Here's my entry for @sndbox's Thumbnail Competition. The software I've used is Adobe Photoshop CS5.
Since this banner will be for the month of December, the Christmas time, I've added light bulbs as the background components.
Proof of work:
I've also added two alternatives based on the main banner, altering and playing with the colors based on @sndbox' color palettes.
Alternative #1:
Alternative #2:
Interested to join this competition? Check out the rules from @sndbox's post.