Christmas card addressed to “England” reaches destination

[A German Christmas card reached the right address in Gloucestershire/Paul Biggs via BBC]

We’ve all likely dealt with a Christmas card or package that never made it to its intended recipient.

This story is just the opposite: a Christmas card addressed only to “England” was delivered to the right address on Wednesday.

The letter was presented to Paul Biggs of Longlevens, Gloucester, by a local postman, reports the BBC.

The postman inquired if he was expecting anything from Germany, and then handed over the letter after Biggs mentioned he had some friends in Germany.

Flipping it over, Biggs noticed his friends’ return address written on the back.

In shock, he asked the postman how he had known who it was for.

He reportedly responded, “I didn’t, I’ve been wandering around with this.”

Sent from a sorting office in Bitburg, Germany, the card was mailed on Monday and arrived just two days later.

Those involved guessed that the card may have originally been labelled with a full address that fell off at some point, leaving only the word “England.”

“My wife and I are absolutely shocked but this puts posties at five or six stars and top of the tree for me this Christmas,” said Biggs.

Representatives of British Royal Mail told the BBC that their “address detectives” are pretty good at getting badly labelled items to their destinations, but that “this is pretty impressive.”

Back in July, a letter addressed to “Your man Henderson, that boy with the glasses who is doing a PhD up here at Queen’s in Belfast. Buncrana, County Donegal, Ireland,” was successfully delivered to its intended recipient — student Barry Henderson.

The BBC reports that a friend of Henderson’s sent the letter to prove just how tiny the community of Buncrana is.

Inside the letter was a note that read: “If this has arrived, you live in a village.”