Every year at about this time, the MJA editorial staff welcome the opportunity to see another side of our readers, reviewers and authors. From both the interesting and varied articles in our double December issue and the entries in our Christmas Competition, we gain an insight into your creative selves. It’s not surprising that doctors are multifaceted — most people are! What is surprising is that, far from being Jekyll and Hydes, most of the doctors who share their creative efforts with us have integrated their creativity with their medical selves. Contributing to this Christmas issue are doctors who are artists, travellers, photographers, adventurers, and writers — and, above all, keen and engaged observers.

Of course, doctors can also be very competitive. Even for those with a good 30 years’ worth of vintage red under the floorboards, the thought of winning a couple of bottles from the legendary MJA cellars is enough to send many of our readers into a flurry of creative activity, and bring on an unprecedented fascination with publishing deadlines and article submission forms.

The judging of this year’s Christmas competition happened to coincide with Rolling Stone magazine's announcement of the top 500 songs of all time. Like the panel of music industry luminaries who judged the songsters, the MJA staff had a deep pool of talent and a variety of genres to choose from. Spookily, there were also parallels in our ultimate choices.

In the category of the written word, despite our profound admiration for Peter Arnold’s tale of his failure to find satisfaction with his memory, and our amazement at David Isaacs' and Dominic Fitzgerald’s ability to imagine the journey of a bacterium to Mars, we chose Glynis Johns’ colourful account of her life as a rolling stone, working in remote Northern Territory communities (page 650).

The visual category of the competition this year was particularly pleasing. Eslick’s alarming revelations about the marketing of SARS gave us good vibrations, and there was widespread respect for the nobility of Doherty’s Lion King. However, the popular vote went to Couser (page 648) for explaining exactly what’s going on in his happy snap from the Antarctic.

Both winners will receive two bottles of fine Australian wine.

As always, we are grateful for the opportunity to share your stories and observations. You now have almost 12 months to learn to navigate the article submission form, submit next year’s entry, deplete your alcohol supplies, and hope that, this time next year, the MJA will be singing your praises.