I work for a week on this one, and i need a little bit of critics and/or comment. I started a thread on blenderclan.org :http://blenderclan.tuxfamily.org/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=37118&start=10#forumpost456894
I had to struggles between internal render for the fur of the pluchie, and cycles for the rest. Here is some of the last pictures:
I try the new strand render, but it’kinda hard to set up, the fur is absorbing the light… so i had to light way too much my scene to have the fur nice. but then the rest is over lighted…
If you want you can either add a little emission to the fur, you can also use the is camera ray node to isolate the emission to the camera ray using mix. Render looks nice, may want to use the fur width multiplier to make it a little smaller with more strands.
here is my last try, I understand why my fur was so dark, it’s a big progress for me… don’t touch the “rough” value of a diffuse shader… I review the lighting, i think it’s better, and i have a plan about the paper…
the hair still seems a little harsh. it would be nice to have some blending like in the internal, but i don’t know how to make that…
please comment.
looks really nice 
It looks cute but Im not that sure about your story. In most of the contests the story is the most important thing. So work a bit more on that. Besides that, the scene doesn't look bad. Also try to make the lighting a bit more interesting. I dont like that fact that the white thing that covers the gift fills a lot of the image so if i were you i`ll make something like this :
(hand drawing on pc is not my strong point but you get the idea + I did it in paint 
)
its funny to see that the things photographers dont like, 3D artist do like, there seams to be vignetting (dark corners) here.
I personally like clear photo’s from good camera’s but i do know photographers who take old camera’s with lens defects to create photos like the one you rendered.
Maybe the merry christmass sign would have been nice if it was some kind of sticker or paper on the cardbox, somethimes people write things on paper like names, and sometimes a little bit more… now thats kinda floating in the air.
However overall it does look great far better then anything i can create :))