You’ve got to love this time of year. The thrill of the first beach dip, the eyebrow-singeing joy of the BBQ, the imminent time off work.

Ok, ok- we know it ain’t all peaches and cream. December brings heat, mosquitoes, tinsel and a dangerously long family gathering on the 25th. Oh, and the Christmas carols… playing endlessly… everywhere. It’s enough to make you want to  crawl into a time-machine, or go to Bali.

Well, we decided we wanted to reclaim Christmas. Not just for the sake of science, but for the sake of poetry too. Oh, and we want to give some stuff away, while we’re still in a good mood.

Curious?

Well before we tell you about the free stuff we need to introduce you to one of our Tweeps, Carol. She’s the ^CS behind the tweets on @CSIROnews. For obvious reasons, she’s got a vested interest in all those tunes that harangue us at this time of year. She’s usually the butt of all kinds of silly jokes about naughty reindeers and the jolly Santa Claus. So we thought Carol needs a bit of cheer, science cheer. Yes, a bit of CSIRO-themed Christmas cheer is exactly what’s needed. And that’s when it all came together…

We want you smart and creative Tweeps out there to tweet us a CSIRO-flavoured #carolforCarol and you could win a pretty nifty CSIRO hamper. From the high brow to the downright farcical, we want them all, and we want them on Twitter! They have to integrate CSIRO science in some way but that’s the only restriction.*

So, what do we mean by CSIRO science? This may come as a shock to some but our organisation has been around some 85 odd years and we now employ almost 7,000 people. We work across a wide spectrum of ‘science stuff’ ranging from plastics to insects to statistics. To name a few of our big-ticket achievements; Aerogard insect repellant, wireless LAN, super-safe children’s pyjamas, Softly woolen detergent and the Total Wellbeing Diet book. Check out CSIROpedia or our website for info to jam into your carol.

So we want science to meet poetry. Well, Christmas carols anyway. Here are some examples to get the creative juices flowing:

On the 3rd day of December my true love gave to me a box of BARLEYmax, Aerogard and The Dish DVD 

CSIRO’s making temperature lists, and checking them twice, gonna find out that climate change is not very nice

Silent night, holy night, son of astronomy, discovers wireless LAN, wifi beams from thy holy modem, with the help of John O’Sullivan

We’re hoping you can do better! We’ll pick 5 of our favourites and send them a hamper that showcases some of the best of CSIRO science and innovation. It will include stuff you can eat and drink, stuff you can read, stuff you can watch, stuff you can clean with and stuff you can cool off with. It’s no small hamper!

Our #carolforCarol competition officially opens right now (Monday 12th) and will run for 7 days. We’ll announce the winners on Monday 19th. So, follow @CSIROnews, send us your CSIRO-inspired carol by using #carolforCarol and let’s spread some science cheer. 

*Not strictly true. You have to be a follower of the @CSIROnews account to be in the running and hampers are only deliverable to Australian addresses. Huge apologies to all our international friends. We’d still love to read your #carolforCarol. You might even get a notable mention.

Competition now closed!

A big thank you and congrats to our 5 winners:

@significance:

Away in a laboratory, No pause for a rest, Our nation’s best scientists put hypotheses to the test!

@UTLAU:

We scientists of CSIRO are, bearing degrees we reasearch far, field and glass house, lab or your house, Discovering things we are.

@jacksonface:

Joy to the world, polymer bank notes are come, we can put them through the wash, and then go spend the dosh, and heaven and nature sing, for a currency secure against forging, and heaven, and heaven and nature sing.

@DianeMann1:

Dashing through CSIRO, In a mist of Aeroguard, O’er the Dish we go, Across Australia’s great backyard, Children in safe PJs, sing and use the wireless LAN, To see what CSIRO will bring Softly, Relenza or Coalscan, Jingle Bells, CSIRO spells Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation, That’s all you need to know!

@millieso:

Silent Night, Holy Night, All is calm, No insects in sight, Put yon Aerogard mother and child, Repellent tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace.

To everyone else thanks for you entries and better luck next time. Merry Christmas!