On Christmas day this year the BBC homepage re-ran the 24 presents that had been the lunchtime "special" promotions, like an advent calender, in the run up to the holiday. Well, sort of. Some of the original presents, like that promoting the Five Live Sporting Year vote were time sensitive, and couldn't be repeated - they were replaced with promotions specific to some of the BBC One Christmas day television programming.
I was really impressed with the way the homepage team put this series of December promotions together. They invited nominations from staff all around the BBC for a tag-line and a destination URL with a Christmas feel, and eyedropper converted one of the meeting rooms on the floor where we work into a makeshift photographic studio in order to get the images.
(Although it actually took my a while to realise that the growing pile of presents in the corner of the office wasn't the manifestation of some sort of Secret Santa plot that I had been excluded from)
I also liked the fact that the tags on the presents (on their original outing) were like a numbered limited edition - promising to be "1/24", "2/24", "3/24" etc which gave the whole thing a kind of collectors angle to it.
Still not everybody was happy. Over Christmas breakfast my mum made a point of complaining to me that she had clicked on one of the presents that had led her through to "EastEnders". She didn't think that was very Christmas-y and was "quite disappointed".
Having the presents reappear meant a second outing for one of my nominations - "Little donkey, little donkey"
This linked through to the Donkey Watch Webcam on the BBC's Devon site.
The webcam peers into the New Barn at Dr. Elisabeth Svendsen's Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth. Sadly I've never yet had the opportunity to visit the sanctuary myself.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/webcams/donkey_webcam.shtml DONKEY FACTFILE The Donkey Watch Webcam is situated in New Barn at The Donkey Sanctuary HQ at Sidmouth in East Devon. Some of the donkeys are over 40 years of age and need lots of extra attention. On cold days they can be seen standing under infra red heat lamps for extra warmth. During the summer months when the sun is shining the donkeys are likely to be grazing in the fields below the barn - so you may not see them on camera. The Donkey Sanctuary was founded by Dr. Elisabeth Svendsen MBE, after she saw seven little donkeys crammed in a small pen at Exeter Market. It was registered as a charity in 1973. Over the years almost 9,000 donkeys in need of care have passed through the Donkey Sanctuary's gates. http://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/