BOSSES at Stewarts Garden Centre have apologised after 10,000 people spent hours trying to book visits to see Santa and his real reindeer.

A payment system was unable to cope with demand when tickets went on sale on Tuesday morning. Many parents and grandparents dashed to the three centres - which include Stewarts at Christchurch and Broomhill, near Wimborne - to try to book in person.

But hundreds were left disappointed and unable to book the dates and times they wanted.

All weekend time slots in December are fully booked, as are Christmas Eve and the days leading up to it.

In a message to customers, Martin Stewart said: “What went wrong was completely out of our control. We increased capacity in our website but the payment gateway we use was unable to cope with the traffic.”

He said the payment system triggered an email, asking customers to call the centres, but that only around 10 calls can be handled at a time.

When people realised they couldn’t get through, many went to the centres in person.

Mr Stewart added: “I know that many of you have had a really tough day. 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. We have a limited number of places available and of course Christmas Eve for instance will always go first, within minutes of opening.

“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.”