Young Rosie Saxby-Randall was stunned when Santa arrived on her doorstep to deliver her presents.

Rosie, four, queued to see Santa at The Argus Gingerbread House grotto but had to leave before she saw him because the car park was locking up with her mum's car inside.

When Rosie got home she wrote to Santa to tell him she wanted a Ken Nutcracker doll for Christmas.

She said her mum had made her run all the way back to the car, which made her feet hurt.

The next day the letter was addressed to The Gingerbread House at Donatello restaurant in Brighton and posted.

Santa-in-chief Terry Burns received the letter and decided to work some magic.

On Christmas morning Santa made a surprise visit to the family at their home in Hove.

Chris Saxby-Randall, 40, and her husband Matt, 37, both community psychiatric nurses, were preparing to visit relatives for lunch when the doorbell rang.

Mrs Saxby-Randall said: "I thought it was the neighbours, but when I went to the door Santa was there.

"I thought it was a joke, but he didn't have one of those stick-on beards - he was the real Santa.

"It was really fantastic and Rosie was totally overawed.

"He came in and talked to her all about the letter and he knew what she had written in the letter. Me and my husband were weeping in the corner he was so great.

"He bought them a sack of big cuddly toys and gave us a bottle of champagne. He was the real Father Christmas."

Rosie and her sister Maddie, one, had queued for an hour with their mum outside The Argus Gingerbread House in The Lanes, Brighton, when their mum realised the car park was about to close.

Mrs Saxby-Randall said: "The baby was crying, it was freezing, I had bags of shopping, we'd waited an hour and there were still about eight people in front of us.

"I looked at my watch and it was 4.50pm. I couldn't believe what the time was. The car park was going to be locked so we had to leave. I felt so guilty, but Rosie was ever so good."

Mrs Saxby-Randall explained to Rosie that Santa would have heard them outside his house - which was created to raise funds for The Argus Appeal - and explained they would write to him and he would understand why they were forced to abandon their visit.

The Gingerbread House raised £25,000 for The Argus Appeal including £10,000 donated by its sponsors Legal and General.