Wow - it's been a wonderful month full of Christmas cookie splendor and an absolute thrill for me to announce each of the 25 finalists in our Christmas Countdown Challenge. Today, I reveal the final four lucky finalists for Days 22 to 25, and voting for the top three begins. But before the big drum roll, a few housekeeping reminders . . .
Thanks to our sponsors: $700 in prizes is up for grabs - none of which would have been possible without the support of our sponsors Designer Stencils, Fancy Flours, and Karen's Cookies. They have been so incredibly generous, and I am so grateful.
Also, important to know: All finalists have been determined by the trending calculator on the site, which factors in the recent rate of accumulation of likes, comments, and views. In short, the finalists are those cookies that members, by virtue of their actions, deemed hottest* in the week prior to this announcement. It is not total number of likes that determines these spots. For more information about this selection process, click here. While people can continue to like and comment on Week 1 to 4 cookies after this finalist announcement - and rankings may change - the finalists indicated in this Saturday Spotlight will remain the finalists going into the final voting round starting later today, December 28. Once finalists are named, they are the finalists throughout the duration of the contest.
And now for this week's big drum roll . . . Ta da! Say congrats to our final four! They will surely amaze.
And here again in bigger form:
Day 22: Christmas Carolers by Classic Cookies by Parr
Day 23: Reindeer Relaxing by Gwen's Kitchen Creations
Day 24: Silent Night by jennabea
Day 25: The Love of Grandparents by The Cookie Lab
Now, FOR THE FINAL VOTE . . . just click on this link for a photo reminder of all 25 finalists. You'll be directed from that blog page to another forum, where the voting will actually take place. Please review all of the images carefully, as each Cookie Connection member can cast just one vote.
* Again, a word about how the rankings are determined: The rankings are not at all subjective. In fact, they are determined essentially by you, our members, and the activity (number of views, likes, and comments) you've bestowed on each photo. The site uses a top-secret algorithm that weighs these various factors to determine which photos are trending most quickly (i.e., are the "hottest") over specified periods of time. As such, the hot list at the time of this announcement may look a little different a few hours or a day from now as more photos are added to the site.
So that no one has an unfair advantage in making it onto a hot list, the algorithm is secret even to site administrators. Only our platform developers know the code, which has been exhaustively tested by those developers and Cookie Connection staff.
All photos shown here are the courtesy (and copyright) of the designers listed.
To check out our other hot lists, at any time of day, visit our Hot Spot, also found in the site's main navigation line.
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