Gloucester children's art displayed in huge advent calendar

Gloucester Rugby Foundation hosted a social media competition inviting children to create artwork

An enormous advent calendar is showing off the work of 24 school pupils.

A social media competition hosted by the Gloucester Rugby Foundation charity invited children from the city to create artwork illustrating what Christmas means to them.

The designs are being displayed on the BiGDUG office building in Gloucester, with a new one revealed each day.

One winner, Effie, aged eight, said her Christmas wish is to "make her family proud".

Eight-year-old Effie said she is proud to be one of the winners

"Knowing that my drawing is featured on the cards and the advent calendar is really special to me," she said.

"I felt really excited and right now, I'm feeling overwhelmed and really happy about it and very proud of myself.

"My Christmas wish is to make my family proud of me and try not to have a frown on Christmas Eve, or Day, or ever, actually and I just want to have a happy Christmas'. 

Funds raised from the sale of the cards will go to the Gloucester Rugby Foundation

Each morning a window 'opens' revealing one of the children's designs.

The artwork includes Santa's elves, colourful candy canes and festive gingerbread-people, as well as personalised Christmas messages.

Matching Christmas cards are available to purchase with 100% of proceeds going towards supporting the local community through the Gloucester Rugby Foundation.

The giant advent calendar features a different theme each year, with last year's calendar featuring players from Gloucester Rugby and Gloucester Hartpury.