The cards, wet from the rain, were forwarded on within 24 hours

On Christmas Eve it emerged that a postman has been sacked as a result of the discovery in woodland in the Llanedeyrn area of the capital.

The missing mail - a fraction of the 50 million items collected, sorted and delivered in Wales over the festive period - was discovered on 15 December.

It was found in a number of bags and included items that had been posted a few weeks before.

The sodden contents was then put into 'apology bags' by staff and forwarded within 24 hours, according to a Royal Mail spokeswoman.

"We apologise for the state of the mail and the vast majority of our staff our honest and trustworthy. This is a very rare thing to happen," she added.

Although few details are known about the sacked postman, he was in fact a full-time member of staff and not one of around 6,000 temporary seasonal workers.

Earlier this year in April, a pile of post has mysteriously reappeared nearly two years after being sent.

The mail, which was dated September 2001, was found dumped in bin bags by an off-duty postman as he retrieved a football.

The post - which included a rejection letter for a job application - has finally been delivered to homes in the Cardiff suburb of Radyr.