A TREASURE-TROVE of festive memories will spread Christmas cheer among older people in Oxfordshire in the countdown to the big day.

This morning an ‘Audio Advent Calendar’ will go live on Silver Robin, a website launched by Oxford grandmother Avril Lethbridge to make the elderly feel less alone.

Every day in December a new recording will be uploaded in which a young person speaks to an older person about Christmases gone by.

Mrs Lethbridge, 84, of Summertown, first featured in the Oxford Mail during last year’s ‘Lonely this Christmas’ campaign when the website was first set up.

She said: “It seems to be spreading its wings. Christmas is one of the loneliest times of the year; that’s what we are trying to help with.

“I’m doing something slightly like an advent calendar where you open up ‘windows’, but this is a sound thing - young people talk to oldies about Christmas in times past.”

Submissions have flooded in from across the globe, with some of the four-minute shorts recorded in India, Australia and Italy.

Closer to home students at The Oxford Academy and older people they met during the school’s pioneering ‘Old School’ project have submitted a raft of recordings.

Over the 25 days the voices of track legend Roger Bannister and Lord Lieutenant Tim Stevenson will also feature.

Mrs Lethbridge said: “I’ve only been doing it for two or three weeks. Panic reigns because there are 25 days until Christmas.

“There are some surprises on there, or it will be. I’ve found it fascinating myself; the young people ere gobsmacked when the oldies said ‘We were lucky to have an orange’.

“But actually what came out most in the conversations was the fact that what everybody wanted a Christmas was for everybody to be together. That was lovely.”

Among the stars of the Advent Calendar is Wheatley resident Vic Thorpe, 71, who talked about the festive season with 14-year-old Oxford Academy pupil Brendan Wall.

He said: “It was very interesting. When we were kids we had nothing quite frankly. You had a sock, with a banana or an orange, with a little sweet, at the end of the bed.

“They all want flipping computers and tablets and God knows what else. It’s a different world.”

Fellow contributor Angela Pugh, also 71, from Oxford, said: “One year I had a pencil case, and that was fantastic.

“There’s not the same meaning now. Christmas was magical when I was a child. We didn’t have much but our parents made it absolutely wonderful.

“I think this is a good idea. There’s a lot of elderly, lonely people out there that need something to brighten their day.”