A Christmas card featuring a drunken Santa urinating is to be sent to 200 offenders in west Oxfordshire.

The cards are a fun way of warning people who have been given fixed penalty notices in the past to watch their behaviour this Christmas - or face another £80 fine.

They are being sent this week by The West Oxfordshire Community Safety Partnership, which is made up of the police, the county and district councils, the ambulance service, magistrates, probation and youth offending services, housing trusts and primary health care trusts.

It will cost the partnership £74 to send the cards.

Season's greetings cards were also sent last year to prolific offenders for the first time in Thames Valley Police's history - and it is a practice used by police forces around the country.

West Oxfordshire Local Area Commander Dennis Evernden said: "We have to maintain a sense of humour, this is Christmas after all. It's an important message delivered with humour.

"In west Oxfordshire we do not have the pressures of the city, we have the room to have a more innovative and pioneering approach.

"The cost of crime to society is enormous - £8.8m per year. Doing something small that might make people think before they act is well worth it. £74 is a drop in the ocean."

Bill Oddy, head of community safety at the district council, said: "We could have chosen a card that was more hard-hitting but people would probably put it straight in the bin. This is more fun and so is more likely to be put on the mantel piece and act as a bit of a reminder."

The partnership aims to tackle antisocial behaviour carried out when people have been drinking.

Lesley Semaine, who runs the Royal Oak, in Witney, said: "I think it's fantastic. It'll be effective because it's funny. When people open it they will smile when they are totally sober. It's not offensive, it's in good taste, it'll just give them a little reminder."

The majority of the £80 fixed penalty notices given in the last year were the result of excess alcohol. Some were for urinating in the street and others were for violent behaviour following excessive drinking.

Letters are also being sent to offenders caught with drugs to warn them of the repercussions if they are caught again.

This includes a banning order from all pubs in their local area and the possibility of receiving an Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC).

Advent calendar goes hi-tech

A man who runs a donkey sanctuary and a postman are two of the 'virtual' Oxfordshire stars to feature in the Church of England's first online Advent calendar.

People who log on at www.adventstories.org will miss out on a chocolate, but they will find out on December 17 why John McLaren, left, who looks after 81 donkeys at the lsland Farm donkey sanctuary in Brightwell- cum-Sotwell, loves Christmas.

The following day, they will see Howard Fox, right, and his story about how busy the Post Office is at Christmas.

But no peeping is allowed, as the virtual windows will only open on the right day.

Sarah Meyrick, of the Diocese of Oxford, said: "The national Church of England website receives around 90,000 visitors every month and we hope the Christmas stories of 'people next door' will mean an even higher number of people will use the site." .

"We would encourage churchgoers to use the calendar as often as they can during Advent, and spread the word among family and friends.

"And before you ask, there's no peeping allowed - we've made sure that visitors cannot see behind the windows until the stroke of midnight each day."

You can see the advent calendar at www.adventstories.org.