As a quick just-for-fun competition, I was thinking that the German tradition (Dortmund, Werder Bremen?) of releasing very temporary Christmas kits at this time of year was worth exploring.

Looking for designs of kits, including shirt, shorts and socks and, if you see fit, baselayers, and crests.  Any team, any manufacturer, any sponsor - you can surely have some fun with that - anything goes.

As is standard with DF competitions, selected entries will be featured on the DF facebook page and tweeted and designs already uploaded to Football Shirt Culture's Fantasy Kit Designs or the DF galleries are both eligible and welcome so please don't hesitate to include them.

The competition will close at 23:59 on Saturday 5th January 2013 and the winner(s) - chosen by me - will be announced shortly afterwards.

Happy designing!

Jay29ers.

Update - 8/1/13: The competition has now closed and I've chosen my winner.

Despite not too many designers getting involved, there was a decent array of entries which were both imaginative and informative.

Using artistic licence regarding the term "Christmas", Spider gave us both a kit celebrating the African-American observance of Kwanzaa and one representing the Jewish festival of Chanuka/Hanukkah.

As a late entry, it was also good to see the return of Corstorph with his Fair Isle jumper-styled Inverness kit.  I'm sure Errea have indeed taken note, and decided to never release anything like that.  It may well be their loss.

But by far, the member who embraced the competition the most was Rey.  He taught us about O Apalador, gave us a Times Square Ball New York Red Bulls shirt and provided what I think is the best, and indeed winning, Christmas Kit design, in the form of a discrete Real Madrid shirt, complete with snowflakes and lower profile adidas logo and sponsor.  We've seen the technique before but the mix of white and silver really evoked the time of year just passed and was an understated approach to an idea that may usually be tackled in a more garish way.

Very well done to all who entered.  I apologise for the late closure and announcement but it's not just Madridistas that celebrate the Festival of the Kings!

Jay29ers