Christmas Competition: Winner. Congratulations to Jess for this great Christmas list - she has won the first prize of a 4GB Apple iPod Nano valued at $149!

This is a nice light list of songs to increase your Christmas spirit on this wonderful holiday. It includes some songs that commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ and some that are more modern in concept - but regardless of the type, they are all great songs and perfect for the first prize of our competition. Merry Christmas!

10. Josh Groban and Brian McKnight Angels We Have Heard on High

This is quite a great Christmas carol that is sung beautifully by Josh Groban and Brian McKnight. “The words of the song are based on a traditional French carol known as Les Anges dans nos Campagnes (literally, The Angels in our Countryside). Its most common English version was translated in 1862 by James Chadwick.

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When we think of statues and buildings of the classical period, we tend to imagine white marble; scientists in recent years have discovered that it is in fact most likely that many of the buildings and statues were painted and probably adorned with jewelry. The Vatican Museum has recently put on an exhibition of some of the most famous antiquities from the era with reproductions painted as close to the originals as they can - this is possible because many statues contain trace amounts of pigment from their original coats of paint. This is a list of ten spectacular reproduction statues from the Classical Period. As usual, click each image to view a larger version.

10. Augustus of Prima Porta

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Christmas Competition: 2nd Place. Congratulations to Samehrocks for this great (albeit macabre) list - he has won the second prize of a 1GB Apple iPod shuffle valued at $79!

10. Romas Kalanta

Romas Kalanta (February 22, 1953 - May 14, 1972) is considered a national hero of Lithuania, and is the subject of several books. Romas Kalanta set himself on fire in a public place in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas on May 14, 1972 in protest of the oppression of the Lithuanian language, culture and people by the government of the Soviet Union. At the time it was very difficult to tell the western world about this oppression, as the Soviet government made foreign communications nearly impossible.

Up until the time of this event, foreigners were only able to see the “bright” side of the Lithuanian situation—the side that the government wanted them to see. Kalanta’s suicide was seen by many people, including journalists who visited the Soviet Union. The Soviet government tried to cover up the event, but its story spread as legend by word of mouth. This caused student unrest in Lithuania, especially in Kaunas.

Kalanta used fuel to set himself alight. Due to the need for secrecy at the time, details of the event are disputed. The common belief is that he and a few of his classmates formed a patriot group, and that they held a lottery to determine which of them would have to carry out the mission.

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The visage of the Jolly Red-Suited man has been around for a long time, and many, many different versions for almost nearly as long. Few icons have represented the Holiday of Christmas quite like the happy-go-lucky Santa Claus (aside, of course, from Jesus, himself) and few have had the impact that the droll elf has had. Over the years, many films and TV specials have been made featuring St. Nick, each portrayed in its own, different, way. Here are ten of the finest examples of how cool Santa can be.

10. Bill Goldberg (Santa’s Slay)

Bill Goldberg plays the devil’s son who lost a wager with a angel and was forced to spend 1000 years playing Santa, but now the wager of that time has run out, and Mr. Santa isn’t so joyful anymore. He makes up for lost time and starts to kill people. And really, how incredibly cool does WWE Wrestler Goldberg look as the holiday elf? BAD ASS.

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Christmas Competition: 3rd Place. Congratulations to Mathilda for this excellent list - she has won the third prize of a $25 iTunes music card.

According to Wikipedia, “A castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. The term has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning, but it is usually regarded as being distinct from the general terms fort or fortress in that it describes a building which serves as a residence of a medieaval monarch or noble and commands a specific territory.” I have chosen to use my own criteria for inclusion in this list, that being, if I were a princess in a fairytale,would I want to live there? As such, interior condition was not taken into consideration, exterior setting was very important, and any past gory history was ignored. I only included one per country so there are scores of equally beautiful castles which had to be excluded. (I did make an exception to the one per country rule for England, as I really, really want to live in one of the two shown.)

1. Baku’s Wedding Palace Azerbaijan

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