Christmas re-tooled for the 21st century

Damaris Trust has launched a new video Advent calendar to help people mark each day to Christmas.

A new video will be uploaded to www.damaris.org/advent every day until Christmas.

The calendar is free to access and includes a link for anyone wishing to embed it on their own websites.

Video contributions have been together by leading Christian speakers and thinkers such as Philip Yancey, Krish Kandiah, Anna Robbins and Canon Andrew White.

The first video to feature detailed ITN's competition offering a prize of £5,000 for the filmmaker who comes up with the most original retelling of the Nativity story, and £1,000 for the best under-16 entry.

The panel of judges includes former Destiny's Child member Michelle Williams and will be announced on December 14.

Damaris co-Founder Nick Pollard said: "We’re delighted to use our Christmas Countdown Calendar to promote such an exciting competition as The Nativity Factor.

"The Christmas story is timeless, but we need to use modern media to tell that story.

"The Christmas Countdown Calendar and the Nativity Factor are two excellent examples of different ways of doing just that."