A regional daily has launched a campaign to give readers “something to smile about” over the festive season.

The Edinburgh Evening News has announced the launch of its annual Cheer campaign, which aims to “spread the Christmas spirit” around its patch.

In previous years the Evening News has spearheaded initiatives such as taking a choir around Edinburgh city centre, and also brought together rival football clubs Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian to support the campaign.

This year’s campaign launch featured on the front page of the EEN on Friday, pictured.

Editor Euan McGrory told HTFP: “We wanted to do something that would really engage our readers, give them something to smile about and do our bit to help make life better in our local communities this Christmas.

“What we came up with is the Edinburgh Cheer campaign whose aim is to spread festive spirit and help make Edinburgh and the Lothians the kindest place in Britain this Christmas.

“We’ve teamed up with a number of partners, including our two biggest football clubs Hibs and Hearts, NHS Lothian, Tesco and Network Rail, to do things like feed people who are isolated on Christmas Day.

“We’re also asking our readers to tell us what they are doing to make Edinburgh and the Lothians a better place so that we can help spread the word.

“In years gone by, we’ve done things like take an Evening News choir around the city centre, something to give our readers something to smile and feel good about.”