A mystery reader found a novel way of wishing a weekly’s staff some festive cheer – by sending them a Christmas card comprised of its own bills.

The front cover of the card, sent anonymously to the Surrey Mirror, features an image of 11 different A-Boards advertising stories featured in the paper throughout the year.

However, the cheeky sender also threw a fake bill into the mix for staff at the Redhill-based title to spot.

The card, pictured below, featured headlines including ‘Streaker Shock At Beer Festival’ and ‘Residents In A Flap Over Pigeon Problem’.

The message inside read: “Whoever it is that writes this stuff, please wish them a Happy Christmas. Keep it up!!! P.S. spot the fake!”

Mirror news editor Oliver Frankham said: “It is always great to get positive feedback from readers, especially when someone has gone to the effort to make something like this.

“We get quite a bit of feedback about bills on Twitter but to seeing someone put something like this together means a lot to the team.

“What’s even better is that there were a few on there that we had forgotten all about.”

Staff correctly identified the ‘Local carpenter arrested for porn photos of Dot Cotton’ story as the fake.

Chief reporter Chris Madden joked: “We’re now looking for a story to fit that bill though.”