Up in the North Pole, according to popular myth, Santa is currently busy making all of the Hellmouth children’s toys so that he can distribute happiness and joy in less than two months’ time. Unfortunately (according to Anya’s excellent knowledge of supernatural history), Santa is, in reality, a demon who uses said gifts to tempt little children into coming close so he can disembowel them. Talk about a demonic holiday Grinch. Yikes. Thankfully, our Evil Santa has been pretty quiet the last several hundred years. Until now, that is…
Now, Evil Santa is hopping on his demonic sleigh again, and it’s time for Spuffy to combat him the best way they know how: by making sure we give each other our gifts this holiday season!
Thanks to a great suggestion by member Ajmilone, Elysian Fields will be hosting our very first Secret Santa fic-giving event this year. Here’s how it works:
Everyone who signs up to participate in this event will write one fic and receive one fic. Each fic written should be a “one-shot” size. That is, the fic must not exceed one chapter, and the word limit maximum for a single EF chapter, and thusly it must be under 15,000 words in length. Fics do NOT need to be holiday related in any way (unless your giftee requests it!).
You will sign up using the form linked below, and input your preferences for fic writing/receiving. OffYourBird will make best case matches, and then reach out to each participant with the penname and story preferences of their “non-demony secret Santa" for whom they will be writing a fic. Please remember that this gift giving is confidential. Don’t share who you have for a giftee until posting time! We don’t want to spoil the fun and make Evil Santa suspicious, after all.
In order to ensure Evil Santa is well and truly put to bed (at least for this year!), all fics must be published to Elysian Fields by midnight (site time) on December 31, 2020.
Here’s a full run-down of the timeline:
November 8 (Today!) --- Sign-ups open. Find the SIGN UP FORM HERE
November 22 --- Sign-ups close at midnight site time
November 23-24 --- Writing assignments are distributed to participants
December 1 --- participants may begin publishing their fics. More details regarding HOW to publish your fic will be posted here in the news section at the end of November.
December 31, 2020 --- participants must have their fics published by midnight site time
No late sign-ups or publishing will be allowed. Please only sign up if you can commit to publishing your fic by midnight on December 31. Leaving a participant giftless will put them in grave demonic danger, and we really can’t have that.
Successful participation means that, not only will you get a brand new fic gift , but you’ll also get a shiny new badge for your profile!
(Note: you may have someone beta your fic or make a banner for your fic if you wish, but only those EF members who sign up to write/receive will be eligible for an event participation award for this event.)
So, come and join the fun this holiday season, and help Spuffy beat back the forces of evil with our first Elysian Fields Secret Santa event!
--OffYourBird on November 07, 2020 05:04pm 22 Comments
Gorgeous holiday banner...would make a lovely holiday banner for the site!
Evil demonic Santa with his temptations.
Great idea!
Kathleen
If ever there was a year needing some good old Christmas cheer, it's this one!
Oh my goodness. Presents! 🎁🎁🎁
Oh, so much fun!
If I’m only unwilling to write certain categories when paired with a certain warning, can I denote that?
@DarkVoid: yep! There's a question on the sign-up form that addresses "no-go"s (so just note it in that section)
Brilliant idea. This December could be very dark for many of us, and this will share a little joy.
Wood! Signed up and so excited!
This is awesome! I signed up, can't wait to play !
All signed up! I've been wishing for something like this for months. :)
What a great idea!
Ooh, cool! :)
Just signed up. This looks so fun! And I LOVE that banner.
We're so delighted this event is fulfilling a need, and bringing some holiday joy! Thank you all for your love and eager participation so far!
Thank you for the banner love as well
@Sandy - we won't be making a special site skin for this mini-event, since it isn't exactly "site-wide" (ie, it's just for people willing to author a fic) but my banner art will be gracing other EF areas to mark the occasion. (And we'll still have our standard and super festive Holiday skin available in December!)
This sounds so fun, and I will definitely be participating (and gleefully reading the other delights brought forth by this event). Is there a minimum word count for these wintry treats?
@emilise: there is no word minimum (since certain gift recipient requests might look for drabbles, etc), but if you're looking for a "standard" guideline, I'd say aim for at least 2k.
I hate myself for wanting to do this.
I’ll play Christmas music the entire time I write. Let’s see how festive we can make EF this year...
I'm excited to try this out!
Great Christmas Cheer event - It will be wonderful and help us all get through the dreadful times we are living through right now.
This is going to be fun!
![squee](https://dark-solace.org/elysian/tinymce/js/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/squee.gif)