BRIGHTLY coloured envelopes, padded parcels and packages of all shapes and sizes line the shelves and walkways in their thousands.

Today was set will be the busiest day of the year for postal workers across the UK - after yesterday's deadline for second class mail.

This Christmas, workers at Southampton's sorting office in Shirley is expecting to deal with up to one million items for delivery in a single day.

On average the team of about 180 staff will sort and deliver 800,000 letters and parcels to some 54,000 addresses every week.

Sorting officer manager Diane Barnes says that this year she has seen a major increase in online shopping, meaning more packages than ever before.

She added: "We also think that people may have done a lot of shopping earlier as we haven't seen as big a surge today that we expected, but at the same time we are all hoping that everyone has not left it to the last minute."

Although staff stopped operating as a 24-hour sorting office with a change in Royal Mail's business operation in October this year, the team has reintroduced round-the-clock shifts over Christmas to deal with the extra seasonal post.

Dealing with the extra weight of the festive period, part-time postwoman Jo Renouf says she enjoys being part of a team that works well together against the tidal wave of Internet shopping and seasons greetings.

"It is obviously busier, but we are in good spirits here," she said.

"I'll start work at 8am and my sorting would have already been done. Normally I would expect to leave the office for my drops at around 10am but with Christmas it is usually quite a bit later and we have a lot more mail later.

Jo, 34, who lives with her five-year-old daughter in the Chapel area of Southampton, says at Christmas she delivers thousands of letters to some 406 drops in the south Shirley area.

"I have got to know quite a few people on my route and like to stop for a quick chat to see how people are and get to know them a bit. At Christmas they're always friendly too."

Meeting workers early in the morning, Southampton Test MP Alan Whitehead said staff were operating well after a tough 12 months with strikes and planned closures of Post Offices.

"You think around Christmas post sorting offices are going to be surrounded by mail struggling to keep on top of it all," he said.

"But the operation here is pretty smooth and straight forward and I think that shows people are going to get their Christmas mail on time which is good."