December 2025

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Wednesday, December 24th, 2025 14:59
Yuletide 2025 Collection Is Live Here!


Enjoy 1539 works in 992 fandoms! (The number will go up as wranglers canonize fandoms - this will take a little time, though.)

The reveals process takes a little while to work in a collection of this size; if a story in the collection is still a mystery work an hour after opening, please let us know.


Finding works
You can find your own gifts on your AO3 gifts page: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YOUR-NAME-HERE/gifts, or by searching the box at the top of the collection works page for the full name you signed up with, or by checking your email if you get email notifications from AO3. Note: your email notifications may bundle together, and it might look like you only got one gift, when in fact you got more.

You can browse the collection by tags or by fandoms. Some fandoms are new and may not show up immediately (wranglers are working on this) or where you expect them; please check labels such as Original Work, 19th Century Historical RPF, Object and Concept Anthropomorphism, and Unspecified Fandom. More info about Unspecified Fandom here.


Anonymity
Yuletide is an anonymous exchange until creator reveals January 1. Please don't give away what you've written. When logged in, you can, if you want, reply to comments on your own works, and you will show up as Anonymous Creator until the authors of the collection are revealed.


Commenting!
Please comment on your gift(s) to let your writer(s) know you appreciate them. We also recommend commenting far and wide to spread the comment joy around! You may enjoy the challenge of a comment bingo card.

AO3 changed default comment settings last year. If you want to make sure people can comment on your gifts when they aren't logged in, you may need to change a setting on your work. More information here, under 'Your comment settings'.


Recs
Making work recommendations is a tradition. Please see more information at the participant community ([community profile] yuletide) about where you can post your recs.


Madness
For those still writing, the 2025 Yuletide Madness collection will stay open for new stories to be posted for 24 hours. It will close for posting, and open for reading, at 9pm UTC 25 December. If you're looking for prompts, there's a roundup of links here.


Problems
If there is something wrong with your gift or you have another concern, please contact the mods at yuletideadmin@gmail.com.



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.

Tags:
Wednesday, December 24th, 2025 20:45
...it's that time of year when there is a crisp chill in the air, a gentle hint of longer days to come, Santa Claus gagging a trussed-up Robin, and Batman proving that his claim to be “The World’s Greatest Detective” might be a little optimistic… (I mean… it’s fricking SANTA CLAUS Bruce!)

(It's from Batman #33 which came out in December 1945, so 80 years ago now!!)

Wednesday, December 24th, 2025 20:37
It's Christmas Eve, and the retail trade has been going like the clappers all day.
How goes the creative work (if at all?)
Wednesday, December 24th, 2025 17:11

Title: Embers
Fandom: BtVS
Author: [personal profile] badly_knitted
Characters: Angel, Buffy.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 481: Glow.
Spoilers/Setting: Shortly after Helpless.
Summary: The fire is dying down, but Angel can’t bring himself to move.
Disclaimer: I don’t own BtVS, or the characters.
A/N: Double drabble.



Embers





Wednesday, December 24th, 2025 08:16
[community profile] hlh_shortcuts, the annual Highlander fanfic exchange, has been releasing two stories a day since the winter solstice. With 8 stories revealed as I post this, 9 remain. So far, the shortest is >800 words and the longest <7K words. From the tags, 3 crossovers are upcoming. A trend this year may be appearances by Connor and his associates.

(Releases will pause on December 25 to give readers a chance to catch up. Or to sample Yuletide, perhaps.)

Check out the AO3 collection.

Wednesday, December 24th, 2025 10:49
Another Toku Holiday Exchange


We're on track for reveals in a little over 12 hours, at around midnight EST. But before we get there, here's a few things you can do to make sure that things go as well as possible:

  1. Make sure your gift is going to the right person.
    Double-check spelling of your recipient's username and/or pseud, especially if your work is a treat!

  2. Make sure that your work is properly posted.
    If your work is still a draft, we can't accept it into the collection! Be sure it's fully posted, and without any glaring errors, so we know it's good to go.

  3. Check your email.
    If the mods have noticed any glaring errors, we may have tried to contact you about them. Feel free to email us any questions you may have as well! We're reachable at theexchangemods@gmail.com

  4. Make sure your work is showing up as intended.
    Is the whole work there? Has anything been accidentally double-pasted?Are there any notes that you meant to remove before reveals? Is the work edited, and have you posted the latest version? Is the formatting correct?

  5. Keep working on treats!
    We'll be welcoming treats to the collection, even after reveals!


Having trouble locating the work you posted? Here's how to find it:

  1. When logged in to your AO3 account, select your icon or "Hi, [username]!" to go to your dashboard.

  2. Select "Collections" from menu at the left or top of your screen.

  3. Select "Manage Collection Items" near the top of your screen, below "[Username]'s Collections".

  4. Use the buttons near the top of the screen, under "Items by [username] in Collections" to find your work.
    • It will probably be under "Approved", but if not, check "Awaiting Collection Approval".

    • If it's in "Awaiting Collection Approval" and you've posted it more than 24 hours ago, double-check that it's not a draft and that everything is right, and contact us if you have any questions or issues!


Thanks, and we look forward to sharing everything with you tonight!
Tags:
Wednesday, December 24th, 2025 08:19
Title: Shopping Date
Fandom: Deltarune
Characters/Pairings: Dess/Asriel
Rating: G
Word Count: 597
Warning: None

Summary: Dess helps Asriel find a Christmas present for Frisk.


Hourglass AU.

Only Mom and Dad have any ideas of what to give Frisk for their first Christmas with us )
Wednesday, December 24th, 2025 11:27
It's hard for me to figure out how to even start this post, because I was just presented with this picture:

A man with fluffy hair with bloodied face holding the cheek of a smoking woman with a bloodied face, text in English

...and I didn't really ask any more questions before reading the manga. Bonus impact for stumbling on it in Japanese because the "kept pet" implied in the verb is delicious, and obviously plays with the K-9/"police dog" title.

Anyway, meet Oboro on the left - he's great - and Ren on the right - she's great. The art is beautiful, and everyone is very pretty.

About the world

Some people have special abilities, most of which are not well understood. Only one thing is known for sure: these abilities manifest after someone commits a crime. For example, the criminal from the first chapter is an arsonist and can control/become fire. (Somewhat unrelated, but this is pretty fun coming in from the BNHA world because it's like a universe in which only bad guys get a quirk.) Here, these abilities are called "sins," haha. In the Japanese, it's simply the kanji for crime with "sin" written in katakana beside it.

This seems pretty simplistic at first glance, but that slowly changes as we drill deeper into the worldbuilding and learn the nuances of these abilities and how they manifest. The implications are deeply fucked up, with often devastating consequences that I'm totally here for as my heart gets shattered again and again.

The story premise

Our plucky detective Ren is selected to join Division 9, a newly created division that pairs a detective with a sin user in order to fight fire with fire -- what could possibly go wrong?! I love her. She kicks so much ass.

Woman with a leg up kicking some dude in the face mid-stride

So, who's our main cast?

Short character profiles )

Four characters looking way too cool as they step through a broken wall

TOGETHER THEY FIGHT CRIME! More specifically, crime related to sin users. But they also get their asses kicked and handed over to them quite a bit, haha.

A bit more on the story and on them )

Where to read? How many chapters are out?

37 chapters, 3 volumes. You, too, could catch up in a reasonable amount of time! 🫵 )


Bonus scythe, for fellow appreciators of the Rule of Cool
Man holding a scythe made of blood


Cross-posted to [community profile] fanifesto, [community profile] anime_manga, [community profile] fourormore (with additional but potentially spoilery OT4 screenshots), also linked to from [community profile] polyamships :D
Wednesday, December 24th, 2025 10:41

Title: On The Outside
Fandom: Babylon 5
Author: [personal profile] badly_knitted
Characters: Garibaldi, Zack Allen
Rating: PG
Word Count: 300
Spoilers/Setting: Moments of Transition.
Summary: These days, Garibaldi can only rely on himself.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 501: Amnesty 83, using Challenge 30: Solitary.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski.
A/N: Triple drabble.



Wednesday, December 24th, 2025 08:45
I think I'm starting to get it out of my system. Maybe. Not at all eyeing the manga volumes for a reread. This will be fine. I'm fine. We're cool.


Oversight | K-9 | Fujimaru Jin/Hizuki Ren/Kagari Yukito/Oboro Yuushirou | 1.4k words | rated T

Summary: Ren has never questioned where Oboro lives, until now.

Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025 17:00
Red and White background. On the left is an image of a blank guestbook form from a webpage. Text reads: "Featured Article, Guestbook" On the left is two large quotation marks and the text from from the featured article post.ALT

“Sign my guestbook!” This week’s Featured Article is all about Guestbooks, or “dreambooks”.

This was an element of older websites and blogs, where fans could leave feedback and comments, and operated as a message board. Although it wasn’t fannish in origin, people used it to interact with fandom and to promote their own fanworks and sites, as guestbooks predated online journals with comment sections.

They could be hard to navigate, and even harder to edit. As there was only one per website, it meant that messages could be hard to decipher if they weren’t specific.

Guestbooks were susceptible to spam, and the editing and censoring the owners of guestbooks practiced appears to be minimal, but for fans newly online, they offered the ability to read instantaneous feedback, try to message a celebrity, or was a place to make friends. Some guestbooks were also created as a memorial to a deceased fan.

Have you heard about them or remember commenting on one? Check out our Fanlore page to read more!

——

We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025 13:32
There are all kinds of nature challenges and goals that people like to do. Some are individual, others are group events. Some are all year, others shorter. Some have activist themes, others are ordinary. They span a great many different formats including but not limited to art en plein air, birdwatching, environmental projects, gardening, nature writing, outdoor activities, and spending time in nature. Here are some for your inspiration. On Dreamwidth, see [community profile] birdfeeding, [community profile] common_nature, [community profile] gardening, and other Nature communities.

You can pick whichever challenge(s) you want to set as a goal in 2026 and reply with a comment. Below the list of challenges is a short form for listing which you have chosen. Make a post in your blog like "I signed up for the Nature challenge in [community profile] goals_on_dw" -- or list the specific challenge if you're doing an official one somewhere else instead of a personal one here. Then make a tag for it like "Nature Challenge" and put that on the post; it should stick that way. Check your Interests page to see if you have Birdwatching, Environment, Gardening, Nature, Outdoors, Wildlife, etc. listed there, which helps people find you. You don't have to sign up to participate, it just helps spread the word and attract more readers.

There is a Bingo Card Generator if you want to make your own using premade lists or whatever prompts you want to paste in. Various sizes and styles are available.

See also the Arts and Crafts, Community Thursdays, Fannish 50, Reading, and Writing challenges. If you want to write a naturalist's guide to an exoplanet, grow a Hobbit garden, paint the architecture of an alien arboretum, or review every nature book you read all year, go for it. You can even double-count anything that applies to two or more goals, e.g. [community profile] inkingitout and 1000 Hours Outside.

Do you know of any other nature challenges in 2026? Share a link so they can be added to the list of options.

Read more... )
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025 16:50
I forget earlier, but I just added a screen shot of the icons to the Challenge 30 voting post. In case anyone wasn't able to view the Imgur icon links. Voting will be open until Thursday. There are a few ties currently, so more voters would be great. Thanks! 🙂
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025 16:17
image host

Contrary to speculation, The Writer character here is not me, any more than the corpse of The Writer on Page 3 is me. Consider this character a multiversal variant of that skeletal remnant of the Suicide Squad Writer. (I read one or two complaints that this farrago was just so typical of ‘Grant Morrison’ - too meta - he always has to put himself in every story! For the record, I’ve only ever written myself into Animal Man and in a more abstract way Seven Soldiers. That’s at best twice in 40 years!) -- Grant Morrison

Read more... )