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Default deadline

The deadline for a simple default on Yuletide is 9pm UTC on 10 December - just under one week from now. Please check the link - this isn't the same time of day as recent years.

The default deadline is the cut-off point for defaulting on your Yuletide assignment without a penalty. This applies if it's your first Yuletide, or if you posted successfully last time you signed up or took a pinch hit. Default before this time, and you're free to sign up again in future. If you're not sure whether the default deadline applies to you, please talk to mods (yuletideadmin@gmail.com).

Sample reasons to default:

You want to

You can't reconcile the canon, your writing strengths, and your recipient's DNWs

Life got in the way

A new installment of canon ruined your ideas

You use generative AI such as ChatGPT, and you just saw the rule that that's not allowed in this event

You can't see how to get the characters to do what you want them to do

You want to

People default every year for a variety of reasons. We don't need to know why, and we wish you well. When we open sign-ups, we recommend that you don't sign up unless you're confident you can write a story by the deadline. But after you've signed up, things may happen, and it's okay to withdraw, if that's what makes sense for you. See full information about defaulting at the FAQ.

To default, go to your assignment at the collection, and press the default button.

Assignment deadline

All original assignments, and all pinch hits sent out prior to the default deadline, are due at 9pm UTC 17 December (which is a DIFFERENT time of day to last year). Countdown

Pinch Hits

We have an outstanding pinch hit at

yuletide_pinch_hits. Please get in contact if you can help!!!

Betas & Beta Help Needed

We warmly welcome beta reader volunteers at the beta post and on Discord. See the FAQ for more information about finding betas if you need one!

Note: on the Yuletide Discord, requests for betas, or for brainstorming help that might give away what you're writing, are handled by DM-ing someone who currently holds a Hippo role. Please read the server FAQ before seeking a beta. Give your Hippo the relevant details and make sure you can receive messages back.

Treats and Posting

Click here for instructions on posting your assignment or treats. If you've finished your assignment and are considering treats, check out the app, and don't forget the promo post where people have advertised their canons. You may find something amazing there! Check out the prompts from pinch hitters too.

Keep Yuletide Madness in mind. The Madness collection is for stories under 1,000 words and stories which do not exactly fit the fandoms and characters requested. These works must still be gifts for other participants.

AFK post

We will also put up an Away from Keyboard post shortly on the

yuletide comm. The purpose of this post is that if people know they won't be able to respond to their gift until late in the anon period, or even until the new year, they can let their author know ahead of time. (Not being able to read and respond until several days after the collection opens is normal, though - many people will have family and other obligations!)

Happy December!

sage

Rockstar Lestat

I love him so much, y'all. I need to make another one to this scale in the red pants; then maybe I can bear to list one or both of them, once I know I can replicate him. I'm also tempted to make a version in the brown shirt, with a fern to go with, but I fear no one would buy it because it was too much a joke. Ah well. Maybe someone will commission it.

yarning
I've made so many cat toys this week! And a 12 1/2 inch cat kicker based on the National Parks Service official Walleye pattern (I added some rounds to make it bigger), only done in bright orange, like a goldfish. :g: I took only the fish to Thanksgiving to work on, which left me with days of nothing to make after I finished it. Doh!

etsy
yay selling things! I held a Black Friday sale to try to move some merchandise out of my house, and it succeeded fairly well. The discount was deeper than I'd quite prepared for, esp with free shipping, but worth it find some things their forever homes. I also figured out (I hope!) how to do Made To Order listings on etsy, so people can request a kickbunny in the colors of their choice without buying them in the wrong colors & sending me a note asking to switch the colors.

healthcrap
had to cancel the pain clinic procedure for lack of transportation, as expected. Tomorrow is a bone scan. I started drinking coffee again at my parents' place over Thanksgiving and have continued making a small amount every day. I hope it doesn't mess up my sleep?

yuletide
I have a draft! And I learned from the Yuletide Discord that there is such a thing as "unenforceable DNWs," which are things that are unreasonable to ask of your match in your signup/letter...which means that I could have written the story I wanted to write instead of the one that I did. Oh well. Good to know that I could have messsaged the mods with my concerns, even though I didn't. Hopefully the story I did write holds together well enough on its own merits? :crosses fingers:

I hope you're all doing well, wherever in the world you are! <333

heartsfate posting in

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wickedgame posting in

iconic

Fandoms: 9-1-1: Lone Star, Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Daredevil: Born Again, Doctor Who, Grosse Pointe Garden Society, Made in Heaven, Outlander, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, Romil & Jugal, Stay By My Side, The White Lotus, Triage, Wednesday

rest HERE @

mundodefieras

heartsfate posting in

fandom_on_dw

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maju

Duolingo is all the rage here at the moment. Eden is learning Italian, Violet is learning Spanish, and Aria appears to be learning both Spanish and Italian, with a lot of help from her father since she is still learning to read and write. Violet has been busy making sure that I'm following each of them and they're each following me. Poor Violet can't roll/trill her R's the way she needs to in order to speak Spanish correctly; Eden, who can, and I both spent some time early this morning coaching her on where to place her tongue etc, but she just can't do it. I know there are some genetic differences in what people can do with their tongues, so maybe this is a genetic thing too. I have to wonder though, how this would work if she was actually Spanish. Are there Spanish speakers who can't roll their R's? Indonesian has the same rolled R's, and I know these aren't the only two languages that do. (Of course I just did a quick Google search on this question, and it appears children who can't do the Spanish R correctly can have speech therapy to learn it.)

soricel posting in

100words

Title: Hiatus
Fandom: It Makes a Sound (podcast)
Rating: G
Notes: Triple drabble

( Read more... )

runpunkrun

An Australian epistolary YA novel of extreme tweeness where the format may almost forgive some of the hysteria, as much of the book takes the form of final exams written for a gothic literature course, but I found it childish, not only ridiculous in the way of teenagers, which felt true enough, but even the adults were being juvenile, and the way the privileged teen drama was played for comedy and took precedence over the actual problems of at risk youth irritated me. It does include some surprisingly stylish teen poetry, though.

Contains: references to child harm and sexual abuse; homelessness; underage drinking; suicide attempt; dementia.

rachelmanija

Thirteen-year-old Ali gets a chance to spend the summer with her aunt Dulcie and five-year-old cousin Emma at the family's long-abandoned lakefront property - over the strong objections of Ali's mother, who hates the lake. Ali is delighted to babysit Emma and get out from under her mom's over-protective thumb. But why do both her mother and Dulcie act so weird about the lake and their past there? Who's the mysterious girl who was ripped out of old family photos? And what's up with Sissy, the strange girl who hangs out at the lake and encourages Emma to behave badly and blame it on Ali?

Sissy's real identity won't come as a surprise to any readers over the age of 10, but there are some genuinely chilling moments and Hahn's trademark realistic family dynamics and exploration of guilty secrets and how parents' childhood trauma gets passed down to their children. I actually got stressed out reading about Ali trying to protect Emma while Dulcie blames Ali for all the weird stuff going on and accuses Ali of refusing to take responsibility for anything. (In fact, Dulcie and Ali's mom are the ones who are failing to take responsibility and projecting it on the kids.)

A good solid middle-grade ghost story with unusually complex family dynamics.

maju

It was raining for most of the day yesterday, so I didn't leave the house. This morning it was just below freezing when I got up, but had risen to 1C/33F by about 9 am so I was able to go for a walk, dressed in several layers and with my ears covered. I had received a phone call yesterday from the Stop&Shop pharmacy about a prescription from the dermatologist they were holding for me, so I walked over there to pick it up. I paid $62 for two tubes of cream, which is more than I'm used to paying at Kaiser. Right now I guess I'm between drug plans, because my Wellcare plan doesn't cover me here and my Humana plan doesn't kick in until 1st January. I did enjoy the walk in the sun.

I have to say it's been a real education navigating Medicare and the various extras (supplement plan and prescription drug plan) after being so sheltered by having S's government Kaiser plan which covered everything. (There were co-pays but they were minimal.) It's such a shame Kaiser doesn't extend to Connecticut.

Speaking of Kaiser, on 24th October I received an email from whoever is administering my health insurance payments, telling me I would be moving out of Kaiser's service area and I needed to email a request to enroll in a new plan (the included a link to available plans) along with my new address. I replied with the requested information the same day, and I still have not received an acknowledgement or notification of how much to pay and how to make payments for the new plan. They were almost this slow at the beginning of 2025 when I was trying to get my coverage continued, so I'm not surprised, but I'm very glad I have Medicare as well. I did some research into Federal Employee plans and it seems you can keep them along with Medicare, which is not true of some other employee plans as far as I can tell.

US healthcare is such a mess.

maju

An anonymous person has given me six months of paid access to DW. Thank you, whoever you are, for your generosity!

runpunkrun posting in

fandomcalendar

Photograph of the aurora borealis taken in Norway, text: Amnesty, at Fancake. The northern lights are a bright green scribble that stretches over the horizon, along a snowy mountain ridge, and up into the starry night sky.

fancake is a thematic recommendation community where all members are welcome to post recs, and fanworks of all shapes and sizes are accepted. Check out the community guidelines for the full set of rules.

This theme runs for the entire month. If you have any questions, just ask!

cahn

So yeah, anyone who has been around this DW for more than a very little while has known that we had a salon in which we discussed Frederick the Great in particular and 18th-century Enlightenment figures in general.

But nooooow we are going to have a Classics salon!

My Classics background is, er, well, I guess my Classics history is pretty much on par with or somewhat worse than my general non-US historical background (read: I know almost nothing, with some random pockets of slight layman knowledge), and my Classics literary background is signficantly worse than my general literary background (no real reason, it's not like I had a vendetta against it or anything, I think I just didn't happen to have a good entry point). I've read the Odyssey last year and the Aeneid reasonably recently, and the Iliad not so reasonably recently (perhaps this will be the impetus for me to check out the Wilson translation), and Ted Hughes' translation of selected Metamorphoses.

Please feel free to tell me what books I really ought to be looking at next! (I believe there has been some discussion of Plutarch?) Feel free to wax eloquent about your favorite translations, whether it's something I've already read or not! Also please free to tell me any of your favorite Classics history you want, because I probably don't know it :)

(This is not supposed to be just for

mildred_of_midgard and

selenak, although of course I expect them to be prime contributors. I know that many of you, probably all of you, know a lot about Classics that I don't know, so please inform me! Tell me your favorite things! :D )

summersgate

I took a little walk to the creek and lake yesterday with just Dave and Andy. Rainy refuses to go in the snow. Snowy pictures:( Read more... )

I've been getting a few things done lately that I had been putting off. I got the Straight Talk home phone cancelled yesterday. I hate calling up places and in the past when I called Straight Talk things didn't go well but this time it was very pain free. I'll never have to deal with them again.

This morning I ordered a second pair of glasses. The recent trifocal ones I got from the optometrist in August are okay for outside (they turn dark in the sun and I do like that) and for driving, but I do not like them for reading and close work. So I ordered another pair from zenni exactly like my previous ones that I loved so much but with an updated prescription.

Yesterday I finished the backs of 8 of the mosaic mirrors and attached hangers to them. I decided that I will think up names for them all. That's kind of fun. Some of the names so far: Dusky Lilac, Morning in the Vineyard, Dragon Green Teeth of White, Quiet Sunset, Amethyst Rose, Guidance, Evening Star.

Dave got his buck this morning so I'll have him at home a little more now. We're heading out soon to celebrate by eating lunch out.

preludian_staves posting in

100words

Title: How Did You Not See That Coming
Fandom: The Hobbit
Rating: Gen
Notes: A Thorin and his nephews live AU

( Read more... )

susandennis

I'm still not yet over the fact that I turn on my lamp in the morning and the light comes on immediately and does not flicker and stays on until I turn it off. Fucking miracle. I ordered more of those bulbs. One for the bathroom overhead fixture and two for my bed side lamps. All their bulbs work fine but the automation is flaky on each and they require 3 apps total. These bulbs will knock out two of the apps and delete the flaky.

Hazel dropped by last night. She says that the hospice workers are talking about letting John come back home (from the nursing unit). He has, apparently, after months of not eating, found his appetite. He was supposed to be dead way before now. But decided against it, I guess. She asked me to have Christmas dinner with the and their son. It was a lovely thought, but I think, no. I don't want to get chummy with the son and make it very easy for him to assume I'm ready to step in with their care/needs/etc. They both need a lot and I am just not up for it.

Also last night, I got an email telling me I'd been selected to serve on the Food and Beverage committee next year. I signed up for it the last two years but didn't make the cut til this one. Which turns out to be good. The new chair is sharp and nice and, hopefully, it will be interesting. It means two meetings a month and I already go to one of them so really just adding one.

Yesterday I changed the comforter on my bed to the winterwinterwinter one. It's about 14 inches thick. Of course, not really, but it is a very nice one with a lovely print and an even more lovely texture to it and burrowing under it, when it's cold, is the best sleep you can get. Ever. I finally have the temperature stable in here so that it's very cold at night and refreshingly pleasant during the day. The new thermostat they put in helps make controlling easier.

Also yesterday, I gave away my TV. I had a smallish TV in the bedroom that I never used. Last Summer I replaced it with a fan, which I never used and should probably get rid of, too. I put the TV under the bed. But the chaise cushion for the couch is also under there and it was getting crowded and bugging me. So I hauled out the TV (and was then able to push the cushion further in so you cannot see it from any angle) and bundled it up with its remote and legs and put it out in the elbow with a 'free' sign. It lasted an hour. It's such a lovely way to recycle shit. Easy peasy and someone is happy for sure.

I'm not sure what's on tap for today. I was toying with the idea of not swimming but it's so nice and gray and cloudy out, it's hard not to take advantage. So I probably will.

marycatelli posting in

girlgenius_lair

GEET HIM!

Bang drew a reaction. But then she had a reaction of her own.

languagelog_feed

Posted by Victor Mair

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72199&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-new-kind-of-lost-in-translation

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72199

Notable & Quotable: Lost in Woke Translation
‘Then a black Dutch fashion blogger wrote an article saying that Gorman’s work should only be translated by a black woman.’
Dec. 2, 2025

If we adhered to such a standard for choosing translators, where would it lead?

When the young black poet Amanda Gorman became an international success after reading her poem “The Hill We Climb” at Biden’s inauguration, seventeen publishers quickly bought the rights. To translate it into Dutch, Gorman suggested a white, nonbinary Dutch writer whose International Booker Prize-winning work she admired—the right kind of reason for choosing a translator. Then a black Dutch fashion blogger wrote an article saying that Gorman’s work should only be translated by a black woman. The white writer withdrew, but the story reverberated across the continent. A Catalan translation had already been completed and paid for, but since the translator was a white man, a new one was hired. A black rapper was found to translate the poem into Swedish, but because of a shortage of black translators, Denmark hired a brown woman who wears a hijab. The German publisher found a very German solution and hired an entire committee of female translators: a black, a brown, and a white one.

Appeared in the December 3, 2025, print edition as 'Notable & Quotable: Wokeness'.

From “Where Wokeness Went Wrong” by Susan Neiman in the Dec. 4 issue of the New York Review of Books

Conversation (comments)

No comment.

Selected readings

"A surfeit of katakana words: how do you say 'woke' in Japanese?" (4/2/25)
"The difference between deformation and devoidness" (9/5/20) — see the comment by Tim Saylor and the reply by VHM
"The plagiarism circus" (1/6/24) — in the comments
"Dying minority languages in Europe" (12/2/25) — note that a Catalan translation of Gorman's poem had been made

[Thanks to Mark Metcalf]

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72199&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-new-kind-of-lost-in-translation

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72199

lunabee34

1. If you have never gotten mail from me and would like to get a winter card, PM me your address. If you have received mail before but moved since, ditto. If you have received mail from me before but would like to opt out, ditto.

2. I have seen tons of speculation along these lines for the finale of Stranger Things, and I don't like it!

( spoilers )

smallhobbit posting in

100words

Title: The Stuck Drawer
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: G

( Help! )

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Ricky Buchanan

Not Done Living!

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Now Open: 10 True Loves

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Now Open: 10 True Loves

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[Challenge #471: Push] Hiatus

The Ghosts of Ashbury High, by Jaclyn Moriarty

Deep and Dark and Dangerous, by Mary Downing Hahn

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Fancake Theme for December: Amnesty

Classics Salon!

wednesday

The Hobbit: How Did You Not See That Coming

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Wednesday's Comic

A new kind of lost in translation

Winter Cards + Stranger Things Finale Speculation

Sherlock Holmes (ACD): The Stuck Drawer

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