Oxfam said the gift of school dinners had been its most popular

Oxfam said it had four times as many sales through its website - where gifts include goats - than in Christmas 2004.

"Everyone says there's lots of compassion fatigue but it hasn't happened," a spokeswoman said.

World Vision said the year's tragedies had raised awareness of people's needs and led to a generous Christmas.

Both charities' websites allow present purchasers to give to charity on behalf of the gift's recipient.

I think people saw other people opening [charitable gifts] last Christmas and saw that they went down very well Oxfam spokeswoman

So, the recipient effectively receives the warm glow of the gift-of-giving.

World Vision and Oxfam allow people to make charitable gifts of things like wells, goats, football tournaments and teacher training to those that need them.

Oxfam said people's festive generosity this Christmas had been "amazing".

"We're totally grateful, people have given lots for the tsunami, the white bands for Make Poverty History, the earthquake and now Christmas," the charity's spokeswoman said.

World of mouth

She said school dinners for 100 children - at �6 - had been the most popular Christmas gift and said the rise in interest in charitable gifts could be due to word of mouth.

"People have got a lot of what they need. I think people saw other people opening [charitable gifts] last Christmas and saw that they went down very well.

"People have been talking about it with their families," she said.

World Vision, meanwhile, said there had also been a lot of support for its Great Gifts website.

Shopping with a conscience

A spokeswoman for the charity said there appeared to be more interest in giving less tangible things.

"Throughout the year that's happened - despite the high level of support around the tsunami.

"Obviously the tsunami involved a huge amount of public giving and also a huge amount of public awareness," a World Vision spokeswoman said.

"Although it's all terrible, it just keeps in people's consciousness the need there is for the sort of work World Vision do."

She said there had also been more interest in Africa, prompted by the G8 summit and the Make Poverty History campaign, as well as the BBC's Focus on Africa series.

"Month-on-month, the amount of people sponsoring children has held up and, during some months, gone up," she said.

A survey released by the Red Cross on Friday suggested nearly 80% of the population responded to appeals after events such as the Asian tsunami, West Africa food crisis, London bombs and Pakistan quake.

Some 2.2 million people - one in every 20 people in Britain - donated to every major disaster or emergency appeal made during the year, it said.