And now, the winning photos*:

Grand Prize		2nd Place		3rd Place
Title: Now this is what Christmas is about...THE LIGHTS!		Title: Welcome Home		Title: Felix Family Lights
User name: snowlovergeorgia		User name: Atlanta Star		User name: felixfamilylights
Votes: 223		Votes: 137		Votes: 30

Honorable mentions, as selected by a subjective panel from ATL Insider:

Title: Delight…in the season		Title: Holiday Street Lamp		Title: Sunset Church-15044
User name: gatormama		User name: jprhea25		User name: baraynavab

Congratulations to everyone.  There were some outstanding submissions overall!

We don't believe the contest is designed to choose the best Holiday photo.   It is more about a popularity contest and a test to see who has the most friends or works in the biggest company that can request all of them to vote for their photo.  We think it needs to be decided by a panel of judges as well as public input.  What a waste of money!

Rick, I think the contest was designed to promote the online community. Part of living in a community IS about getting popular support from other community participants. In a way, this contest demonstrated the power of the popular vote and I say kudos to those that were able to leverage their networks to good effect. There are plenty of contests that cater to the professional and amateur photographer and I don't think this was ever intended to be that, but I would hope with more time, more awareness, and much more participation, the community would eventually have rallied around photos that met the stated goal of the contest.

I agree with with andicati, but also note this...Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What one person sees as beautiful or nice can be differently viewed to another...I believe average everyday people deserve to have the right to win these types of contests as well...In my opinion, two of the winners met the goal of "Holiday lights and Southern Nights"

 If you participate in a contest, you better rally to get votes because there is power in numbers. Thats a fact. This will not deter me from participating again because i didnt win. The photos that won had support behind them...and i think they are nice.