A family resorted to pizza and chicken nuggets for their Christmas dinner when festivities were ruined.

Dot Morris and her family were looking forward to a five-course meal at The Star in Gillingham on December 25, but left the pub with empty stomachs after waiting for almost two hours.

Mrs Morris, of St Leonard's Avenue, Chatham, booked the meal in September. But when she arrived at 2pm on Christmas Day there was no table for her party of 12 because the restaurant was full.

With no room in the pub, Mrs Morris, along with her husband Geoffrey, three daughters and their partners, three young children and an elderly relative were forced to sit outside in the cold for 30 minutes.

At 2.30pm, Mrs Morris went inside to complain and was told a table would be free soon. But almost an hour later they were still waiting.

She said: "It was mayhem. No-one seemed to know what was going on. A party of eight took our table because someone else had taken theirs.

"It just seemed to be a bit of a free-for-all. By this time the kids were tired, cold and hungry."

By almost 4pm, Mrs Morris and her family had given up and they, like several other families, demanded their money back.

She said: "They didn't mind giving us our money back, they just seemed to want to get rid of us. There was a party of 16 getting their money back too and when they asked staff what they were supposed to do about dinner they were told there was a McDonald's down the road.

"Luckily we had nibbles and things which we'd planned to have that evening. But cold turkey and pizza isn't much of a Christmas dinner and by the time we got home, everyone was fed up.

"It was the first time we've ever been out to dinner on Christmas Day. We are such a big family it's usually hard work so we wanted to treat ourselves. But Christmas ended up ruined."

A spokesman for brewery Greene King said: "While we were delighted The Star proved so popular with people looking to enjoy a great value festive meal, we sincerely apologise that a small number of customers did experience a delay on Christmas Day.

"We are in the process of contacting those affected directly and we will continue to investigate in order to understand the cause and ensure it does not happen again."