A regional daily has launched an interactive Advent calendar to show off its 24 best photographs of the year.

Each day, Oxford Mail readers can click the relevant door on the calendar to reveal a new picture taken by one of its photographers during 2014.

The innovation, pictured below, has been produced using Thinglink, a website which allows users to attach links to web pages from pictures or videos.

Last month the Newsquest-owned title followed the lead of the Manchester Evening News in trialling an interactive front page, also made using the same software.

Mail assistant editor Jason Collie said: “Given the time of year, I thought we’d just try an Advent calendar, unveiling each day one of our 24 best shots of the year, and the story or picture gallery behind the image.

“Readers just select the interactive dot on the page and the picture comes up with a caption.”

He added: “It’s fairly simple and takes only a few minutes but Thinglink is a really slick way of presenting pictures and stories.

“People get drawn in by the impulse to just wander around an image looking at the different elements.

“We’re still taking baby steps but to me it looks like a great way of presenting online and on social media the print picture spreads that haven’t worked in a conventional online article format previously.”

Past attempts to mark Advent in the regional press include the Bristol Post’s 2008 effort, which saw a new mugshot of a wanted criminal from the city appear in the paper every day between 1 December and Christmas Eve.

The Herald, in Plymouth, posted a new photo relating to the city on its website every day during the same period last year

To view the Mail’s advent calendar, click here.