized clothing.

“I got aggravated this year,” Cleveland said. “I normally don’t have to return anything.”

Peebles manager Patrick Peek said returns at his store were slow, but many customers came to snag merchandise marked down after Christmas. Home items and Christmas ornaments were moving particularly well, he said.

According to ShopperTrak RCT Corp, the week after Christmas accounted for 10 percent of holiday sales last year, but analysts expect that period could account for as much as 14 percent, given gift cards’ soaring popularity.

“This year we haven’t had that many people bringing stuff back,” Peek said. He attributed the drop in returns to better gift planning.

“A lot of people this year have been bringing people in saying, ‘What do you want?'” Peek said.

Most returns are clothes that are the wrong size or color, Peek and Carter said. Peek recommended gift cards to solve that dilemma.

“A gift card is the best thing to get,” he said.

Americans apparently agree. The National Retail Federation estimates that consumers will spend $18.48 billion on gift cards, this holiday season, up 6.6 percent from a year ago, based on a survey conducted by BIGresearch.

‰ The Associated Press contributed to this report.