We're so close! This year, Yuletide reveals are at 9pm UTC on 24 December - that has changed since last year.

COUNTDOWN TO REVEALS

Tips

Formatting

Getting your story up on AO3 is the main thing. But, now it's there, please check it over again before reveals - especially to see if you've left in any bits you're going to replace like [xxx]. But also please check for legibility - check for text with no gaps between paragraphs, or text with massive gaps between paragraphs. Click/tap for more information...

Issues often arise when posting from Google Docs. You can use this Google doc or this extension to help convert your document to HTML for a better copy/paste experience. The problem with italics and punctuation can also be solved by including the punctuation inside the italics tags.

If your story has no space between paragraphs, check to see if you pasted your story into the HTML tab instead of the Rich Text tab. Paragraph spacing occasionally gets added to places like summaries when you edit them, so you might want to double-check that also!

( Below the cut are examples of spacing that’s too big, too little, and juuuuust right. )

If the spacing in your work is wacky, we recommend editing it to avoid putting off potential readers.

Your comment settings

In recent years, AO3 changed the default settings for comments on your work. If you want to allow comments from guests/readers who aren't logged in, check your work. Click/tap for info...

Before July 2024, the default setting for comments allowed on your work was "Registered users and guests can comment." In July, AO3 changed that so that the default setting is "Only registered users can comment." That means that if you posted your Yuletide work without changing the settings, no one can comment on your work without logging into their account.

If that matches your preferences, that's great. If you'd like to make it possible for anyone who reads your work to comment, please edit your work and change the setting. This setting is directly above the Work Text field.

Tagging and "Unspecified Fandom"

Please tag your work accurately, including warnings. We encourage you to use "Unspecified Fandom", alongside a specific tag, to help users find a fandom that isn't wrangled yet. Please reach out if you're not sure how to tag a new or non-canonical fandom. Click/tap for info...

For warnings, Choose Not to Warn is a valid warning tag. You may wish to use the end notes if there is content that you don't want to spoil with specific tags.

If your fandom is completely new, please use the tag that was approved into the tag set. These tags were formulated to meet archive guidelines and will be more quickly canonized, so that your work can be found from the Fandoms page of the collection. We recommend you also use "Unspecified Fandom", because this will show up in the fandoms list immediately, even if the actual fandom tag isn't wrangled straight away. Please do not tag your work with Unspecified Fandom as the only fandom tag. Instead, tag with both Unspecified Fandom and the actual fandom tag.

If your fandom is a subset of a canonical tag (like an RPF fandom that belongs in Actor RPF, or a season of a Let's Play fandom that has an overarching canonical), we recommend tagging with the parent fandom. Please reach out to mods if you're not sure that's what you should do.

Your author's notes

Please keep these positive. Please don't identify yourself - no social media links! Also, please don't apologize for your work, tell your recipient all about what a tough time you had writing, or otherwise ask your recipient to accept a negative sentiment along with their gift.

Treats!!

Additional works are warmly welcomed for participants signed up to Yuletide* and all additional pinch hitters.

Please check these guidelines for whether to post treats in the main Yuletide collection (closes Dec 24) or the Yuletide Madness collection (closes Dec 25). Unlike in some exchanges, Yuletide's treating period does not continue indefinitely. Please get your treats in before reveals - or you'll need to wait until next year.

Not all users accept treats

Please do not create treats for: Arsenic, BluebirdCT, Budouka, couch1141, theblakery, Witgifu. This list is subject to change, as you can change the setting to accept treats (or not) at any time. Check with mods if unsure.

candyheartsex

Nominations are still ongoing! Check out the tagset and make your own nominations here.

Notes

Thunderbolts (Movie 2025) —> approved under Marvel Cinematic Universe

Marvel Cinematic Universe: Matt Murdock/Claire Temple —> approved under The Defenders (TV).

Pokémon Legends: Z-A (Video Game) —> relationship nominations approved Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)

Stargate Atlantis —> relationships approved under Stargate - All Media Type

Crossover Fandom: Sergei Kravinoff/Tangerine (Bullet Train) and Sergei Kravinoff/Tangerine (Bullet Train)/Reader—> approved with Sergei Kravinoff (Kraven the Hunter). Nominator(s), please let me know if you want a different canon for Sergei Kravinoff.

Daredevil (TV) —> nominations approved under The Defenders (Marvel TV)

Now under Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV): Gabe Reyes & Robbie Reyes, Gabe Reyes & Robbie Reyes & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Robbie Reyes & Skye | Daisy Johnson, and Robbie Reyes/Skye | Daisy Johnson.

Superman (Comics) —> relationship nominations approved under DCU (Comics). Please let me know if you want a specific comics run in your tag’s disambiguation.

Angel: the Series —> relationship nominations approved under Buffyverse (TV).

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV) —> relationship nominations approved under Buffyverse (TV).

10 dance (movie) —> approved as 10DANCE (2025).

Questions

Andor (TV)

Kleya Marki & Leia Organa: Nominator(s), as far as I can tell, Leia does not appear in Andor. If she does, can you verify that? Until then, this has been approved under Star Wars - All Media Types.

DCU

I have nominations for:

Barry Allen/Leonard Snart
Clark Kent/Lex Luthor
Lena Luthor/Kara Zor-El
Leonard Snart & Lisa Snart
Mick Rory & Leonard Snart & Lisa Snart
Mick Rory/Caitlin Snow
Sara Lance & Leonard Snart

Nominator(s), could you please clarify which of these should be in DC’s Arrowverse, which should be in DC Extended Universe, which should be in DC Comics, Crossover Fandom, etc.? These are usually approved under those subfandoms.

yuletidemods posting in

yuletide_admin

Yuletide works are scheduled to go live a little under five days from now, at 9pm UTC 24 December (if all goes well and there are no further pinch hits needed).

COUNTDOWN TO REVEALS

Treats

Treats in both the Madness and Main Yuletide collections are enthusiastically welcomed. You can post a treat for someone in the main collection up until 9pm UTC 24 December, and in the Madness collection up until 9pm UTC 25 December. There's more information about posting treats here. If you're hunting for inspiration, see also the mini-challenges tag at

yuletide, and of course, please consider treats for pinch hitters.

Pinch hits

We’re still looking for intrepid writers to take on post-deadline pinch hits. As of this post, we need writers for:

PH #184: Aveyond (Video Games), Quasimorph (Video Game), Geneforge

PH #198: even if TEMPEST 宵闇にかく語りき魔女 (Visual Novel), Flowers Series (Visual Novels), Lkyt. (Visual Novel)

As well as offers from writers, we're keen to hear (yuletideadmin@gmail.com) from anyone with tips on how to consume or review details of these canons!

Please look at our outstanding pinch hit details, and help if you can!

Beta requests

Can you help out a fellow writer by beta-reading their work? Please check the hippo-want-ads at the Discord server, or email mods if you can help with one of the following requests and we’ll get you in touch.

As of this post, beta readers are needed for the following requests (click/expand to view):

1.2K T-rated Mayor of Kingstown
15k+ E-rated Damien/Gerald Coldfire Trilogy
7k Batman Wayne Family Adventures
Racepicker and sensitivity reader for a 10k fic featuring a young Black English girl
4.7k slang and other dialogue choices right for a Gen Z Black Londoner, Rivers of London
13k Lunar Chronicles
2.8k fic for The Odd Couple (TV 1970)
4k Nicked by M.T. Anderson

We also have some less time-sensitive beta requests in the server's betas-wanted channel:
WH40k
The Witcher III/Chronicles of Narnia
The Stakeout from Inside No. 9
Daria (Cartoon)

Meanwhile, please check your work

Please check that you uploaded the right draft. Mistakes can happen to anyone, but checking that everything looks right is a crucial part of posting. Make sure your work has a title and that the summary doesn't say "tbd". Please check that all the text is there and you didn't post the version with [name?] and [thing goes here] notes. Any uploaded version must be a complete story that is readable as it is, even if you're still making edits between now and reveals. Please don't risk disappointing your recipient or requiring mods to seek a back-up pinch hit.

Please check that all required characters feature in the work. This is likely to mean all the characters your recipient tagged, not just the ones they wrote prompts for. Or, if they selected Any, a character from the tag set. They may have selected additional tags that give further guidance about which characters to include - please check that too. If your recipient selected Worldbuilding and you're not sure there's enough of it, get a second opinion - a friend, a beta. If there is any doubt about whether your story contains all the characters it needs to contain, please check with mods. Prompts alone are not automatically permission to leave characters out. The use of additional tags may still leave some grey areas.

Please review your author's notes. Yuletide stories are anonymous for one week - do not give your name or link to your personal sites or socials in your author's note. Do not promise expanded, future, or replacement gifts - your work needs to stand alone. And do not apologise for your work in your author's note, or talk about what a struggle it was to write. People often feel doubt as well as excitement when giving someone a story, but don't give your recipient your doubts as part of their gift. In your author's note, please follow the principle that if you cannot say something positive, don't say anything at all.

Please check your recipient's Do-Not-Wants. Yes, again.

Please check your story in general! You don't have to get it beta read, but please check spelling and grammar. Please make sure that it’s not a wall of text with no spacing between paragraphs - and, conversely, that there aren’t too many blank lines between paragraphs.

(And, having fully prepared for reveals - we hope that you are excited for them! We are!)

Miscellaneous

If you're unlikely to be able to comment until the end of the anon period or later, consider letting your author know at the AFK post.
You can find beta volunteers at this post or at the Discord server.

yuletidemods posting in

yuletide_admin

The deadline has passed, and the main collection is temporarily closed. ETA - now open again!

Congratulations to everyone who has posted! Pat yourself on the back, take a breath, and then please check wordcount, formatting, html; check that you've uploaded the correct version, and that all your text is actually there. You can get to what you've submitted from your Statistics page, or from your Works in Collections. Your story should be marked as "complete" rather than one or more of multiple chapters yet to come.

To all who didn't make it this year: it happens, and we hope you enjoy the collection reveals.

To all who are still working on beta jobs, treats, or pinch hits: thank you and good luck!

Pinch hits coming!!
Post-deadline pinch hits will be available soon at

yuletide_pinch_hits. This next round will be due at 9 AM UTC, 22 December.

See what time that is in YOUR timezone
See countdown

Beta requests
We have outstanding beta requests on the Yuletide Discord (please see the #hippo-want-ads channel), and more betas are always welcome at the Dreamwidth beta post.

There is also an Away from Keyboard post up on the participant community, for you to (optionally) let your author know if it'll be a while before you can read your gift.

If there seems to be an issue with your posted work, we'll contact you via the email address associated with your AO3 account. Please check you can access that!

candyheartsex

The 2026 tagset is now open for nominations!

Nominations will be be open until 11:59 PM EST on December 27.

You can nominate up to 10 fandoms, with a maximum of 10 relationships per fandom. (Some megafandoms and franchise fandoms may have special guidelines: check the clarifications here.) If you have any questions about your noms, feel free to ask here.

Make sure that you are using & for platonic relationships and / for romantic/sexual relationships.

If you're nominating relationships where the characters have very common names or exist in multiple versions of the same canon, please disambiguate your nominations by putting the fandom name or an abbreviation for it in parentheses at the end of the tag. This will stop tags from wandering into multiple subfandoms.

Whenever possible, try to avoid piping unless it's necessary to clarify the characters' identities.

Approvals will be a little slow at times, so please don't worry if your nominations are held up for a while.

Additional nomination guidelines are available here.

yuletidemods posting in

yuletide_admin

The assignments that you received when signing up, and pinch hits #1-96, are due at 9pm UTC 17 December (see countdown). It's nearly here. For most people, it'll be Wednesday. Please check the links!

When you post your story, please make sure...

It is at least 1,000 of your own original words and marked as complete. You can update and edit your story after the deadline, but any version you upload must be a complete story that could be read in that state, with a beginning, middle, and end, and no placeholder text.

It is not posted as a draft. If your work is still in Draft status on AO3 at the deadline, it will not count as fulfilling the assignment, as no one but you can access it. To check if your work is a draft, go to your assignments. If you see a work title and the 'Fulfill' button, your work is a draft and you have not yet fulfilled the assignment. You can also check your drafts at the 'Drafts' sidebar link from your main AO3 page. Fully-posted works can be viewed from your Stats page and from Works in Collections. You can also reach out to mods to check!

It features *all* requested characters or follows exceptions specified in the additional tags ("My gift must feature..."). Please see this post for a reminder of how the additional tags work. Regarding Worldbuilding: if your recipient has not selected characters beyond that tag, whether to flesh out the world using original characters or canon characters is up to you. If they have vetoed specific characters, obey those DNWs.

It does not contain Do Not Wants. Please check that your story does not contain any of the Do Not Wants (DNWs) listed in your recipient's Optional Details. If you have any doubt about the meaning of your recipient’s DNWs, please contact the mods.

Its title and other metadata are not placeholders. Please don't call your work Placeholder Title or Yuletide 2025 Work - upload a title that reflects the unique work. You don't need to write a summary or append detailed tags, but please make sure that if you do include that information, the information is real.

Other important notes

Stay anonymous! Yuletide is a secret exchange. Don't give away publicly what you're writing or who you're writing it for. Don't add your work to an existing series on AO3, or a personal works collection. Don't identify yourself in your author's notes by, for example, linking to your tumblr or dreamwidth.

No AI! This is a creative writing challenge - do not use ChatGPT, Claude, or any other similar generative text tool to write any part of your story, summary, or notes.

Please don’t use author’s notes to apologise for your story, to go into detail about the difficulties you had writing it, or to promise a fix or a continuation.

Please check your story immediately after posting to ensure it is showing up okay.

yuletidemods posting in

yuletide_admin

The DEADLINE is getting closer and closer!

At deadline time - 9pm UTC on 17 December - your Yuletide assignment must be posted (published, not a draft!) to the Yuletide collection as a complete work.

Before then, we need your help, Yuletide! We have an outstanding pinch hit (#121) for the fandoms:
SMPLive
Roughhouse SMP
Mirai SMP - XYouly
Highcraft (Web Series)

See details here. Please email us at yuletideadmin@gmail.com if you can help, and spread the word if you have friends who might be interested. This pinch hit is due at 9pm UTC on 19 December.

More pinch hits will be advertised at

yuletide_pinch_hits, especially after 9pm UTC on the 17th.

Additionally, we love beta reader volunteers! You can connect with writers at this post by filling out a Google form, or you can join the Discord and keep an eye out for beta requests advertised by members with the Hippo role.

Good luck to everyone facing down the deadline!

candyheartsex

The pinned post at the top of the journal now shows the schedule for 2025/2026!

The nomination window will be a little longer this year because approvals will be slower on some days, so nominations will open December 17, 12:01 AM EST.

yuletidemods posting in

yuletide_admin

The default deadline has passed! Defaults after this date will require a New Year’s Resolution fic before you can sign up again. See more info about defaulting at our FAQ.

Original assignments and pinch hits #1-96 are due in a little over 6 days, at:

9pm UTC, 17 December
See when that is in YOUR timezone
See countdown

This is an international exchange, and deadlines are given in UTC/GMT. This deadline is also at a DIFFERENT TIME OF DAY to deadlines we've used in recent years. Please click the links and check when the deadline is for you. We appreciate it!

Good luck to all writing, and especial thanks to everyone tackling pinch hits! Check out

yuletide_pinch_hits for requests currently in need of writers.

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pinkygrocket

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pinkygrocket

Reading

36 Hours to Reveals

Tips

Formatting

Your comment settings

Tagging and "Unspecified Fandom"

Your author's notes

Treats!!

Nomination Queries and Notes #1

Reveals approaching! Help us get there!

Treats

Pinch hits

Beta requests

Meanwhile, please check your work

2025 Deadline Has Passed - What Next

Nominations Are Open!

(Less Than) 48 Hours to Deadline

When you post your story, please make sure...

Posting; Pinch Hit; Betas

Nominations Opening Soon!

Default deadline passed (and deadline change reminder)

Profile

January 2023

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