winners of the newspaper's annual short story contest. The winning stories, selected from more than 400 entries, were chosen by a panel of three judges, Heather Ratteray, Neil Roberts and Raymond Hainey, all of The Royal Gazette .

The judges chose the winning entries based on their story line and the author's writing style. The contest required that each entry focus on Bermuda and the season of Christmas, in order to be considered for a prize. There were two categories open for entry -- Adult and Under-18. In the Under-18 division, Elisa Gilsenan won first prize with her story `Christmas Letters'. The story describes how a Bermudian student misleads her African pen pal about the Island and the life she lives. She is forced to own up to her deceit in the end but manages to gain a friend for life. Runner-up was Eloisa Mayers, a grade 12 student at Mount St. Agnes Academy. In her story, the author follows the exploits of a servant in the Bermuda of yesterday. After he loses a prized package belonging to his employer, his subsequent travels to find it enable him to bring everlasting happiness to others. In the adult category, we read of Gillian Hazledine's winning tale of a modern day Scrooge who, with the help of Santa and the Internet, becomes a true believer in the spirit of Christmas.

Runner-up in the Adult division was Robert Jones, whose humorous tale describes what happens when the Department of Immigration decides that Santa, being an ex-pat, has no right to deliver his goodies to the Island. Two special awards of $100 were also given to authors of stories showing exceptional promise. This year they were presented to Lisa J. Barnes and 11-year-old Alexander Wentworth-Ping. Ms. Barnes wrote of a woman who overcame her prejudices and learned to appreciate the value of her family after she is involved in a motorcycle accident on Christmas Eve. And Alexander, a Warwick Academy student, told a tale of a fanciful primary student who finds that his dreams have become reality when he is called to the aid of Bermuda's own Rasta Santa Claus. PHOTO Contest winners from left: Exceptional promise recipients Alexander Wentworth-Ping and Lisa J. Barnes, Under-18 winner Elisa Gilsenan, Adult runners-up Robert Jones, Under-18 runner-up Eloisa Mayers and The Royal Gazette's Neil Roberts and Heather Ratteray, two of the three contest judges.

Missing are Adult winner Gillian Hazledine and contest judge, Raymond Hainey.