One of world's biggest delivery firms sparks uproar after telling parents that letters to the North Pole will be shredded

One of the world’s biggest postal services has been labelled a “grinch” and a “scrooge” after telling parents it would shred their children’s letters addressed to Santa in the North Pole.

In a tweet, which has since been deleted, the UPS wrote: "If your child addresses a letter to the North Pole, you can leave it with us.

“We do shredding.”

According to Sky News, the comment was retweeted 5,000 times before it was removed.

But, it lingered on Twitter long enough to cause a festive uproar.

One person responded: “Who hurt you, UPS?”

Another queried: “What’s your problem?”

To which UPS responded: “Sorry to hear that you may be having an issue or frustration with us. We would be glad to help you with your concern. Could you please provide additional details including any tracking numbers, your full address, and phone number in a direct message?”

In a statement, UPS told Sky News that “negative feedback” prompted the company to delete the tweet.

They added: "We in no way wanted to be a grinch, and we in no way wanted to take away from Christmas and the holidays."