Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Unconventionyule

Unconventionyule is a mini-challenge to help people who like unconventional formats find one another's requests, whether that’s poetry, epistolary, spreadsheets, social media, puzzles, or other unusual mediums. Please remember that works in the main collection must still be at least 1000 words, but shorter works can be submitted to the Madness collection!

To participate, simply copy-paste the following into a comment:
AO3 Name:
Letter Link:
Requested Fandoms:
Format(s): (e.g. epistolary, poetry, spreadsheets, social media)
(Optional) Prompts:

Tag your work with Unconventionyule and/or Unconventional Format to help others find your works!

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Chromatic Yuletide 2025

Chromatic Yuletide is a collection post for Yuletide requests that include characters of colour. Posting here doesn't obligate you to do anything, but it helps writers find your requests and treat you.

Posting requirements:

Your request centers around at least one character of colour.

(I acknowledge there are some shortcomings with the "person of colour" descriptor. I'm also not going to police who is or isn't a character of colour; please just use your best judgment.)

To participate, simply copy-paste the following into a comment:

AO3 name:
Letter link:
Fandom:
Characters:
What is it? description of canon or a link to a canon promo (optional)
What kind of thing am I requesting? also optional

AO3 name: Letter link: Fandom: Characters: What is it?</stong> description of canon or a link to a canon promo (optional) What kind of thing am I requesting? also optional

If you post a fic for Yuletide with one or more POC characters, tag it with Chromatic Yuletide so people can find it easily!

Entry tags:

fandom type: webcomics

Webcomic fandoms you can offer/request in Yuletide 2025

A roundup all the webcomic fandoms in the 2025 tag set (plus all the characters you can request for each one), including links to where you can read them online. Fandoms are in the order/format AO3 puts the tags in.

I tried to flag everything that was (a) NSFW and/or (b) at least partly paywalled. If I missed any examples of that, please let me know!

( Comics, on the web, (mostly) free to get and easy to read )

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

TransTide 2025

What is TransTide?

Since trans headcanons and the portrayal of trans characters can be personal for many people, writers might be nervous to write trans headcanons without invitation. This mini challenge is for people to signal that they would love to receive trans headcanons, as well as to showcase their requested fandoms with canon trans characters.

Note that this exchange is open to nonbinary characters as well.

To participate, simply copy-paste the following into a comment:

AO3 name:
Letter link:
Likes and DNWs:
Fandom:
Characters:
Details:

If you post a fic for Yuletide with one or more trans characters, tag it with TransTide so people can find it easily

Entry tags:

fandom type: poetry

Poems and Ballads in the 2025 tagset

Here’s a list of all poems (including ballads and traditional songs) in the 2023 tagset, with links to texts as best I can find, and a notation of original language if not English. Please let me know of any additions or corrections.

Allison Gross (Traditional Ballad)

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came - Robert Browning

Flower Fairies - Cicely Mary Barker

The Epic of Gilgamesh [Akkadian]

Goblin Market - Christina Rossetti

Heer Halewijn (Traditional Ballad) [Dutch]

Her strong enchantments failing - A.E. Housman

Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight - Anonymous (Song)

Nibelungenlied [Middle High German]

The Odyssey - Homer [Ancient Greek]

The Romance of Silence [Old French]

Summoned By Bells - John Betjeman

Tam Lin - Anonymous (Song)

Two Loves - Lord Alfred Douglas

The Waste Land - T. S. Eliot

Wulf and Eadwacer [Old English] (original, modern English translations one, two, three)

赠答诗 - 金车美人 (弘农) | Poems Composed in Reply - Beautiful Woman in a Golden Carriage (Hong Nong) [Classical Chinese]

Bonus: poets for RPFing in the tagset include:

Richard I of England (in 12th Century CE RPF)
Lord Byron, John Keats, Percy Shelley and Herman Melville (in 19th Century CE Literary RPF)
Enheduanna (in Mesopotamian RPF)
Christopher Marlowe (in 16th Century CE RPF and in Shakespeare RPF)
Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare (in Shakespeare RPF)
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Sappho (in Women's Literary RPF).

Dear Yuletide Author

Thank you very much for writing for me! It's been a few years since I did Yuletide and I'm really delighted to be back to it--I can say in advance that your gift will be one of the highlights of my holiday season, and I'm honored by your effort and time. Take my prompts and commentary as suggestions only; I would love to read any story you feel passionate about telling, with the exception of my DNWs below and those included in the requests.

General likes: character-driven writing and character study, humor, casefic, missing scenes, intrigue, worldbuilding exploration, tone-matching with canon, bittersweetness and conflicting or contradictory emotions of all kinds

DNWs: setting AUs, fluff

( Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu - Legend of the Galactic Heroes )

( Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon )

( La Passe-Miroir - The Mirror Visitor )

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational

It is time once more for the Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational!

Are you going through the tagset, thinking about your signup, and getting lured down plotbunny holes?

Well, if you are entranced by tiny canons, luscious fandom promos, or letters with prompts that you absolutely adore, and you've got to do something to appease the itty bitty plot bunnies that are nibbling at your ankles, the Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational is back to meet all your "I don't have time or brain enough to do 1000 words, but that idea is still keen" needs.

How does it work?

Write drabbles or drabble series for Yuletide Madness. Proper ones, where the text of each drabble is exactly 100 words, please. Ficlets are fun, but not all ficlets are drabbles in just the same way as not all poems are sonnets. (You can, of course, post a 1000 word tale told in drabbles, where each chapter/bit is exactly 100 words to the main Yuletide collection, if you like. Just be sure that it is eligible to fulfill the main gift rules for that recipient.)

Give them to people.

Add "yumadrin" or "Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational" to the tags.

That's it!

*******

As of the start of Yuletide 2025 we have created 939 drabbles, the oldest ones from 2013 when the Invitational. We are so close to a thousand! These little mini-gifts are a lot of fun to give, and to get, and they're fun to create as well. Check out the tag to see what we mean!

https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Yuletide%20Madness%20Drabble%20Invitational/works

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Queering the Tide 2025

There are many ways of queering texts and characters. This challenge is for any and all of them! The widest possible definition of queering is used here. If you think your prompt counts, then so do we.

To participate, leave a comment on this post linking to your letter, so anyone interested in queering your canon for Yuletide can find you. Tag any fics for this mini-challenge with Queering The Tide. (I suggest you tag both Queering the Tide and TransTide if the two happen to overlap.)

You can copy/paste this form below for your comment.

AO3 name:

Letter link:

Fandom:

Any specific fandom details, preferences, comments, etc:

Text copied from the 2024 post.

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Siblings Mini-Challenge: Family Matters 2025

What is Family Matters?
Unrelated to the sitcom (or anything else, actually), Family Matters is a mini challenge focused on sibling relationships. Whether that be traditional, half, foster/adoptive, or step siblings, siblings of all kinds are welcome. For the purposes of this mini challenge, I am excluding found family (unless there are sibling relationships within) and “I see them as a sibling” relationships (unless, of course, that statement is meant to be literal.) As I won’t be policing anything, please use your best interest and feel free to ask me any questions in the comments.

What about incest?
This is NOT the incest mini challenge. Someone made one last year and I'm hoping, for all interested, that it's continues on. However, nothing and no one is stopping you from signing up to both if that’s what you want.

What if [character]’s sibling isn’t in the tagset?
Good news! As long as at least one sibling is in the tagset (and you’re requesting them), this won’t be a problem.

How do I participate?
Leave a comment with the following details:
AO3 Username:
Letter Link (if applicable):
Fandoms & Requested Characters + Their Siblings (not necessary, but it might help to put if they’re in the tagset or not/if you’re requesting them):
Prompts (optional):
Any Other Details:

How do I tag for this?
The challenge, specifically? Yuletide Family Matters
But in general, try some of these, if applicable: Siblings, Sibling Rivalry, Brother-Brother Relationship, Brother-Sister Relationship, Sister-Sister Relationship, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Step-Siblings

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Yuleporn 2025: Fuck This Year in Particular

What is Yuleporn?

In an exchange as large and diverse as Yuletide, it usually turns out that a lot of people would love to write or receive explicit stories but aren't comfortable asking for them or writing them without a little more information. Yuleporn is a mini-challenge that exists to help unite Yuletiders in requesting, writing, and reading the porn of their Yuletide dreams. Have no Optional Details fear, Yuleporn is here!

How Do I Participate?

Leave a comment on this post linking your letter if you are interested in getting an explicit fic for YT.
Add any optional details you want in the comment – additional prompts, favourite kinks, DNWs, &c..
If you don't have a letter or are a pinch-hitter, you can still leave prompts here, but make sure to include your AO3 name, your fandoms, and the characters you requested
When it comes time to upload, tag your fics with "Yuleporn" on AO3 so other interested parties can easily find all the good stuff when the collection opens.
Enjoy.

Here's a totally optional copy-paste form if you like forms!

AO3: Letter link: Likes: DNWs: Fandom specific details:

As always, you don't have to participate in Yuleporn to write or request porn - it's just here to make things easier - and Yuleporn is 100% open to all kinks (or lack thereof).

(This post is mostly copypasta from time immemorial; please comment if anything should be updated! Credit to Morbane for this year's title.)

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Two for One - Crossover and Fusion Mini-Challenge

Two for One is an annual mini-challenge to help people who like crossovers and/or fusions find one another's requests.

To participate, simply copy-paste the following into a comment:
AO3 Name:
Letter Link:
Crossover Type: (ie. crossover, fusion, or either)
Applicable Requested Fandoms:
Potential Crossover Fandoms: (you may list specific combinations you're interested in, ex. Megamind/Treasure Planet, or generally request any of your Yuletide requests with each other, or list additional fandoms you'd be happy to have crossed with any of your requests)
Prompts/Optional Details: (as many and as detailed as you like)

One of the fandoms in each crossover or fusion prompt must be one you are requesting for Yuletide; however, the other doesn’t have to be. It doesn’t even have to be in the tagset at all!

Some clarification about crossover types:
Crossovers tend to involve Fandom A's characters interacting with Fandom B's characters or worldbuilding, with everyone retaining their canon backgrounds. Ex. Aurora and Red Riding Hood team up to defeat a villain, or Clark Kent falls into a portal that takes him to Tortall.

Fusions tend to be AUs in which Fandom A's characters have always existed in Fandom B's setting instead of their own, often replacing Fandom B's characters. Ex. Pacha and Kronk as contestants in the Hunger Games, where Kuzco and Yzma are referees. (A fic like this in which Hunger Games characters also appear would be a hybrid between a fusion and crossover.)

Entry tags:

yuletide

Dear yuletide author

Dear yuletide author,

I'm

singlecrow on the AO3. Thank you very much for writing for me, I will be happy and excited about whatever you write! I am also open to and excited about treats, should anyone wish to write me any.

My general do not wants are violence against women and omegaverse, with a caveat about "The Day After The Revolution", see below. But that aside, I read very broadly. I enjoy sad and dark stories, happy stories, love stories, stories with sex in, stories without. I don't do Christmas, so would prefer a story not be entirely about the characters celebrating it. Other festivals are marvellous.

One thing I really love, in sad and happy stories alike, is people being quietly kind to one another. I also really like people being competent, and found families of all sorts.

Fandom-specific stuff follows.

( The Chronicles of Chrestomanci - Diana Wynne Jones )

( The Day Before The Revolution - Ursula K. Le Guin )

( The Saint of Steel - T Kingfisher )

That's it - as above, I read many things, and I'm thrilled that you're writing for me! I hope you have a wonderful yuletide.

Cheers,
raven

Entry tags:

2025,
sign-ups

Yuletide 2025 Sign-Ups Open

Please read this post even if you have signed up before!

After reading this post, please look at the tag set to see what fandoms are available this year, and make a shortlist of what you plan to offer and request. (The same fandoms can be on both lists, if you want.)

Then sign up at the collection. We recommend you allow at least half an hour to sign up. While you can edit your sign-up over the next week, you will not be able to make any changes after sign-ups close at 9pm UTC 24 October.

If you would like to avoid matching to up to three other participants, with limitations discussed here, you may do so by filling out a Google Form from a link within the AO3 form. If you want to use this feature but cannot use Google Forms, please email the mods. Do Not Match requests will close at the same time as signups.

Requests

You can request 3-8 fandoms

Each fandom must be different

You can request 0*-4 characters in each fandom

*Requesting 0 characters means "I am happy to receive any nominated character for this fandom. My author gets to choose which one(s)". That includes Worldbuilding for fandoms where Worldbuilding is nominated as a character tag. If no characters are nominated for the fandom, requesting 0 characters means “I am happy to receive any character or worldbuilding for this fandom.”

"AND" matching means your writer must include every character you select. If you are happy with a subset of your selected characters, indicate this with Additional Tags, and clarify any exceptions in your optional details.

You can only request characters from the tag set, though your optional prompts may mention other characters to appear too.

In some fandoms, you can request Worldbuilding as a character. You can find guidance on that here.

AND matching and additional tags
Generally, when you select characters in your sign-up form, it means you want and expect your gift to include all of those characters. This is a key principle for matching and assignments. However, some people like to give their author further options. We are using the Additional Tags section of the form for this.

If you requested 0 characters, or you want all the characters you selected to appear, you will tick the first Additional Tag option, which says "My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)". If you think your situation might be different, please read last year’s post about additional tags and select additional tags that are right for your requests. This information is also in the sign-up form.

Optional Details and Do Not Wants (DNWs)
"Optional details" = prompts, ideas, likes, explanations of how you see the canon. Optional details and DNWs can be recorded in the main text section of your requests.

Optional details are optional (ODAO)! Your writer doesn't have to follow your prompts, though they must avoid your DNWs. You don't have to give prompts here, either - though prompts and ideas may be a more inspiring first impression than a list of DNWs on its own. Prompts may be particularly useful if you are requesting a Worldbuilding tag.

See this 2020 post for some considerations when writing your DNWs. Last year, we also clarified our rules and guidance about DNWs.

The Optional Details section of your AO3 requests is especially relevant if you have selected option two of the additional tags, "My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags; or it may use exceptions I explain in the form". In that case, please use this section of the form for explaining how and when your writer is allowed to leave out some of the characters you selected.

Please use minimal html in the optional details field. No images, please.

Please also note in the form if you're able to receive treats - or if you don't want them! Yuletide has a long-established culture of extra gifts, but if you created your account recently, you may have extra gifts turned off by default. Please check your AO3 preferences, and then state in your sign-up form whether you do or do not accept treats.

Letters
You can write prompts and preferences in another space, such as Dreamwidth, Livejournal, Google Docs, or Tumblr, and put a link in your sign-up. This is known as a "letter". Some people write letters; some don't. DNWs and character subsets that are listed in a letter but not in the Optional Details AO3 textbox cause confusion and difficulty for creators, and will not be enforced by the mods. Otherwise, your letter is an extension of your optional details and is treated the same way.

Important: You cannot add a letter after sign-ups close.

Offers

You can offer 4-10 fandoms

Each fandom must be different

You can offer 2-20 specific characters in each

If you want to offer a fandom that has 0-1 characters available, tick the "Any" box

If you are willing to write any combination of nominated characters, including Worldbuilding for fandoms where it is nominated, tick the "Any" box

"Worldbuilding" can also be selected as a character for many fandoms. Please check here to see how we're using it.

Offers are secret! Please don't declare openly what you're offering.

If you have several fandoms in which you want to offer to write Any nominated characters, you can make your last offer a "Bucket Offer". You can read about bucket offers in the Sign-ups section of the AO3 FAQ. This older tutorial has pictures!

Signing up!

The sign-up form is here.

Signups will remain open - and editable - until 9pm UTC 24 October.

You may only sign up to Yuletide with one AO3 account. You must be aged 18 or over to sign up.

You can find more sign-up information at the Yuletide 2025 FAQ

There is also specific guidance about how to use Additional Tags

Please check the tag set or the app when signing up. The autocomplete drop-down list in the sign-up form may not show all available characters. If they're in the tag set, you can enter them manually.

Sign-Up Summary

The list of requested/offered fandoms will be available after five people have signed up. Bucket offers do not show up in the list. Checking the sign-up summary for people you may be able to write for is a good idea - although many people sign up at the last minute. The sign-up summary says it updates hourly; in practice it may update less frequently.

Fandoms at 1-1 on the sign-up summary may mean that the same person is offering and requesting the fandom, not that there is a match.

Welcome to Yuletide!

Feel free to ask us questions.

Bonus! Yuletide advertisements

Thank you to

crantz (who also made images for us to share in 2019 and in 2020). Please use these to encourage friends and other fans to take part!

Yuletide exchange promotional image using mountain forest scenery. Text says Write off the beaten path - Yuletide Rare Fandoms Exchange.

To repost this image, copy this html:
<a href="https://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2025/profile"><img src="https://www.yuletide.fandom.exchange/images/yuletidegraphic1.jpg" alt="Yuletide exchange promotional image using mountain forest scenery. Text says Write off the beaten path - Yuletide Rare Fandoms Exchange."></a>

Yuletide exchange promotional image using an image of an 1887 ice palace. Text says Travel the Worlds of Imagination - Yuletide Rare Fandoms Exchange.

To repost this image, copy this html:
<a href="https://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2025/profile"><img src="https://www.yuletide.fandom.exchange/images/yuletidegraphic2.jpg" alt="Yuletide exchange promotional image using an image of an 1887 ice palace. Text says Travel the Worlds of Imagination - Yuletide Rare Fandoms Exchange."></a>

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Three Turtle Doves 2025

Three Turtle Doves is a mini challenge to help people who like poly, threesomes, and more find one another's requests. Though the challenge title includes the word "three", moresomes are welcome to join in. The more the merrier!

If you are requesting these, please let others know by dropping a comment here. Interested writers can browse and see what's out there that they might not have known about. This is also a great place to discover new fandoms with poly possibilities.

To participate, simply copy-paste the following into a comment:
AO3 Name:
Letter Link:
Fandom(s):
Rating(s): (here's a good place to put your ideal and maximum ratings)
Groupings Requested: (list all combinations you're interested in in all fandoms)
Prompts!: (as many and as detailed as you like)

Please tag any works you end up making for Yuletide with 'Three Turtle Doves' so interested people can find and enjoy your work!

Entry tags:

mini-challenge

Yulebuilding 2025

Greetings and salutations! Yuletide contains multitudes, and a chunk of those multitudes would really like to request or write worldbuilding. Thus, here is a sub-challenge post for those of us who love worldbuilding, either on the giving or receiving end.

To participate

Leave a comment on this fic with a link to your letter if you are interested in receiving worldbuilding. Optionally, add any extra worldbuilding likes and prompts you may have into your comment.
If you don't have a letter, you can still leave prompts here! Please ensure your comment includes your AO3 username, requested fandoms, and any characters you're requesting.
When uploading your fic to the archive, tag it with Yulebuilding and Worldbuilding so the rest of us can find it!

It's not necessary to interact with Yulebuilding in any way to give or request worldbuilding for Yuletide, but this post is here to make life easier. Enjoy!

Entry tags:

Author Questions (and a question for you!)

Tagset corrections are in, and signups are opening soon! It’s just about time to decide what you’ll be requesting and offering.

This year, you can request eight fandoms! Previously, it was six. Because of that, we're reviewing our process for sending author questions.

Each year, we receive questions from authors about their recipient’s requests. These might include clarification on prompts or requests to understand how a DNW applies to a specific fandom–for example, does a DNW for character death include discussion of deaths that occur in canon?

We’re always happy to pass these questions along! Please always contact the mods directly rather than reaching out to the recipient yourself.

Traditionally, when we send these questions to recipients, we try to disguise the fandom the author plans to write for, so the gift is still a surprise. If the question is generic and applies to all fandoms, we can pass it along as-is. If the question is specific to one fandom, our team of volunteers writes decoy questions for the other fandoms and sends along the whole set.

This is fun for us to do, but it takes time. It's also extra work for the recipients to read and respond to multiple questions. This year, as we’re allowing up to 8 requested fandoms (which could mean up to 7 mod-created questions), it seems like a good time to check in and see if our participants find it helpful.

So, a poll! Going forward, which would you prefer mods do?

Poll #33725 Author Questions Poll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 251

View Respondents

Going forward, which would you prefer mods do with author questions?

View Answers

Mods should continue to send decoy questions for all fandoms, along with the author’s actual question, to maximize the mystery of which fandom a recipient will receive. (This is how things work currently.)
39 (15.5%)

Mods should send questions for several fandoms, including the author’s actual question, but possibly not all–even though that could narrow down which fandom a recipient may receive.
202 (80.5%)

Something else (Please let us know in comments!)
10 (4.0%)

Keep in mind the question may be from a potential treat writer, so receiving questions for a particular set of fandoms isn’t a guarantee that your final gift will be in one of those fandoms.

We may not necessarily change our process this year based on community feedback, but it will be helpful in making our decision!

We'd also love to hear from you if you'd like to share a past experience with sending or receiving questions! If that has never happened to you, we hope you enjoy this peek behind the administrative curtain.

Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Contact Mods | Tag Set | Tag Set App | Community DW | Community LJ | Discord | Pinch hits on Dreamwidth
Please either sign in to comment, or include a name with your anonymous comments, including replies to others' comments. Unsigned comments will stay screened.

Entry tags:

Sensory overload

I thought I might stay up last night to watch the hostage release, but I started flagging after midnight and thought it might be better to take it all in first thing in the morning anyway. Then Gingko woke up around 5:30 needing very badly to go out, and I didn't go back to sleep then. I went straight to Twitter, where the first video I saw was Bar Kupershtein reuniting with his family.

Bar is related to a close friend of mine. He looks so, so much like my friend's kids. He is one of three hostages I am two or three degrees removed from (that I'm aware of, it could be more), and the only one who's alive. Bar's father was unable to walk or speak because of a stroke following a car accident, but he was determined to do both by the time his son came back, and he did.

I've spent hours watching every reunion: Noa Argamani and her partner Avinatan Or, who the hospital says lost 40% of his body weight. The Horn brothers from Argentina, the Berman twins whom Emily Damari loves, the absolutely ridiculous Cunio brothers whose partners and very young children were also hostages, Evyatar David who looked like a skeleton forced to dig his own grave in a tunnel on camera. More, more, more, more of them. Two people especially stand out.

One is this video of Segev Kalfon reuniting with his parents, who didn't know if he was alive for a year and a half after 10/7. I have never, ever heard a sound like the noise his father makes. The fathers are the ones losing it, in so many of these videos.

Then there's this one — not of a hostage, but an anonymous? guy alone in what looks like a highway tunnel somewhere in the desert around sunrise. He takes the coolest drag of his cigarette you've ever seen and then launches into the Shema like I've never heard it. Just incredible. Thrilling, beautiful, defiant, gorgeous. Takes another drag in the middle!

Now for the dead to come home. Hamas has only released four of the promised 28, including Eli Sharabi's brother Yossi, including Nepalese ag student Bipin Joshi. I wish I could take a nap (Gingko is snoring softly beside me on the bed), but I'm working until 7. I can't stop trawling for videos and images and information and stories. I can't believe they're finally, finally (almost, mostly) home.

Dear Yuletide Writer Letters 2025

It's letters time! If you're writing a letter along with your Yuletide sign-up, you can comment here with a link to your letter and also enter the details in the 2025 tagset app. For browsing convenience, the app also generates a google spreadsheet you can access directly. (Bookmarking will be available in the app once tag set corrections are complete.)

What's the deal with letters?
Letters are an optional tradition of Yuletide. When you sign up to the event, there's a space in the form for linking to somewhere in your own space (journal, public document, etc) where you can go into detail about what you like in fic and fandom. This post collects these links. The prompts on AO3 are hidden through sign-ups, but letters are visible as soon as you want them to be.

Letters are an optional extra in Yuletide. If you only post a letter here, you haven't signed up. To get an assignment and a gift, you need to sign up at the collection - NOW OPEN! (And see sign-up instructions at the admin comm.)

What makes a good letter?
Mileage varies. We encourage you, at minimum, to include your AO3 name, the fandoms and characters you're requesting, your Do-Not-Wants (DNWs), and whether or not you can receive treats. [This is a feature you can set in your AO3 preference settings. New accounts have permission to receive treats turned off by default, but participants with older accounts should check if they have not checked this in a while]. There are additional posts here and here discussing how to use DNWs.

How to post your letter

Finish your letter and make sure it's publicly visible. Here's the tagset to check what you can request

Enter it in the app*! You can edit your letter after submitting it - save the key, or ask the mods for the key if you lose it

Comment below! Include:
- Your AO3 name
- A link to your letter
- The fandoms you are requesting (3-8)
- The characters you are requesting in your fandoms (1-4, or Any)
If you post to the app first, it will spit out a handy chunk of text with all these details for you to use when commenting.

*Please reach out here if you're having trouble with the app! Characters can be selected by clicking on them.

!!! We ask you to add your letter both places to make sure it gets to people who are excited to read it. If for whatever reason you can only comment on a post, then please include the following line in your comment:

Mods, please add my letter to the app.

We will sweep the post occasionally and add letters to the app.

Warning: Locked or placeholder letters will be removed. You can add your letter when it's done.

If you have a question, contact a mod on Discord or comment here

Mini-challenges
As mini-challenges are posted, they will be added below.
( See links to this year's mini-challenges under the cut. )

Sign-ups are open until 24 October. The closing of sign-ups will be announced at the admin comm.

Enjoy! And thank you to karanguni for the app!

Entry tags:

2025: 10,
signups

Fall Round Signups Now Open!

Signups are now open! They will remain open until Sunday, October 19 @ 11:59pm Eastern Daylight time (Countdown). You can browse the requests in the app!

The tagset will remain open for nominations through the end of signups. Please disambiguate your nominations to make the approvals process faster.

Reminder: We have a relatively new rule that when you sign up, you cannot exclude single drabbles from your offers or requests. You are still welcome to request or offer the other drabble types, you just can't leave 100-word drabbles out entirely from your signup. We will let you know via the email associated with your AO3 account if we notice you've left out single drabbles in your signup. Matching and signups will otherwise work the same as before. See the Guidelines for more details if you have further questions.

GENERAL SIGNUPS REMINDERS:

Is AO3 not letting you sign up for a character that you know is definitely in the tagset?

If it is simply not appearing in the dropdown, try copy-pasting it from the tagset itself. This is a known AO3 bug.

If that does not work, please comment here or email us with the exact fandom and character(s) you were trying to request/offer. A mod will then batch load it for you on the backend, and you will be able to request it. This is a caching issue with AO3.

Requests:

You can request 3-10 fandoms with 1-20 characters each. Fandoms in your requests must be unique, but may be related (e.g., three Star Wars requests would be fine, as long as it was three separate Star Wars fandoms).

Each request must include at least one freeform (Drabble, Double Drabble, Triple Drabble, Drabble Series/Sequence (Various)).

Blank signups are allowed, but prompts, likes, and a list of DNWs are strongly encouraged.

If you wish, you may request Any for the character section, but please note that Any = any character in the canon (NOT just the tagset). Please do not request Any unless you really are open to receiving any character from that canon. If you have character DNWs, requesting Any might not be the best idea, as this could end up with a bad match with someone who had only offered that character. We will be checking for this before we send assignments, but it's possible we could miss something, which would lead to us having to re-assign your writer and send you to pinch hit. (Note that the character DNW would still be upheld in this situation.) If you are requesting Any and do not wish to receive fic about objects, etc., you should DNW that as well.

If you wish, you may request Any for drabble type. This means you are open to receiving any of the 7 drabble types in the tagset.

Please note that you cannot opt out of single drabbles. In other words, you are still welcome to request other drabble types, but you cannot exclude single drabbles from your requests.

Offers:

You can offer 3-10 fandoms with 1-20 characters and 1-7 drabble types each. Fandoms in your offers must be unique, but may be related (e.g., three Star Wars offers would be fine, as long as it was three separate Star Wars fandoms).

If you wish, you may offer Any character. This means any character in the tagset (i.e., if your recipient has requested specific characters, you must write one of them). Please do not offer Any unless you really are open to writing any character in the tagset for that fandom (including any last-minute additions to the tagset). (If your recip requested Any, y ou may write any character from their requested canon.)

If you wish, you may offer Any for drabble type. This means you are open to writing any of the 7 drabble types in the tagset. (Note that unless your recipient has also requested Any, you must write one of the specific drabble types they requested.)

You cannot opt out of single drabbles. In other words, you are still welcome to offer other drabble types, but you cannot exclude single drabbles from your offers.

Do Not Wants:

Only reasonable DNWs in your AO3 signup will be enforced.

A reasonable DNW is a DNW that is clear and does not attempt to box your writer into writing just one thing.

Confused about what a DNW is? See this Fanlore article.

Other:

If you encounter any issues while signing up that are not noted above, please let us know ASAP, as AO3 bugs can sometimes hit exchanges.

If you need to let us know something about your signup (such as not wanting to be assigned to a specific other participant), please contact us via email (seasonsofdrabbles AT gmail) or the mod contact post.

Entry tags:

Do-Not-Match Option - LIMITED Yuletide edition

Tag set housekeeping

We've removed Mouthwashing (Video Game) as that was approved in error. Sorry for getting your hopes up, nominator!

烏は主を選ばない | Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai | Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master (Anime): It’s come to our attention that Nazukihiko and Wakamiya are the same person, so we’re merging those characters.

Nominator of Luca (The History of Sound) - it looks like the Wikipedia page for this movie incorrectly listed Luca as the name of Lionel's lover in Rome; according to IMDB and the original stories this movie is based on, it's Vincent (who was also nominated), so we're deleting Luca.

Thank you for all the tag set issues you’ve let us know about so far! Please continue to check the tag set and let us know of further corrections we should make. Please tell us about these corrections before 9am UTC, Monday 13 October, so we can fix them before sign-ups.

Limited Do-Not-Match option

Most of the time, the person assigned to create for you in an AO3-based gift exchange, and the person assigned to receive a gift from you, are determined by the tags you select in the sign-up form.

Some exchange moderators also offer participants the option to say "Please do not match me up with [ExampleUserName] or [ExampleUserName2]. I don't want to receive a gift from them or create for them." This feature makes it easier, for example, to offer a fandom requested by six different people including someone you'd prefer to avoid, and have peace of mind that you can still avoid that person.

A Do-Not-Match option is difficult to offer flexibly in Yuletide because of the large number of participants and the large number of people who have only one possible creator or recipient. However, we see a Do-Not-Match option as a valuable tool to reduce friction and make everyone happier, so we intend to offer a limited version of this feature in Yuletide, on a trial basis. Please note that this is not an absolute guarantee you won’t receive a story from one of the people you list.

How it will work

When you sign up on AO3, the sign-up form will also link out to a Google form where you can list the AO3 names of up to 3 people you do not want to match to and can tell us if you want to avoid writing for a person, receiving an assigned gift from a person, or both. We will also ask for those people's AO3 ID numbers, which you can find on their AO3 profiles, and for the email associated with your AO3 name. We will not ask for the reason you wish to avoid a person.

After we run the matching process, we will check all matches against our master Do-Not-Match list. We will take the following actions:

If your assigned recipient or creator is someone you asked to avoid, we will attempt to match you to someone else.

If your only possible recipient is someone you asked to avoid, we will email you to recommend you expand your offers. However, we will leave the match in place if you do not respond in the first 24 hours following the close of sign-ups.

If your only possible creator is someone you asked to avoid, we will send out your requests with initial pinch hits.

If you are the only possible recipient for a creator you asked to avoid, we will leave the match in place, but will prioritize your requests for double-assignment to two creators. [Because of how matching works, there will always be Yuletide participants who start out with two assigned creators; generally we try to choose them at random.]

We will not take the following actions:

We will not ask a creator to drop out or expand their offers if their only possible recipient is someone who would prefer to avoid them.

We will not inform a participant that someone else has asked not to match to them. [This information will be restricted only to the core Yuletide mods, Isis, Morbane, and pendrecarc, and will not be shared with the larger pool of Yuletide assistants.]

We will not review treats for unwanted matches. Putting someone on your Do-Not-Match list will not prevent them from creating a treat for you (but please see FAQs below for other tools to achieve this).

We will not prevent someone on your Do-Not-Match list from claiming you as a pinch hit. We will check our master Do-Not-Match list when assigning pinch hits, so if the first person to claim you is a person you prefer to avoid, we will leave a short amount of time to see if another claim comes in. But we will not hold your pinch hit indefinitely or tell the first creator they aren't allowed to claim you.

We will not ask you why you wish to avoid a particular match.

FAQs (foreseeable/anticipated questions)

Who am I allowed to put on my Do-Not-Match list?
Any three AO3 accounts you would prefer to avoid matching to. This can be for any reason, serious or unserious. Do not tell us the reason, please. If the reason is harassment or similar, we recommend reaching out to the Policy & Abuse team separately. You may only give specific names, rather than a description like "anyone who mostly wants porn".

Can't I just block people I don't want to match to?
No. Adding other users to your block list stops them from giving you a treat (see item AO3-6502 on this news post). It also stops them from being able to comment on your work. However, it does not affect challenge matching. A person you have blocked can be assigned to create for you, and you can be assigned to create for them.

Wait, am I allowed to block people in Yuletide?
Yes. Feel free to use the blocking feature to improve your AO3 experience. However, blocking someone and also matching to them could lead to unhappiness for both of you - so please consider using all the tools at your disposal to avoid matching to people you have blocked. This could mean choosing not to offer a fandom if you suspect it has been requested by a person you wish to avoid, or it could mean using the Do-Not-Match option for people you have blocked.

What other AO3 tools exist to manage my gift experience?
If you wish, you can choose to receive gifts only from assigned writers in a gift exchange or people who have claimed your prompts in a prompt meme. This is sometimes described as turning treats on and off. If you created your account after February 2022, please review this setting in your AO3 account preferences. If you select the setting "Allow anyone to gift me works", you can receive treats. If you do not select this setting, only an assigned author can give you a gift in Yuletide.

Will this be a feature of Yuletide going forward?
Maybe, maybe not. It will depend on how well it works out this year!

Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Contact Mods | Tag Set | Tag Set App | Community DW | Community LJ | Discord | Pinch hits on Dreamwidth

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