Announcing the Carnival of Christmas, 2009

(UPDATE: This is a sticky post, so please scroll down to find more recent content.)

It's that time of the year again, and I am honored and delighted to announce that CatHouse Chat will be hosting the Carnival of Christmas for the third year in a row. This is the fifth year of the Carnival, which was originally begun by Adam Graham (previous editions are here, here, here, and here), and I hope and pray that the Carnival continues to grow and gain popularity each year.

Adam's original statement for the Carnival was

A Carnival for anything Christmas related. You can share Christmas stories, Christmas poems, Christmas podcasts, Christmas parodies, Christmas pictures, etc. The only requirement is that the post be respectful of the Holiday and in the Spirit of Christmas cheer and kindness.

I am going to add just a couple of clarifications to that: first of all, absolutely no political or advertising posts. I want to make sure the Carnival remains focused on the season and that it celebrates the joy, solemnity and unity that the season ought to bring. Secondly, I earnestly request that all submitted posts be dated from November and December of this year, 2009. I really want to keep the Carnival fresh with new pictures, recipes, memories and meditations, so get cracking and send in some of that awesome creativity I know you all do so well!

The past two years that CatHouse Chat has hosted the Carnival, I have pretty much accepted as many entries as I've gotten and haven't limited people to one submission per person; I'd like to continue that tradition. However, bear in mind that the Carnival has gotten bigger each year (hooray!), and I may have to limit people to, oh, three entries per person *grinz*

The deadline for submissions will be Tuesday, 22 December, and I plan to post the Carnival no later than 3 p.m., ET, on Christmas Eve. Hopefully, I'll get it up by the 23rd, but I like to give myself that extra time just in case something crazy happens.

I will NOT be using the Blog Carnival tool for entries this year. Please send ALL submissions directly to cathousechat -AT- gmail-dot-com, and use CARNIVAL in the subject line. In the body of the post, please include the permalink to your post, as well as the trackback URL if you want me to send one when the Carnival is posted. Please also give a brief (one or two sentence) description of the post, and what category I should put it in. So far, I'm planning on

• music and video
• pictures and art
• recipes
• memories and traditions
• meditations of the season
• humor

I may end up adding some categories (and there's always "miscellaneous!"), but these have been fairly standard for the Carnival so far.

All right, that's it so far. If you have any further questions, please feel free to e-mail me at the cathousechat address above (NOT the romeokat e-mail listed in my right hand column) with QUESTION in the subject line, and I will get back to you with an answer as soon as I can.

May your Advent season be full of joy, and may your Christmas be truly blessed!

UPDATE:  Thank you for the links and promotion, my friends!

• Cao's Blog
• Rick Sincere
• Crystal Clear Conservative
• Fishersville Mike
• Political Pistachio
• SWAC Girl
• Stop the ACLU
• GM Roper, my dear blog-brother, extra special edition (luv ya, GMan!)
• Third World County, another dear blog-brother (Teacher of Songs)
• Big Dog, a third dear blog-brother (Defender of the Realm)
• Deo Vindice