A family was left in shock after discovering their £8 Christmas wreath from Co-op came with a snake inside.

It was a ’really pungent, rotten fish’ smell that led Karl Gaskell, 43, to sniff out the dead snake trapped inside the straw body of the festive decoration, which his wife Nicki had picked up from the Castletown supermarket.

Studying the wreath on their door closely, he noticed some scaly bulges in the frame. Cutting the strings that were holding the frame together, the industrial chemist pulled out the dead snake.

Mr Gaskell, who lives in Castletown, said: ’The smell was so bad. It lingered for days! I don’t know what compelled me to put my nose up to the wreath after I spotted these strange grey scales, but I did. You could tell it was some kind of dead animal - a reptile, not a mammal.

’And for a moment I panicked because I thought "what if it was from China?". I suddenly thought if it had come from Asia somehow, poisonous snakes remain poisonous long after they’ve died. So I had it checked out by the Natural History Museum, who got straight back to me.’

The verdict came back that it was a grass snake, a Natrix natrix. The museum spokesman added in their email: ’They do hibernate in straw piles and I see fresh cereal straw in your photo.’

Mr Gaskell made a complaint to the Castletown supermarket, which apologised via email.

Its reply read: ’We take any complaints like this very seriously and will be talking to our supplier to find out how this has happened.

’I can only imagine how upset you must have felt and I really am sorry.

’We want our products to be the best they can be and for you to find what you did is not good enough. We will refer this to our suppliers and also make our technical team aware.

’However can I ask if you still have any packaging the receipt for this item. We need some product details.

’Once again, I am so sorry for what happened, in the meantime, if I can do anything else to help, please let me know.’

A Co-op spokesperson said: ’We would like to offer our apologies to our customer who, like ourselves, will have been shocked.

’We go to great lengths to ensure the quality and safety of our products, and this is not something we have previously experienced.

’We are keen for our customer to get in touch so that we can say sorry, and fully investigate this with our supplier.’

The Gaskell family told the Examiner that the supermarket has offered compensation.

As a consequence of the horrible surprise, Mr Gaskell, his wife Nicki, 40, and their two girls Aemilia, 11, and Claudia, eight, have vowed never to get another Christmas wreath again.

’We were just super unlucky I think, because it was the first wreath we’d bought ever!’ Mr Gaskell said.

’It’s really put us off getting one again next Christmas!’