The payment gateway at Stewarts Garden Centres crashed as 10,000 customers tried to book a visit to Santa – forcing chairman Martin Stewart to issue an apology in the local press.

After failing to book online, people swamped the group’s switchboard, and many visited one of Stewarts three garden centres as a last resort.

 “What went wrong was completely out of our control,” Martin Stewart told the Bournemouth Echo. “ We increased capacity in our website but the payment gateway we use was unable to cope with the traffic.

“I know that many of you have had a really tough day,” the article continued. “We don’t host Father Christmas and work so hard to do something special for this to happen. Even if things went well we would be unable to satisfy everyone, we know demand outstrips supply.

 “Everyone here has had a tough day too because they have had to cope with many very frustrated people. As always the vast majority have been amazing, understanding that what happened was beyond our control.”