user708: Happy holidays everyone! Bricks Stack Exchange is once again participating in the Winter Bash celebration with the rest of the Stack Exchange network!
While this is a "just for fun" activity, there are also a few different prizes available this year.

The user with the most hats will win 75253 Droid Commander: 


Any ties will be resolved randomly. You can track your hat progress on the Bricks SE leaderboard. Bricks mods are excluded from this portion of the competition for fairness reasons.

3 winners will be selected randomly from everyone who earns at least 3 hats, excluding the user with the most hats, as they already get a prize. They will each win 10267 Ginger Bread House:


Thanks go to TLG for supporting this activity by providing prizes for us!
All winners will need to provide me with a shipping address within 1 week of the end of the competition, or their prize will be forfeited. I'm willing to be flexible if winners would prefer a different set of equal value if they already have the prize.
This contest is unfortunately not open to residents of Iran, North Korea, Myanmar/Burma, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Syria, and any other U.S. sanctioned country and where prohibited or restricted by law. This is a legal requirement that is outside of both our control and The LEGO Group's control.
The goal here is to facilitate positive engagement on the site both to celebrate the holidays and because this is the time of year when we get a lot of new traffic from parents and others just getting into LEGO. My hope is that providing prizes for this will facilitate meaningful engagement on the site. Please don't make a mess of things just to earn hats. :)
Good luck and have fun!
Update
The winners have been announced here.

user4181: I have a suggestion for next year: perhaps we can make the lottery draw for the prizes weighted? So everyone who gets at least three hats gets as many entries as they have hats. This would stimulate further participation, as it is fairly easy for a regular Bricks.se member to get 3 hats, but getting beyond 5-6 hats requires several secret hats, which can typically only be gained through very active engagement. And the more you participate, the higher the chance are that you win a prize, as your name gets entered multiple times.
As a slight variation we could award people extra entries for each hat they have over the required minimum 3 hats, so basically #entries = #hats - 2, with #hats >= 3 to qualify.

708: <p>Happy holidays everyone! Bricks Stack Exchange is once again participating in the <a href="https://winterbash2019.stackexchange.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Winter Bash</a> celebration with the rest of the Stack Exchange network!</p>

<p>While this is a "just for fun" activity, there are also a few different prizes available this year.</p>

<ul>
<li>The user with the most hats will win <strong><a href="https://www.lego.com/en-de/product/droid-commander-75253" rel="nofollow noreferrer">75253 Droid Commander</a></strong>: </li>
</ul>

<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/cYe2s.png" alt="75253"></p>

<p>Any ties will be resolved randomly. You can track your hat progress on the <a href="https://winterbash2019.stackexchange.com/leaderboard/bricks.stackexchange.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Bricks SE leaderboard</a>. Bricks mods are excluded from this portion of the competition for fairness reasons.</p>

<ul>
<li>3 winners will be selected randomly from everyone who earns at least 3 hats, excluding the user with the most hats, as they already get a prize. They will each win <strong><a href="https://www.lego.com/en-de/product/gingerbread-house-10267" rel="nofollow noreferrer">10267 Ginger Bread House</a></strong>:</li>
</ul>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/vPR9L.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/vPR9L.png" alt="10267"></a></p>

<p>Thanks go to TLG for supporting this activity by providing prizes for us!</p>

<p>All winners will need to provide me with a shipping address within 1 week of the end of the competition, or their prize will be forfeited. I'm willing to be flexible if winners would prefer a different set of equal value if they already have the prize.</p>

<p>This contest is unfortunately not open to residents of Iran, North Korea, Myanmar/Burma, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Syria, and any other U.S. sanctioned country and where prohibited or restricted by law. This is a legal requirement that is outside of both our control and The LEGO Group's control.</p>

<p>The goal here is to facilitate positive engagement on the site both to celebrate the holidays and because this is the time of year when we get a lot of new traffic from parents and others just getting into LEGO. My hope is that providing prizes for this will facilitate meaningful engagement on the site. Please don't make a mess of things just to earn hats. :)</p>

<p>Good luck and have fun!</p>

<p><strong>Update</strong></p>

<p>The winners have been announced <a href="https://bricks.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/482/winter-bash-2019-winners">here</a>.</p>
 4181: <p>I have a suggestion for next year: perhaps we can make the lottery draw for the prizes weighted? So everyone who gets at least three hats gets as many entries as they have hats. This would stimulate further participation, as it is fairly easy for a regular Bricks.se member to get 3 hats, but getting beyond 5-6 hats requires several secret hats, which can typically only be gained through very active engagement. And the more you participate, the higher the chance are that you win a prize, as your name gets entered multiple times.</p>

<p>As a slight variation we could award people extra entries for each hat they have over the required minimum 3 hats, so basically #entries = #hats - 2, with #hats >= 3 to qualify.</p>
