Pixiq

Yes, it's that time—for galleries galore, that is. In the spirit of the season (whatever you may celebrate), check out these photo galleries from Huffington Post and LIFE. To see how folks kicked off Christmas season around the world, click here; for the varied celebrations of Christmas worldwide, check out Huffington Post's gallery and LIFE's gallery; or browse through Huffington Post's Hanukkah celebrations around the world. LIFE also offers their picks for Favorite Christmas Pictures and Crazy Classic New Year's Eve, while Huffington Post chooses their Funniest Holiday Family Photos.

If you ever wondered about the origins of Santa, the menorah, or the New Year's ball drop, check out LIFE's gallery Where Holiday Traditions Come From, which traces the pagan, literary, and commercial influences of holidays from Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa to New Year's.

In case you missed the total lunar eclipse on Tuesday morning (it was too overcast here in Asheville, North Carolina), check out its phases in this gallery. This eclipse fell on the winter solstice, the first time since 1638.

With 2011 approaching, the blank-of-the-year lists flow in. See Wall Street Journal's picks for photos of the year, Photoshelter's picks for photoblog posts of the year, and Denver Post's sports photos of the year.

New York Times' LENS blog offers an array of interesting slideshows and features: browse through photographer A Yin's documentational diptychs of the vast transformations of Mongolians; see a thought-provoking gallery called Queer America, which rewrites iconic American scenes with queer subjects; and for fashion followers, check out this interview with Scott Schumann, creator of the fashion blog The Sartorialist, and browse through images of those who catch his eye.

For some interesting archives, take a look two Denver Post features: Ansel Adams' images of Japanese internment camp and animals in war. 

Bad news for online image sites: Kodak's patent dispute with Shutterfly may affect even more. Read more here.