BOLTON people posted more than 13.5 million festive cards and parcels in a record breaking Christmas for the Royal Mail.

A total of 13,580,300 seasonal cards, letters and packets were dealt with by the Bolton Mail Centre in the four weeks before Christmas.

A record breaking 219 million cards and letters were posted in North Wales and the North-west during the countdown to Christmas Eve - 23.4 million more than last year.

And nationally more Christmas cards were delivered this year than at any time since they first became popular more than 150 years ago.

The Royal Mail, which reckons it has become "Santa's chief helper", also delivered 750,000 letters to Father Christmas in Reindeerland.

The most popular request was for Teletubbies, which beat a strong challenge from this year's newcomer Furby, the talking cuddly toy.

The most requested video was Titanic, the top CD was Boyzone and the most wanted football strip was Manchester United.

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