The holiday season is in full swing here at Elysian Fields! To celebrate the occasion, EF has again pulled our fabulous holiday banner from the vault for everyone to enjoy for the month of December. (Change your skin to our holiday theme by going to Account Info > Edit Preferences > Default skin: holiday)

A crew of Elysian Fields members is also hard at work helping Spuffy thwart Demon Santa’s evil scheming by participating in our very first Secret Santa event. We’ve had an incredible 51 members sign up to exchange fic gifts!!

What are the Secret Santa participation requirements again?

For those of you giving Secret Santa gifts (officially signed-up members only), you will be able to post your fics starting at 12:01am ET (site time) tomorrow December 1, and will be able to post until 11:59pm ET on December 31. All fics MUST be one-shots. That is, they must be one chapter composed of less than 15,000 words. Rest assured, your summary, story notes, chapter notes, and end notes do not count against your word count.

When publishing your gift, be sure to mark the checkbox shown below:

What event information do I need to include in my story?

You must include the following information in your summary or story notes: “This fic is an Elysian Fields 2020 Secret Santa gift for [giftee's name]"

It’s also recommended that you send your giftee a message once you’ve published the fic, so they don’t miss seeing it!

Banners: If you're including a custom banner with your fic, it must have "Designed for the Elysian Fields 2020 Secret Santa" legibly added to it.

Does a gift writer need to reveal their giftee’s preferences?

You do not! As with a standard Secret Santa, no preferences have to be mentioned publicly. However, if you want to attach your giftee's preferences to your story, please do so in your story end notes.

How do I find the stories that are being added to the Secret Santa?

All gift fics will be merrily marked with a Santa icon, which looks like the example below:

Additionally, all gift fics can be found on the 2020 Secret Santa event page. (You can also find this event page, as well as all of our other event pages by browsing for site events.)

What do I do if I realize I’m not going to be able to finish my gift fic by the deadline?

The last thing we want is for any member to end up giftless. While we have done our best to ensure that members are only participating with an understanding of their commitment, we know that life happens. So, if you find that you will be unable to write a fic for your giftee, you MUST reach out to OffYourBird (via ssolace@gmail.com or PM) by December 15 so that alternate arrangements can be made.

How can I help if someone ends up without a gift writer?

You can become a rescue writer! Rescue writers sign up by PM’ing or emailing OffYourBird. You do NOT have to be a signed-up Secret Santa participant to be a rescue writer. If you sign up to be a rescue writer, you will go on a list of writers available to rescue a gift, and you will be contacted by December 16 if someone is in need of your help.

We’re looking forward to much merriment at Elysian Fields this coming month --- Happy Holidays from the Mods!