According to the YouTube credits, the script for this tale was a group effort by Comics & Cartoons, a 4chan community, but nevermind the script, I don't think the story would've been the same without the fantastic imitation of Raw Shark. [Thanks, Matt!]

While I know that this video was filmed under controlled conditions, a room set up by researchers with safety measures to keep the fire from spreading, I still can't watch it without glancing over at my own Christmas tree and shivering. [Wired]

Frosty the Frozen Nikon

A fellow who goes by Skunkabilly sent his pictorial tale on Flickr, which documents a camping trip to Monument Valley and the miserable story of a D90 which froze up—literally. Apparently the poor camera was set up outside the tent in an attempt to capture one of those gorgeous swirling-star slow exposures of the sky.

I've lived in Southern California my whole life, so I don't really understand how this whole cold and frost thing works.

When he woke up, his precious DSLR was covered with frost. "What the crap is this?" he asked himself. "Ahhh, yes. All hail Frosty the Nikon!" He tried to thaw his camera on the engine block of his Subaru, but ultimately decided to take it inside the car. Sure, it fogged up on the inside for a bit, but it was fine eventually, and the rest of the trip was smooth.

The part that caught our attention though? Skunkabilly ended the tale by saying, "Hopefully I won't rappel into a pool and drown it to death like I did with my D200." Yikes! Sounds like there's a history of gadget abuse here.

How the Phone Guy Saved Christmas

Marte, better known as infmom, sent in this photo from 1961. It's Christmas morning, and she and her brother are admiring the elaborate electric train set their father had bought and built for them. Only that fact in itself was mysterious, as their father "could barely change a lightbulb."

Marte explains that, to his dying day, her father referred to record players as "Victrolas" and refrigerators as "iceboxes." Not so much Luddite as someone who didn't usually get involved with the technical processes of the household, he decided that year to break the trend, and get constructive.

A few days before Christmas, Dad brought home the train set and the plastic scenery and the controllers and a bunch of wood and nails and smuggled all the stuff into the basement through the outside door and told us to stay out of it. He borrowed a hand saw and a hammer from the neighbors and set to work trying to build a table to put the train set on. Including sawing a sheet of plywood to size. With a hand saw. Laid across our basement coffee table, which was a hollow core door on legs. When my mom heard the language coming from the basement she told us to stay way away from it.

Though his effort to this point was valiant, the electrical engineering—and a certain amount of required drilling, for which he lacked a drill—did him in. Still, on Christmas morning, the train set was up and running. How?

We were thinking some kind of miracle had occurred, until our mother told us that later that day we were to go over and thank our neighbor, who worked for the phone company, for responding to Dad's late-night cry for help.

Marte thinks that's the point where she vowed to grow up learning how to fix things herself. And considering that she's lurking around Lifehacker and Gizmodo, odds are that she did. I feel bad for her father though. While Marte and her brother got to enjoy their gift, to him this must've been a genuine holiday horror.

Floppy Disks Sold Separately

We've heard of coal in the stocking, but Jeff's story sounds worse. One Christmas, he hit the jackpot, scoring not just a cool RC car, but a set of Crazy Bones figurines too. So the next Christmas, he was reasonably quite excited:

I used to love sleeping by the fireplace at night, right next to the Christmas tree. Every season, I would do this with my little brother, and fall asleep to the warm glow of the fire, and wake up in the morning with presents all around us. I went to sleep too giddy to even imagine what I was going to receive the next morning.

I awoke to the sound of wrapping paper crumpling around me, as I stared at two of the biggest packages I had ever seen. I immediately started shredding the paper [the first one] was wrapped in, like a hungry wolf digging into its prey. What did I uncover? Two brand spankin' new... comforter and blanket sets. [And in] the smaller package next to it? A 100-capacity floppy disk lock box.

Sadly, he did not even receive any floppies to put inside it.

Photo by alliet

Son, You Can Play With Your Toys When I Sell You the Batteries

Luckybob343 grew up in the '80s, a time when "Christmas wasn't Christmas without a remote-controlled, battery-operated something."

The trouble was, Santa brought all the cool electronic toys but he never brought any batteries. Those we had to buy ourselves, but in our house we could only buy batteries from my dad's independent electronics store.

Sure, sounds nice to keep it in the family, but there were two catches: First, his dad bought hisbatteries in bulk from Walmart, and jacked up the price by $2 per pack. And second, Luckybob's dad's store was closed from Christmas Eve until January 2nd.

Come the new year, we'd fork over three weeks of allowances over to my dad to get to play with our toys one week after we got them.

Luckybob finally got some revenge though. This year, he got a multi-instrument weather station that he knew his dad had been eying, and he took out all the instructions except the ones written in French.

Photo by cosmic tito

Porn in the PS3

Jose was happy to return home after finishing Navy boot camp last Christmas. Most of his family members, from age one to age 65, were gathered at his house. There his step-father had recently installed a 50-inch plasma TV and all the gaming console goodies that should go with it, including a PS3.

One of my little cousins wanted to play the PS3 so he turned it on and a porno came on. Everyone's mouth just dropped to the ground. My sister quickly turned it off but it was too late.

Jose told us that about 25 dear family members heard and saw what was likely a film by the Bang Bros. Everyone stared down his step-father, giving him "the look of shame." Some family members left because of it, and are pretending Jose's step-father doesn't exist. Needless to say, his mom had to throw out some DVDs. There is a silver lining, though: "We are having the Christmas eve party at my aunt's now!" Yikes.

Photo by me vs gutenberg

You Name the Winner

So, who wins the pizza? Each story has its own particular charm (and nastiness), so we thought we'd put it to a vote. Have at it, and by the end of Christmas Day, whoever has the most votes on this baby wins.

This isn't the first time that Terren has made a Tesla coil Christmas tree, nor do I think it will be the last. He uses slow exposure photography to capture these incredible image, taking about two minutes for each of the shots. You can check out his site for some behind-the-scenes pictures of how he arranged the project and the safety measures he took while working with this coil.

In the meantime, I'll just be here ooh-ing and aaahh-ing for a while. [Tesla Down Under via Neatorama via Make]

The Wizard's Light Show

By the time 1880 rolled around, Edison had his incandescent light bulbs pretty well figured out, and was on the lookout for a way to advertise them. Brian Murray's article "Christmas Lights and Community Building in America" [PDF] describes Edison's marketing trick during that holiday season. To display his invention as a means of heightening Yuletide excitement, he strung up incandescent bulbs all around his Menlo Park laboratory compound [PDF], so that passing commuters on the nearby railway could see the Christmas miracle. But Edison being Edison, he decided to make the challenge a little tricker by powering the lights from a remote generator eight miles away.

Two years later, an Edison crony named Edward Johnson displayed the first electrically illuminated Christmas tree at his home in Manhattan. The then-impressive 80-light display girded a very unimpressive Charlie Brown Christmas tree (I mean really, look at that thing). And as you might expect, Johnson's feat was also intended as an advertising tool [PDF].

The tradition of stringing electric lights may have started as a Christmas thing in America, but now it's a global phenomenon used for all kinds winter festivuses (festivi?). It's a practice we take for granted—come December, they're everywhere. The evolution of the Christmas light parallels that of the light bulb, with some remarkably ornate—OK, tacky—variations. But regardless of how they look, one thing's for certain: They're a much better option than sticking a candle in a tree.

In the Beginning, There was Fire

Today we look at Christmas lights and think "Oh, those are pretty." But the tradition of lighting lights in the winter months didn't start off with aesthetics in mind. December is the darkest month of the year with the shortest days. People living without central heating in the 12th century were understandably unhappy when the sun went down and plunged them into the cold depths of night. Brian Murray's article tells us that back during the winter of 1184 was the first recorded lighting of the Yule Log [PDF] in Germany. The burning log was seen as a symbol of the sun's promise to return. It probably didn't hurt that a big burning hunk of wood makes for a pretty good heat source.

The Christmas tree has a whole story behind it that we won't get into here, but if you want to know more check out this guide. (Fun Fact: they were originally hung upside down from the ceiling—hilarious!) Long story short, Christians had lights, they had trees, and in the 17th century, they decided to put the two together.

Unfortunately, the only way to add Christmas lights to a tree back then was with candles. Obviously, this was a pretty bad idea. So bad that, unlike today, the tree would only be put up a few days before Christmas [PDF] and was promptly taken down afterwards. Murray's article describes how the candles would remain lit only for a few minutes per night, and even then families would sit around the tree and watch it vigilantly, buckets of sand and water nearby. It's kind of like the old-timey equivalent of deep-frying a turkey: People knew it could burn their house down, but proceeded to do it anyway.

By 1908, insurance companies wouldn't even pay for damages [PDF] caused by Christmas tree fires. Their exhaustive research demonstrated that burning wax candles that were loosely secured to a dried-out tree inside your house wasn't safe. At all. Electric Christmas lights were becoming a viable option for some Americans. They weren't perfect—incandescent bulbs can get plenty hot, and sparks from malfunctioning strings can still light up a dry tree—but it was a much safer option than lighting multiple fires so close to their favorite fuel.

Keep in mind that by "some Americans," I mean the extremely rich. In 1900, a single string of electric lights cost $12 [PDF]—around $300 in today's money. It would take the magic of mass manufacturing to create the Clark Griswold-esque neighborhood light displays would become an American tradition.

The Dawn of Tacky Lights

In 1900, eight years after General Electric purchased the patent rights to Edison's bulbs, the first known advertisement for Christmas tree lights appeared in Scientific American Magazine. Like I said, these suckers weren't cheap. They were so expensive that the ad suggests renting lights for a holiday display.

Twenty-five years later, demand was up. There were 15 companies in the biz of selling Christmas lights, and in 1925 they formed a consortium called the NOMA Electric Corporation, the largest Christmas light manufacturer in the world.

Even though NOMA was formed three years prior to the Great Depression, their appeal was great enough to pull through, becoming a juggernaut that was synonymous with Christmas lights from the Depression clear through to the Civil Rights Movement. NOMA didn't just further Edison's vision, though. They worked hard to bedazzle, becoming the world's biggest manufacturer of the bubble light—arguably the first great mass-produced tacky Christmas decoration.

Though NOMA is no more, these psychedelic bubble lights are thankfully still in existence. As JimOnLight.com describes, the colorful round plastic cases hold an unseen bulb, while a candle-shaped vial of clear liquid protrudes upward. As the bulb heats up, the liquid—usually methylene chloride, a chemical with a low boiling point—also heats up, so that the vial would bubble, flickering like the candle it was supposed to replace.

Alas, in 1968 the NOMA Electric Company stopped manufacturing lights, and the bubble lights became more of a novelty, soon to be joined by a host of ridiculously shaped Christmas lights, including chili peppers, flamingos, and the ridiculous beer can lights and a miniaturized version of that leg from A Christmas Story as seen on JimOnLight.com.

With NOMA, the tacky Pandora's box had opened, and even people who didn't spring for bubble lights or their Tex-Mex successors have done wonders with the decidedly more standardized sets we all know today. Once they were weatherproofed for outdoor use, it was only a matter of time before they were stapled to every square inch of house, hearth, tree, even truck.

The Lights You Know and Love

Incandescent lights are the ones that started it all. Even though they're well over a hundred years old now, the technology largely remains the same. The shapes and sizes of the bulbs, on the other hand, have been in constant flux. Now we're left with three major types of incandescent Christmas light bulbs, as described by the excellent guide at JimOnLight.com:

The Mini/Fairy Light: This is the big kahuna. If you haven't seen one of these by now, then you've probably never seen Christmas lights. Traditionally, the set is wired in series, hence the age old problem where if one bulb goes out, the rest won't light. But it's not hard to find sets that are wired in parallel nowadays.

These guys also have a lo-fi twinkle method built in. That little red-tipped bulb that comes with each set is made in a way that as the filament heats up, it rises and breaks the circuit. That, of course, shuts of the rest of the lights. When it cools down, it falls again to complete the circuit, and the lights (wait for it...) come back on. Physics 101.

C7: Again, an incandescent light that comes in a different-sized glass housing. These are about the size of your thumb, and work in almost exactly the same way as a mini light.

C9: You get the picture by now. Same shape as the C7, but slightly bigger.

LED lights have been growing in popularity for the past few years. Regardless of what you think of their light output, there's no denying that they're much more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs, and give off less heat. And who knows, maybe someday they'll match the color temperature of good-ol' tungsten lighting. Until then, here's what you'll be looking at, again according to the guide at JimOnLight.com:

5mm: These are the LED equivalent of incandescent mini-lights. They're small LED bulbs in a plastic enclosure. Usually the "white" level is waaaay off from the "white" of incandescent lights.

G12 and G25: Just like with incandescent lights, you're going to find a whole lot of the same with LEDs, just in different shapes and sizes. These are globe shaped plastic enclosures, G12 is pictured.

C7: You've seen these before, except this time there's an LED inside.

You'll find a bunch of crazy light designs out there, but like Jim's excellent guide says, 99.9% of them are just plastic enclosures that are illuminated by these types of bulbs.

A Long Way From Candles

The basic foundation of the Christmas light, the incandescent bulb, hardly changed for nearly a century, and is only now undergoing is first major revolution, as we we start replacing our old tungsten lights with energy-efficient LEDs. Yet, in that same time, we've gone from sticking burning candles in a tree to creating massive, computer-controlled—and completely excessive—light displays like this:

One thing's for sure: No matter what the technology at hand, no matter what the reason to celebrate, the human desire to light up trees and houses in the cold darkness of the winter months will forever be a source for amazing—and often hilarious—innovation.

Editor's Note: One of the best resources I found for this guide came from JimOnLight.com. His is a six-part series, the first three of which I consulted before writing this article. If you want to read more about the subject, check out the following sources.
Part 1: History of Christmas Lights
Part 2: Modern Lamp Types and Sizes
Part 3: Form Factors of Christmas Lights
Part 4: Christmas Light Power and Safety (new)

I also cited the following resources within the article:
"Christmas Lights and Community Building in America" by Brian Murray [PDF] (a really cool read)
The NOMA Story
Timeline of American Christmas Lighting
Chronological History of the Christmas Tree
The History of Bubble Lights

And these sites I consulted while researching the piece:
The History of Christmas Lights
Invention of Christmas Tree Lights
Who Invented Electric Christmas Lights?

As you can see, we used multiple sources to create this article. But please see our apology regarding my mistake in not properly listing the sources used and referenced throughout.

Top image via jspad
Bubble light image via Corey Ann

Basically, we want to hear your holiday-themed tales of gadget horror and technology disasters. As incentive to open up and share, we've got some free pizza for the very best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) story. What we'll do is post that story along with some of our favorite runner-ups so you'll become Internet-famous and a part of Gizmodo history.

Sounds good, no? I know it might be scary to share a traumatizing tale, but you're safe here and we won't laugh too much. So, email me your stories with the subject line "Holiday Horror" and make me want to give you pizza and a post on Gizmodo.

If you want to make your own, all you'll need are some Star Trek Pez heads, a Deluxe LED Menorah Kit, and a healthy disregard for tradition. In keeping with the holiday spirit, couldn't they have made room for Khan? [Evil Mad Scientist via Make]

For those of you who are dragging your feet about decorating this year, this list might provide you with some "good" last minute ideas. And look, I've started the conversation off with a few gems of my own.

I really doubt that many of us will send or receive Christmas cards like this one, but if you really feel like a DIY project then don't forget to get an iPhone app called Bauble. Yeah, as if buying an iPhone isn't enough, you need to get a $.99 app to make the card. [Bauble App]

This works with other content as well, like gizmodo.com/tag/not:apple, or not:microsoft. You can also stack not: parameters to filter multiple tags. For example: http://gizmodo.com/tag/not:nsfw/not:apple.

Jeremiah89 offered up this helpful for RSS readers:

Just add index.xml to the end of the url.

So, gizmodo.com/tag/not:nsfw/index.xml

Unfortunately, we still don't have a not:anythingthatisn'tpuppiesorcottoncandyorrainbows tag in place yet, so you'll have to wait on that one.

BTW, if you hate the gallery format as much as the Grinch hated Christmas, click here.

Scrolling LED Message Sign With Remote: There's so much to say to your fellow drivers on the road that the finger, two signal directions, high beams and horns don't cover. Can you really put a price on the ability to articulate "YOU DRIVE LIKE SHIT", "PLEASE SIGNAL", "DO NOT TAILGATE" and "PLEASE LEAVE THE FAST LANE IF YOU ARE DRIVING 50MPH". $40 [Thinkgeek]

Valentine One Radar Detector: It's still the best radar detector. With sensors forward and aft and an increasing frequency of beeps correlating to strength of signal, you can tell if smokey was passing you on the highway, is creeping up from behind or is sitting dead forward in a speed trap. $400 [ValentineOne]

MiFi Wi-Fi 3G Wireless Router: Car internet was but a dream. Then people started cludging together routers and 3G cards, and it was a little bit more of a nightmare. The little MiFi runs on Verizon's reliable 3G network, supports a few clients and has more than enough Wi-Fi range for your car (or a giant RV). Since it fits in the palm of your hand, stashing it under a seat or in a glovebox is easy. We don't recommend hard wiring these things, either, since they run off batteries for awhile, too. $100 with two year $60 contract [Mifi on Giz]

Duracell Powerpack 450 Talking Portable Power Unit: This portable battery has enough 110v power to run a laptop for 8 hours, jump start a car and inflate tires with its built in air compressor. It also has built in voice prompts to walk you through the process of jump starting, in case you or your loved ones don't remember if its black before red or the other way around. $120 Bonus: Black and Decker's 200-watt inverter turns your 12v cigarette adapter into a 110volt plug for $35. [Duracell Powerpack on Giz]

Wagan Ergo Comfort Rest Heated Massage Car Seat Cushion: The good doctor has made this 12v car seat cover that heats and massages. Knowing the power output a 12v plus is capable of, I'm doubtful this thing will do anything but get warm and vibrate a little bit. But if you need a car cover, a few degrees and some artificially induced butt modulation never made a long car ride any worse. And for $33, it's not such a big risk. [Amazon]

Wavebox Car Microwave/cooler: I don't think this is a good idea. I just think it's kind of cool to be able to make popcorn while you drive. I mean, with the proper in-dash DVD system, I'm halfway to feeling better that drive-in movie theaters are dead. Halfway. I wouldn't rank this a do not buy, but I wouldn't want you to ignore the 1.5 star Amazon rating, either. $300 [Wavebox on Giz, Amazon]

DON'T BUY My Pee Pee Bottle: A nalgene-style bottle for peeing in on road trips. Bad idea. Just pull over — you're not on the Cannonball Run nor are you some trucker late for his interstate Ikea drop off. Just pull over! [Jalopnik]

DON'T BUY Top of the Line Garmin GPS: The Nuvi 1690 is great. It has wireless search and traffic, lane suggestion and a Bluetooth speakerphone with dialing for your cellphone. It's also $500 and is a total waste of money. Smartphones are going to replace these sorts of connected GPS. One day. For now, a good touchscreen GPS should be bought from Garmin by checking prices to see what's on sale for a little over $100. Like this Nuvi 260W that is on sale for $117. For GPS apps, we recommend the free and built-in Google Maps Navigation program on Android, and Motion X GPS for the iPhone, which is a great value at $25 per year. (But not a very visceral good gift, as an app, especially since there are subscription fees after awhile.)

Don't forget to recommend your own favorite Car Gadget in comments-include pics and pricing if possible.

All Giz Wants is our annual round-up of favorite gift ideas, including amazing attainable objects and a few far-out fantasies. We'll be popping guides catered to different interests several times per day for the next week, so keep checking back.

Reuters reports that Best Buy does not plan to use "heavy discounts to fuel market share gains." And for the kicker:

"Dunn also doesn't expect to slash prices even if the holiday season gets off to a rough start."

All in all, this means there probably won't be too many "holy shiet" deals. We can still have some hope in Black Friday, but this makes me miss Circuit City, A LOT. [Reuters]

Overcoming Your Physical Limitations:

HAL Exoskeleton: First thing is first. In order to outwit your opponent and score the last minute deals you desire, you are going to need a strength and speed advantage. Renting a Hal Exoskeleton from Cyberdine will increase your strength up to 10x the norm—making it easy to lift heavy gifts and intimidate the weak. Sure, a rental costs about $2,200—but you have to ask yourself: how bad do I want to win? [Cyberdine via Link]

iShoes: As mentioned, speed will also be a key to victory. These self-propelled shoes will help you travel the store at a whopping 13.5 mph. [iShoes via Link]

Secure Your Prize:

Sonic Alarm Grenade: Once you have located your prize, you will need to secure it from the grubby hands of the holiday horde. Wearing a set of earplugs and pulling the pin on this sonic grenade should buy you a little breathing room. It packs an ear-splitting high decibel blast that can cut through a crowd like a knife. [Firebox via Link]

R/C Skunk: Speaking of cutting a path through a crowd, sending this realistic looking radio-controlled skunk down the store aisles should help clear the way. It even has a flickable tail to strike fear in the heart of your enemies. [TYNKE]

Security Briefs: These dummy skid-marked briefs are intended to be a secure place to hide your valuables, but placing them on top of the HDTV you want while you shop elsewhere works well too. [Baron Bob]

Cyber Clean: Like the security briefs, Cyber Clean goo can be repurposed for holiday horde fighting. Under normal use, the substance helps clean your keyboard. But sneezing and throwing it discreetly on the product you desire should help you secure it. Licking it and / or putting it down your pants is also effective. [Expert Verdict]

Misdirection:

Excuse Me, I'm a Reporter with a Camera: People will do anything for someone with a camera. Picking up an old shoulder-mount VHS camcorder and a cheap mic from eBay will give you free reign of the store. Posing as a local reporter covering the last minute holiday shopping crowds will help you cut through lines and grab the items you need with no resistance. You can even add a microphone flag for added authenticity. Sure, a VHS camcorder is a poor substitute for a modern, professional video camera—but amidst all of the chaos and the thrill of being on television, people are unlikely to notice. [eBay]

Protect Yourself:

Defender Hoodie: As we have learned from the horrific incident at Toys R Us this year, it is important to protect yourself from insane, gun-wielding shoppers. The Defender Hoodie is made from 2mm of Type IIA bulletproofing—enough to stop a 9mm full-metal-jacket round at a velocity of 1,090 feet-per-second. [Bladerunner via Link]

Umbuster Umbrella: Finally, as a last line of defense, the Umbuster knuckle-dusting umbrella will help you beat down mother nature and crazed holiday shoppers that would trample over their own grandmother to score a deal. [Sruli Recht via Link]

[Image via Zorpia]

For most of us, money is tight this year. But that doesn't mean you can't decorate for the holidays. Here is how to deck the halls it without breaking the bank.

Trees:

Christmas Tree Projector: Don't have the cash to blow on a tree and decorations this year? No worries, there are a few clever solutions to help you save some cash. This DIY Christmas tree projector throws a simple image of a tree onto your wall using three LEDs, a Picaxe 08M micro, a 9V battery, a plastic tube and a little bit of plywood. [Make]

Christmas Tree Poster: This Christmas tree poster gets the job done for only $19—and cleanup is a snap. [Firebox via Link]

Cardboard Tree: Is a poster tree a little too ghetto for you? Then step up to three dimensions with one of these cardboard versions. Available for $23. [Cardboard Tree via Inhabitat]

Beer Bottle Tree: Drinking a lot to forget your financial troubles? Good, then you should have a lot of empties lying around. Collect them to form your very own bottle tree. Plus, when all is said and done, you might be able to recycle them for some extra cash (depending on where you live of course). [Unbound Edition]

Decorations:

Black Market Christmas Lights: Did you know that there is a black market for Christmas lights? The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) warns against buying these counterfeits for safety reasons, but it's hard to turn down a super deal. [Link]

USB Christmas Lights: Instead of decking out the whole house in decorations, perhaps you should focus your budget on the area where you spend the most time. The computer seems like a good bet, and these USB lights will only set you back $18. [Brando]

DIY Felt Ornaments: This $20 kit will supply everything you need to make your own felt ornaments embedded with LEDs. [Makershed]

Ambiance:

Yule a Go-Go: No fireplace? No problem. No woman? No problem. This burlesque yule log DVD provides both in a very, very bizarre way. Available for $20 (Video is slightly NSFW). [Yule a Go-Go]

Food:

Christmas Toaster: If you need to downgrade the Christmas feast a little this year, this holiday-themed pop art toaster will add a festive touch to each piece of toasty bread. Available for $25. [Baron Bob]

Hanukkah:

DIY LED Menorah: Christmas not your thing? We have you covered too with this LED mini-menorah kits. Each kit comes with all of the supplies necessary to make your own—and it will only set you back $10. [Evil Mad Science via Link]

[Images via azrainman and tristanif]

Your task is to upgrade Santa Claus with technology. Come up with your best images and email them to me at contests@gizmodo.com with "Upgraded Santa" in the subject line. Save your images as JPGs, PNGs or GIFs, and save your files named as FirstnameLastname.jpg using the name you want to be credited with.

On Tuesday, I'll go through the entries, pick three winners and then post the rest of the best in our Gallery of Champions. Get to it!

HP Pavilion 15.4" Laptop (Intel DualCore T3200, 2GB, 160GB HD, Vista Home) - $399.99

Olympus 8 Mega Pixel Digital Camera - $99.99

Samsung 8 Mega Pixel Digital Camera - $79.99

SanDisk 4GB SDHC Memory Card - $12.99

SanDisk 8GB SDHC Memory Card - $19.99

SanDisk 1GB MP3 Player Express with FM Tuner - $16.99

Sony 30GB Hard Drive Handycam Camcorder with Bag & Extra Battery - $349.99

Samsung 42" 720p Plasma HDTV - $699.99

Samsung 46" 1080p LCD HDTV - $1099.99

Toshiba 32" 720p LCD HDTV - $449.99

There will also be lots of deals on DVDs and video games, so hit up the link for the full list of Black Friday promotions at Circuit City. [Probargains]

Elmo has four touch-sensitive spots—his foot, stomach, back and nose—and he does different things depending on where you press. Here's some of the funny things he does when you touch his nose, such as sneezing and playing the "got your nose" game:

The little red monster is at his animatronic best when he is telling a story: He sits, stands, opens his mouth and flails his arms all around. It's a shame he only has two stories to tell.

It's good to see that Elmo still raps, and his instant classic "Elmo's Gotta Get On Up" is as head-bobbing as ever—especially when he's wearing some bling from our personal collection. When you touch his back, he says all kinds of creepy lovable things like asking for hugs or to scratch his itch. In fact, Elmo can get downright clingy.

So is he worth the $60 list price—or more realistically, the hundreds of dollars you'll spend buying him on eBay when supplies run out? He's not as cuddly and interactive as previous Elmos; you mostly have to sit back after touching him and let him do his thing. Despite all that you see here, I actually grew bored of him fairly fast. Worst of all, as you can hear, his motors are as loud as his voice, which detracts from the fun in a big way.

On the flipside, most of the kids on Good Morning America went nuts for the furball. I'm no Dr. Spock, but my theory is, if you love your kids and don't want them reliving their failed childhood in psychotherapy forty years from now, you really ought to buy this thing. [Fisher-Price Elmo Live]