Assignments Out for Yuletide 2026

Oct. 25th, 2026 01:46 pm
yuletidemods: A hippo lounges with laptop in hand, peering at the screen through a pair of pince-nez and smiling. A text bubble with a heart emerges from the screen. The hippo dangles a computer mouse from one toe. By Oro. (Default)
[personal profile] yuletidemods posting in [community profile] yuletide_admin
Assignments are out! You can find your assignment:
You must write for one of your recipient's requests, including all of the characters they specified in that request (but see below). It doesn't have to be the fandom you offered.

Some recipients have selected several characters, but given permission for writers not to include them all using the Additional Tags checkboxes (the ones that start "My gift must…"). Please check through mods if you're not completely sure what your recipient means. You always have the option of including all the characters your recipient selected.

Your assignment is due at 9pm UTC on December 17. Note that this is the same deadline as 2025 but an earlier deadline as compared to previous years and may be one calendar day earlier in your timezone.

Please click on that link right now! The date and time it shows may surprise you. Better to be surprised now than at the deadline!

Our reveals are earlier again this year as well - though there is an extra day between main collection reveals and madness reveals.

Keep Mum! Assignments are secret
This is a secret exchange. Please don’t announce or hint what your assignment is. Don't say what you offered. Don’t reveal to your recipient who you are or what you plan to write for them. In fact, please don’t contact your recipient at all! You can send questions through the mods at yuletideadmin@gmail.com.

I have questions!!
Right! Send us an email at yuletideadmin@gmail.com, or, if your question won't give away what you offered or who you're writing for, you're welcome to comment here. We get tonnes of questions at this time, so please bear with us - it may take us a few days to reply.

As we did last year, we plan to include a few questions for a few fandoms each time we contact a recipient, but we won’t necessarily include decoy questions for every single fandom. This may give the recipient a clue as to which fandoms they’re more likely to receive but should preserve some of the suspense!

Please don't ask us to poke your recipient to update a locked or placeholder letter until at least October 29.

When you send us a question about your assignment, please include your assignment link, which looks like: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2026/assignments/#######

Some of your questions may be answered by coming posts, for example when we reveal all requests. Please keep an eye on our admin community!

Pinch hits and all requests
The first batch of pinch hits will go out in the next day. After those pinch hits are claimed, likely within the next few days, we will make all requests visible and open the Yuletide Madness collection.

Check out the pinch hit community, [community profile] yuletide_pinch_hits, and sign up through Discord, a feed, or the Google groups mailing list to get immediate alerts for pinch hits. You don't have to be signed up to this year's round of Yuletide to claim a pinch hit.

The New Year's Resolutions 2026 collection is now closed.

Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Contact Mods | Participant DW | Participant LJ | Pinch Hits on DW | Discord | Tag set | Tag set app

Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened.

[10 out of 20] BBC Sherlock: gen

Oct. 24th, 2026 04:56 pm
stonepicnicking_okapi: moon (moon)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi posting in [community profile] sweetandshort
Title: Hallowqueen Speed Dating
Fandom: BBC Sherlock
Notes: Genderswapped. Fem!Sherlock/Fem!John. Vampire!Sherlock
Prompt: Immortality
Length: 500
Rating: Gen
Summary: Sherlock & John meet at speed dating.

( Read more... )

[October: This and That] Icons

Oct. 24th, 2026 06:36 pm
tarlanx: 3/4 length Castiel in raincoat holdign FBI badge (TV - Supernatural 4 - Castiel in raincoa)
[personal profile] tarlanx posting in [community profile] sweetandshort
For [community profile] sweetandshort OCTOBER: This and That
Prompt: Good vs Evil

Fandom: Castiel and Lucifer from Supernatural

Supernatural - Castiel 01 by Tarlan Supernatural - Castiel 02 by Tarlan

Supernatural - Lucifer 01 by Tarlan Supernatural - Lucifer 02 by Tarlan
 
tcpip: (Default)
[personal profile] tcpip
The 2026 China International Friendship Cities Conference was held at the Xi'an International Convention Center, an extensive conference site, luxury hotel, and function centre surrounded by beautiful parks, forestry, and lakes. With over a thousand international visitors, a wall displayed the names of various politicians and public figures, both local and international, a handful of whom addressed the opening-night welcoming dinner. After the dinner, we were taken to Xi'an's famous ancient city walls for an elaborate and operatic Tang Dynasty Grand Welcoming Ceremony, which highlighted through dance and song the splendour that was a short golden age of China when said dynasty, based in Xi'an (Chang'an), ruled a vibrant, open, multicultural, artistic and trading capital.

The second day was the conference proper, a single day of proceedings with both initial high-level presentations by local and international leadership, before separating into three separate streams. The stream my own presentation, "Ties that Bind: Meaningful Sister City Relationships Between
Australia and China"
, had a decidedly environmental focus, so I made some slight changes to the presentation that was almost exclusively researched with great competence by co-conspirator Nitul D. I was particularly taken by the speeches by local representatives on how they have combatted desertification, how they've established environmental relationships with Pacific Island nations with actual products, and a truly impressive success in reducing pollution and emissions in Xi'an city itself. My own presentation, about how Sister Cities sometimes don't work and what to do about it, was well received and sparked follow-up discussion. At the end of the conference, attendees were invited to a Youth Concert featuring the Xi'an Youth Symphony Orchestra, Xi'an Fanyi University, the Orchestra of Xi'an Tie Yi High School, and international visitors from the German Oldenburg Municipal Music School and Indonesia's State Surakarta High School. It was quite a good program mixing international and local compositions.

In a previous brief visit to Xi'an I had the opportunity to visit the glorious Bell and Drum Tower along with the extensive Muslim Quarter and great mosque. A notable absence was the world-famous Terracotta Army, the collection and restoration of the thousands of figures (warriors, horses, chariots) is impressive enough and certainly the mausoleum deserves the UNESCO World Heritage Site status. Just prior to the flight to the second part of this visit, we did get a somewhat rushed visit, which detracted a little from the grandeur, and not helped by the excessive crowds. The attraction is one of the most visited in the country, and the recommendation to visit in low season (December, January) was well-received. With some rather important contacts following the conference, I suspect I might be back in this part of the world sooner rather than later.

2026 Sign-Ups Closed - What Next

Oct. 24th, 2026 10:12 am
yuletidemods: A hippo lounges with laptop in hand, peering at the screen through a pair of pince-nez and smiling. A text bubble with a heart emerges from the screen. The hippo dangles a computer mouse from one toe. By Oro. (Default)
[personal profile] yuletidemods posting in [community profile] yuletide_admin
Sign-ups for this year's event are now closed, with 1227 sign-ups (3 more than last year). Welcome to everyone who's joined us for Yuletide 2026!

The Avoid Matching request form will remain open for 12 hours for last-minute edits to your Do-Not-Match requests.

What will mods do now?
- Run matching.
- Contact participants who have no possible recipients, or where there's another matter to discuss.
- Update you on when assignments are likely to go out.

If we need to contact you, we'll use the email account associated with your AO3 account. (You can find it at Preferences -> Edit Profile -> Change Email.) We may also use this account later in Yuletide - for example, if your author has a question for you. Please check that you can access this email!

What should you do now?
  • Check and edit any letter you may have linked in your sign-up (please ensure it's complete by end of October 29th AT THE VERY LATEST, and consider adding it to the app and to the comments at the letters post). (If you didn't link your letter in your sign-up, it's too late now. Trust in your author!)

  • Please check your letter is accessible - log out of the platform where you have posted it and check that you can still view it, or ask a friend to. Tumblr in particular may cause issues with this and may require you to change your settings.

  • Keep quiet about what you've offered: Yuletide is anonymous until reveals.

  • Check that you can access the email associated with your AO3 account.

  • Check out the pinch hit community, [community profile] yuletide_pinch_hits, and sign up through Discord, a feed, or the Google groups mailing list to get immediate alerts for pinch hits. You don't have to be signed up to this year's round of Yuletide to claim a pinch hit.

  • Browse the promo post or even add a promotion.

  • Check that you're happy with your AO3 settings for treats / unassigned gifts - see an older post for more information. If your account is new, treats may be disabled.

  • Look forward to your assignments!


Congratulations to everyone who posted a story to the 2026 New Year's Resolutions collection, either as requested by mods or just because you wanted to fill a prompt. The collection will be open for roughly one more day, until we send out assignments - if you're planning to post, post soon! The NYR 2027 collection will open on January 1.

Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Contact Mods | Participant DW | Participant LJ | Pinch Hits on DW | Discord | Tag set | Tag set app

Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened.

Friday five, plus...

Oct. 23rd, 2026 04:00 pm
florianschild: A close-up of Daria from the animated cartoon show. Her glasses show an animated reflection of burning flames (Default)
[personal profile] florianschild

1. From [community profile] thefridayfive:


1. How often do you attend live theater performances?
Anywhere from 1 to 3 times a year, typically.

2. Local community theater or professional theater productions?
Well I love both, but since I live in a small city we don't get a lot of professional productions. I mostly attend local community theater productions.

3. Which do you prefer: dramas or musicals?
Musicals, by a long shot. I also love non-musical comedies though.

4. Have you ever participated in a theatrical production, whether acting, singing or tech?
I participated a lot in high school, mainly in my school's productions but also as a tech in a few community theater shows. I haven't done anything in a long time though!

5. What was the last play or other staged production you attended?
Last month my mom and I went to a community theater production of Come From Away.

2. I made a browser extension!


I saw a post that [personal profile] yourlibrarian did about how to add a kudos poll to your entries. I thought that seemed cool, but a little tedious to have to build or copy/paste the poll each time you made an update. So I created a tiny little browser extension that allows you to insert the poll code using just a keyboard shortcut. If you're interested in trying it out, you can download it from HERE. If you're not familiar with github, here's a screenshot of how to download the zip:

A screenshot showing where the Download ZIP link can be found on a github repo.

I'm interested in building more web extensions that could extend the functionality of Dreamwidth and make it more user friendly. If you have any ideas, let me know!

3. Fall Art


I keep finding the most gorgeous maple leaves in my driveway. I decided to press a few of them. I want to glue them into my scrapbook. Does anyone know how long a leaf has to be pressed before you can safely use it? They've been in there two days so far.

Poll #35236 Leave a Kudos?
This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

Want to leave a Kudos?

View Answers

Kudos!
3 (100.0%)

Season’s Treatings

Oct. 23rd, 2026 09:26 am
suzy_queue: A 50s style woman holds up a tray of hot chocolate (Yuletide: OMG)
[personal profile] suzy_queue posting in [community profile] yuletide
Do you love receiving or writing end of year holiday stories? Are you prompting a snowed in Hanukkah celebration or an Australian New Year's beach party? Season's Treatings may be for you!

This mini-challenge is all about November, December and January holidays, traditions, and cultural celebrations big and small and all over the globe--and perhaps some fantasy worlds, who knows. If you want to prompt it, someone may want to write it.

When you comment, please include:

AO3 Name:
Letter Link (if applicable):
Holiday(s) Requested:
Fandom and character(s):
Prompts:

When you upload, tag it as Season's Treatings so we can all find them.

Throwing random things into a post

Oct. 22nd, 2026 10:34 pm
sholio: airplane flying away from a tan colored castle (Biggles-castle airplane)
[personal profile] sholio
On the general principle that if I don't do it now, I never will ...

Hurt/Comfort Flash Exchange revealed yesterday and I received an absolutely delightful gift, Illusions - Biggles gen fic, about 2K of deliciously satisfying presumed dead. What an EXCELLENT old-school h/c reading experience it was. <333

---

I found out Avengers Doomsday is happening in December somehow, which made me realize how completely I've fallen out of not just love but even interest in the MCU. The last MCU thing I saw that I enjoyed was Thunderbolts, and I really did enjoy it, but it was also a "wait for streaming" kind of experience (and it might've taken me years to get around to it if I hadn't been stuck on a 10-hour trans-Atlantic flight with limited viewing options). I'll get around to Doomsday eventually, I guess! Or maybe I won't, and somehow I don't think I'll be missing a whole lot.

I keep feeling like I have things to say about the whole cycle of that - how I went from a superhero-comic-reading teenager and young adult back when it was a niche interest that most people knew nothing about, to the sheer delight of superhero movies that were actually good, to some of my most active and busy fandom experiences as the whole world fell in love with it too, to overload and disappointment and now I just kind of wish we could look back nostalgically on the whole experience except that it's hard to do when it just keeps GOING.

---

Watched a rocket launch yesterday evening ... sort of. We live about 20 miles south of Poker Flat Research Range, and try to go out in the yard and watch their launches when we can - how often do you get to see a rocket launch from two steps outside your front door? They mainly launch low-altitude rockets to study the aurora - a few times a winter - but these rely on waiting for the aurora to kick up, and so it's a lot of monitoring their Youtube channel and waiting for the countdown, and often they happen late at night or we otherwise miss them.

But this one was something else (studying particle behavior in the atmosphere or something?), so it was scheduled for late evening and easy enough to catch. And then it was too hazy and cloudy to actually see it. We saw the flash - a bright light on the horizon - and then about half a minute later, the sound gets to us, an astonishingly loud (for how far away it is) rumble that sounds like a jet taking off. But that was sadly all we could see from where we were. On clear nights it's possible to see the rocket go up and the stages fall off, but not last night, ALAS! But it was interesting to be reminded just how big a thing even a small rocket is.

--

EDIT: Oh wait, I knew there was something else! I was thinking about doing some kind of Halloween Advent next week (yes I know that's not what Advent means, shhhh) with a series of posts for the week leading up to it; maybe Whumptober ficlets? Halloween/spooky fic recs? It seemed like a week or so of that would be a fun thing that I could PROBABLY keep up with. You are invited to do it too, for whatever sort of posts you wanted to make - anything October/Halloween/seasonal, or just random posts if you wanted to.

(This may not actually happen, but it ought to start on Saturday or Sunday if it does.)

---

ETA2: Also, it snowed this week and it doesn't look like it's planning on going away anytime soon. I guess winter is happening whether we want it or not.

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