Hear Ye Hear Ye! Oyez Oyez!!! Ladies and Gentlemen and children of all ages! May we have drum rrrrrrrollllllllll if you please!!! Can I get a witness??? Bang the Gong, Get it On!!!

Once again this year, I am happy to declare the beer blog Christmas photo contest is on. Real on. Real on right now and it's the third annual. And for the second straight year, we are sharing oversight duties for the Christmas beer blog photo contest with our pal and co-master of ceremonies Jeff from Stonch's Beer Blog based in London England. Here is Jeff's post on the start of the contest. And that's last year's grand winner up there, from John Lewington. Called "Two Pints of Bitter" it's a candid photo John took of two old boys enjoying their Sunday afternoon ale in a 17th century pub in Aldbrough, Suffolk. Gorgeous. Here are all the entries from last year - Jeff's are available through a link at the bottom of the page. We are going to try to be more unified and centralized this year.

And the range of prizes gathered so far for the 2008 version of the contest are, I have to admit, already simply stunning. As in the past, remember the rules of beer are so weird that you can only get it shipped to certain places (where you are) from certain other places (where the people of the beer are) so you may not qualify for each of these but here is what we have so far:

• Roland + Russell, importers of fine beer into Canada, is offering gift basket with a variety of treats. This will be for a lucky winner in Ontario.
• Church-key Brewing of Campbellford, Ontario has provided lunch at their Stinking Rose pub as well as a VIP tour and tasting for four at the brewery. That should be a blast and will be provided to a winner who can get to the prize.
• BrewDog Beer of Scotland is offering a couple of cases of beer as well as some other goodies including a signed t-shirt. The beer will be a UK only prize due to shipping restrictions while the other goodies will go absolutely global.
• Flying Dog Brewery of Maryland USA wrote us a note and asked "how does a Barrel-aged Gonzo, Humphrey the Humper dog, Gonzo Poster and Gonzo T-shirt sound?" Sounds good to me. That one may end up as a USA only prize due to the gods of the border control unit.
• Beau's All-Natural Brewing of Vankleek Hill, Ontario has offered us a hat and t-shirt which will be forwarded to a lucky winner anywhere on the entire planet.
• Shipyard Brewing of Portland, Maine are back again this year with a new prize...or rather three separate prizes of a Shipyard travel coffee mug and a Shipyard aluminum water bottle. Fantastic. And a fantastically planetarily acceptable prize.

Fabulousness incarnate! What generosity and - be warned - we are on the hunt for more prizes and hope to have more announcements soon. Have no fear. I have every intention of wringing as much happiness out of this contest for each and every contestant so as to make your Yule (...and your Yule, too) as fantastic as possible. Jeff and I get nothing our of this but the warm glow of a good deed well done and a way to thank you all, our readers, as well as to thank the great brewers out there who do so much for all of us.

How does one enter? You may well be asking this very question as you read this. Just email photos to both me at beerblog@gmail.com and also Jeff at stonchblog@gmail.com. The announcements should start flying with your entries and hopefully even more great prizes. The deadline is Sunday 14 December 2008 at 4:00:00 pm eastern Lake Ontario, North America time. Well be figuring out a means for posting them on the web, maybe at Flickr and maybe even ClusterShot so that your work may itself give you something back. And remember - if you are a brewer, pub, author or purveyor of any other beer related stuff, join us by emailing your idea for more prize for the winners. It's all about giving...and taking photos...and beer...and, ok, having a happy happy Yule!