THE Royal Mail have said any envelope colour is allowed to be sent through the post this Christmas time, after news circulated warning people not to send red envelopes.

It was originally said that the fluorescent orange codes printed on each envelope for scanning machines to register the address cannot be picked up if printed on a red envelope.

However, The Royal Mail is now denying this and said that using a red envelope has no impact on the amount of time it takes to deliver it.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “As the universal service provider, Royal Mail is proud to deliver the Christmas post for consumers and businesses.

"Our Intelligent Letter Sorting Machines can process up to 50,000 items an hour. Anything the machines are unable to read are almost instantaneously passed through to our data centre where our team of ‘address detectives’ identify the correct address.

"There is no impact on the delivery timescale for the customer. Customers are welcome to use any form of envelope or ink for their Christmas cards. The only advice we always offer - is to always use the postcode."