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You know there are local businesses that you just love -- tell us about them on Shop Batavia and you could win a $100 gift certificate from one of your favorite businesses.

Here's how it works: Register as a user on Shop Batavia then find the listing for your favorite business(es) and leave a five-star review.

On Jan. 7, we'll randomly select one of the reviews left on The Batavian and if you're the person who left the review, we'll buy you a $100 gift certificate to that business. (If that business doesn't offer gift certificates, we'll buy a gift certificate to another favorite business you reviewed).

So, head over to Shop Batavia, now and start leaving reviews.

Cookies and Milk would like to inform everyone in the community that they going out of business as of Saturday, Dec. 31.

There are lots of items for sale such as an oven, tables and racks. All equipment is for sale.

Stop by Cookies & Milk, 29 City Centre or contact Lorraine Schaub at 585-356-7759 for additional information.

To enter the contest, Click Here.

If you've previously 'Liked" Shop Batavia, you can still enter this contest. You just need to complete the registration form. Click Here.

If you haven't checked out Shop Batavia yet, Click Here.

In Week 15 we asked which team would record the most sacks. Among the 10 teams available for picking in the contest, four recorded four sacks. We randomly selected a winner from among the entrants who picked those four teams.

The winner for Week 15 is Thomas Lennon. He wins two personal pizzas with cheese and one topping, and two house salads. Tom has one week to claim his prize at Main St. Pizza Company.

NOTE: The majority of this week's games are being played on Saturday. Deadline for entry is 1 p.m., Saturday. Click here to enter.

If you still need to finish out that Christmas shopping list, there are plenty of local businesses with just the right items to make the special people in your life quite happy.

A few of them have items readily available on Shop Batavia, such as:

• Roxy's Music
• Adam Miller Toys and Bicycles
• Charle's Mens Shop
• Wendy Wood's Custom Design
• En Garde
• Valle Jewelers
• Bruggie's

Most readers know that a big motivation behind what we do at The Batavian is promote our local community.  We believe that communities that are filled with volunteers, people who make a personal investment in their community and -- just as important -- shop locally, help improve their community and create a community that thrives.

That's always been a part of our goal at The Batavian, and Shop Batavia helps us focus that aim.

According to NPR, this breed of localism is a growing trend. Here's the article, which unfortunately promotes the very un-local Groupon and Living Social instead of mentioning the more than 100 local online news sites (similar to The Batavian), which truly are part of the localism trend.

Whether you use Shop Batavia or The Batavian to shop local, just remember, for the sake of the health of our community, shop local first.

Tonight we selected the winners in random drawings of three recent contests run on The Batavian.

The winner of the Hardcor Audio Facebook Like Contest is Diane Smith. Diane wins a $100 gift certificate from Hardcor Audio.

The winner of the VIP Salon Facebook Like Contest is Mary Cooley. Mary wins a gift basket from VIP Salon.

The winner of the Shop Batavia Facebook Like Contest is Terry Freeman. Terry wins a $200 gift certificate for Adam Miller Toy and Bicycles.

Michael Moran was the Week 15 winner of the Main St. Pizza Company NFL Challenge.

Robbie Gould kicked the longest field goal of the week. Gould booted one 57 yards. Moran's name was selected in a random drawing from among 15 entrants who correctly predicted Gould's feat.

Moran wins one large cheese pizza with one topping. He has one week to claim his prize.

To enter this week's contest, click here.

When I first posted this Tuesday morning, I accidently used a link to The Batavian's Facebook page. Despite that, a great number of people found the Shop Batavia page and liked it and a lot of people registered for the contest. The link on the graphic above is now corrected, and it is correct below.

Click Here to register and "like" Shop Batavia.

I was thrilled to get this email from Brian Staebell, marketing director for Roxy's Music, and wanted to share it. Brian clearly gets what we're trying to do with Shop Batavia.

I was very excited about Shop Batavia when you showed it to me and even more after getting in and seeing how easy it is to manage your products and business listings. I’m looking for ideas where we can help each other promote our businesses together. I think if Shop Batavia is successful, we’ll be successful. We’ve already seen sales through the site. We received one direct order for a music stand and another customer saw our guitar starter pack on the site and decided to stop in and buy it. Reaching out to the the local market through shopbatavia.com  is an additional avenue to promote our business in conjunction to our existing website. Being able to drive sales both online and in store is very important to us, this service does that and more. So far, Shop Batavia has been successful for us.

As I said before, when Shop Batavia came along, I felt like it was an unexpected gift -- a great chance to create a new revenue avenue for The Batavian so we can continue to grow the business. But I also was excited because Shop Batavia brought to local businesses some really powerful marketing tools -- tools that through other avenues can be difficult, confusing and/or expensive, but here they were in one place, affordable and accessible.

The real power of Shop Batavia, though, will be realized when we have widespread participation from local businesses. The more businesses using Shop Batavia, the more local residents will want to use it as a shopping guide, restaurant guide, community bulletin board, business directory and online shopping mall.

All boats will rise together -- for local businesses and for local residents.

It was great to read Brian's email and see that he understands the success of Shop Batavia isn't just about success for a business venture of The Batavian's, it also means a success for his business, for all the local businesses it serves and for the people who use the site to shop local businesses.

If you haven't checked out Shop Batavia yet, click here. Nearly 100 businesses have already signed on for accounts and there are new products, services and savings available every day.

Join in the fun of Breakfast with Santa and Mrs. Claus this Saturday at Scooter's of Batavia. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be waiting by the fireplace from 10 a.m.to 2 p.m. Get one child's meal FREE with each adult food purchase ordered off the menu. Plenty of seating. No reservations necessary.

Enjoy a great meal and the thrill the kids get when they see Santa. Santa and Mrs. Claus from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Scooter's of Batavia, 3711 W. Main St. Road. Phone is 343-2101.

The winner of the Week 13 contest was JD Conti, who was among four people to correctly pick Percy Harvin as the week's top receiver. Harvin gained 156 yards for Minnesota.

Conti wins two dog dishes. He has one week to claim his prize.

Click here to enter this week's contest.

Kansas City lost 13-9 last week, but in giving up only 13 points the Chiefs gave up the fewest points among the 10 teams to choose from in last week's contest (two other teams gave up only 13 points, but were not among the selections, and one team gave up only 6 points, but wasn't a selection choice).

Only one contest entrant picked Kansas City and that was Corinne Marie. Corrinne wins two paninis and fried dough. Corrinne has one week to claim her prize.

Both Ryan Fitzpatrick and Matt Hasselback rushed for 17 yards on Sunday, so the Week 11 contest winner was randomly drawn from among the 25 people who picked either QB as the quarterbacks with the most rushing yards for the week.

The winner for Week 11 is Bob Bartz, who picked Fitzpatrick. Bob wins one small cheese pizza, one topping, one order of wings and a two-liter bottle of soda pop.   He has one week to pick up his prize.

In Week 10 of the NFL season, Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald caught seven passes for 147 yards. 

None of the entrants in our week 10 contest expected Fitzgerald to have such a good game.

So this week's winner was picked in a random drawing from all entrants in the contest.

The winner is Richard Suttell. Richard wins a double order of boneless wings and a small sub from Main St. Pizza Company. He has one week to claim his prize.

To enter this week's contest, click here.

Our Week 9 winner was Debbie Cooley, who was among nine people to correctly pick San Diego Chargers QB Philip Rivers as the QB (from among the choices) to throw four TDs. Aaron Rodgers of Green Bay, who played against the Chargers in Week 9, also tossed four TDs, but Rodgers was not among the 10 choices in the contest. Debbie was picked as the winner in a random drawing.

Debbie wins one large sub and one order of wings from Main St. Pizza Company. She has one week to claim her prize.

The Week 8 contest winner was Cindy Baker. Baker was the only game participant to pick Detroit as the top-scoring team in the NFL for Week 8. Detroit scored 45 points against Denver.

Baker wins two grilled pizzas from Main St. Pizza Company. She has one week to claim her prize.

To enter the Week 9 contest, click here.

Congratulations to Robert Tretter, winner of the Main St. Pizza Company NFL Challenge Week 7 contest. Tretter wins one large cheese pizza with one topping. Tretter correctly picked Arian Foster of Houston as the back to gain the most rushing and receiving yards in Week 7. Tretter was selected in a random drawing from among the 12 people who picked Foster.

Winners of the NFL Challenge have one week to claim their prizes.