Dean Houston McKelvey, Belfast's "Black Santa", has raised some £180,000 following this year's open-air appeal outside the doors of the city's St Anne's Cathedral.
This was the 28th year of the appeal, which raises money for a range of local charities and for Christian Aid.
Dean Houston, dressed in the now-customary all black throughout the seven days before Christmas, has followed a tradition laid down by his two predecessors and established by Dean Sammy Crooks in 1976. Since then, some £2.8 million has been donated.
Counting is still continuing and the final figure will be known soon. The estimated total was released on the day another charity claimed that almost 30 per cent of Christmas presents are unwanted.
Barnardo's is appealing for help in giving them a good home. It wants people not to store them away, but to donate them for "recycling".
The charity works with nearly 8,000 children, young people and their families in over 40 services throughout the North.
Ms Fiona MacMillan, of Barnardo's, said: "I hope people didn't get too many unwanted gifts, but it is good news for us if they did.
"You can take them along to any Barnardo's shop - we are open again on Tuesday. We can get some very good prices for these goods because they are still in their packaging and they still look nice."
Barnardo's is Northern Ireland's largest charity retailer and now has shops specialising in furniture and books, as well as a designer shop in Belfast which recently auctioned a dress donated by the actress Emma Thompson.
- (additional reporting by PA)