Workers at the Royal Mail sorting office in Chelmsford endured - and enjoyed - their busiest day of the year today (December 17).
The 900-strong staff at the facility in Winsford Way have been sorting through parcels, cards, and letters to Santa to make sure everyone's cards are delivered in time for this year's big day.
And everybody, including the additional 200 hired especially for the festive period, had a smile on their face.
"With the growth of social media in the last five years people might have thought that would be the death of the Christmas card but that's not the case," says Andrew Dawson, a member of the senior management team at the plant.
"I was told the other day that on average each household posts 17 cards every Christmas, it's interesting that people still want to do that.
"Millions of packages, parcels and letters are collected from all over Essex and sorted here every day before they are packed off to the rest of the country."
Work goes on around the clock at the centre in Winsford Way, with 14,000 square feet of floor space dedicated to making sure that everyone gets their Christmas post in time for the big day.
Around 2.4 million parcels and letters are processed per day, the machines at the centre processing 140 parcels per hour.
But Jon Witt, the plant manager, said his staff take it all in their stride.
"It's the busiest day of the year today but we look forward to delivering everyone's post in time for Christmas," he added.
"I enjoy it. This will be my 36th Christmas at Royal Mail after starting at the age of 16 and I still get very excited for Christmas."
The centre has to deal with huge amounts of mail during the festive period and the workers do their best to make sure everything is sent to the right destination – including letters to the main man himself.
"We get lots of letters addressed to Santa, most of them get sent to a big centre in Belfast but sometimes it says Canada on the letter so we send it to Canada," says Jara Podolak, personal development lead at the centre.
"We make sure that Santa replies to all of them with a gift."
And that Christmas spirit at the centre does not appear to be waning, even among the staff that have been there for a long time.
Mr Dawson added: "The real buzz is when we get towards the end of a shift and things are about to be sent, even more now with the volume of parcels that are ordered now.
"It's a real buzz when you see the Artic lorries on the road because you know they are bringing tens of thousands of people's mail."
Toys can be donated to the Mail Centre's collection for Safer Places by being dropped off at the centre.
