Yuletide recs (part 1)

Dec. 27th, 2025 09:26 pm
snickfic: Danvers and Navarro with their backs to each other, looking down (TD Danvers/Navarro)
[personal profile] snickfic posting in [community profile] yuletide
Seven recs at my journal for:

True Detective: Night Country
Kyle Murchison Booth Stories
Companion
Kraken
My Sister and the Prince
Dragonriders of Pern (2x)

a handful of Yuletide recs

Dec. 27th, 2025 06:06 pm
isis: (yuletide)
[personal profile] isis
December has been busy-busy for me between Yuletide preparation (as a mod) and Yuletide preparation (as a participant who also took on a pinch hit), but now, ahh, everything is done and I can reap the rewards!

My awesome gift (5-minute fandom: British Airways "May We Haveth One's Attention" Safety Video):

A British Original: Discovering Haddersford House and Its Residents (2248 words, gen)
Summary: A magazine article from the world where characters in costume drama occasionally come to life of their own--and stick around after the cameras stop rolling and the crews have gone home.

I really had no idea what to expect from this request (just that I had to have something about this marvelous video!) and I love how it's played with an absolutely straight face. Also, there's a nod to Planet Vancouver, hee!

Speaking of the ridiculous played straight, this is understandable (and hilarious) with only osmosis knowledge of The Godfather:

An Offer You Can’t Refuse (Unless You’re Lactose Intolerant) (1008 words, Godfather movies, gen)
Summary: On the day of his daughter’s guinea pig’s wedding, Don Vito Corleone received a request he could not immediately refuse.

Absolutely the best Godfather fic ever.

The rest of my recs really do require canon knowledge, but I know many of you know these canons:

Memories Are Made of This (4002 words, Northern Exposure, Ed Chigliak-centered ensemble gen)
Summary: “So this is Cicely,” Ed said, gazing wide-eyed up and down Main Street. “Where’s the rest of it?”

This is wonderful - like an episode of the show, warm and funny and a little bit off-kilter.

Hoar and Hound (2236 words, Cadfael Chronicles, Brother Cadfael-centered gen)
Summary: On a frigidly cold December night, Cadfael follows a trail through the abbey grounds.

A lovely, thoughtful portrait of the abbey and of Cadfael. The way he quietly assesses the needs of the people (and creatures) around him is perfectly in tune with canon.

Dis Manibus (1364 words, Frontier Wolf, Alexios/Cunorix, Alexios/Hilarion, G)
Summary: Alexios goes out to make an offering to the shades of the dead, but he does not go alone.

This is lovely and tender and measured, and has something of Sutcliff in the descriptions. For me Alexios/Hilarion only works if it honors the close friendship between Alexios and Cunorix, before things went bad - and this is perfect.

We Greet the Peoples of the Tower (1717 words but heavily illustrated; Chants of Sennaar, gen)
Summary: There are some oddly regular scratch marks on a wall in the Alchemists' level...

Basically this is a fangame (though the game part is optional; the first set of chapters are illustrations with glyphs as in the game, and the second half holds the translations), a whole new level in which the Monster goes seeking the other peoples to assert he is a human and their brother. It's a moving story that fits with the game themes, and it's just very cool!

Actually, if you've played Chants of Sennaar, I recommend all the Yuletide works for the game as the fandom has clearly brought its A-game, they're all great. (The one above is just extraordinarily so!) And there are two Madness works I haven't even looked at yet!

7 Recs

Dec. 27th, 2025 01:04 pm
karanguni: (Default)
[personal profile] karanguni posting in [community profile] yuletide

I bring a quick 7 recs in 6 fandoms at my journal for

  • The Bedlam Stacks (backstory! Keita! Merrick!)
  • The Way of the Househusband (domesticity! But also porn!)
  • Antique Bakery (Ono and Tachibana in the mountains!)
  • Wimbledon (Peter is an idiot! But sort of okay at tennis!)
  • Cthulhu Mythos (Dream Cycle Randolph brings horrors to the yard!)
  • Snake Fight Portion of Your Thesis Defence/Rivers of London (no more need said!)

Yuletide Recs!

Dec. 27th, 2025 11:52 am
rachelmanija: (Autumn: small leaves)
[personal profile] rachelmanija posting in [community profile] yuletide
Recs in Chalion/World of the Five Gods - Lois McMaster Bujold, Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey, Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin, FAQ: The "Snake Fight" Portion of Your Thesis Defense - Luke Burns, The Long Walk - Stephen King, "The Lottery" - Shirley Jackson; New Yorker RPF, Lyra series/Caught in Crystal - Patricia Wrede, Mushishi, Some Like It Hot, Watership Down - Richard Adams.

At my DW, with commentary.

Yuletide Recs!

Dec. 27th, 2025 11:51 am
rachelmanija: (Autumn: small leaves)
[personal profile] rachelmanija
Here are some Yuletide recs, sorted for your reading pleasure by whether or not you need to know the canon.

Do Not Need to Know Canon

Chalion/World of the Five Gods - Lois McMaster Bujold

a knock at your front door. I think all you need to know to read this story is that there are five Gods - the Mother, the Father, the Son, the Daughter, and the Bastard - who are definitely real but rarely interfere in human affairs. They can, however, make people saints - able to do limited miracles - if they need to. This story deals with the Father, the God least-explored in canon, and is set in modern-day Chalion. It's got a clever look at what modern Chalion might be like, a very likable main character, and some beautiful writing.

FAQ: The "Snake Fight" Portion of Your Thesis Defense - Luke Burns

If you've never read the canon, I've linked it above. It's extremely short and you will be glad you did. There are other "Snake Fight" stories and they're all fun.

Snake Logistics for Spring Defenses. Some students are just begging for a black mamba.


Need to Know Canon

Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey

find the true. Mirrim and F'lar have a chat at a Gather. I enjoyed this conversation between two characters who I don't think ever exchange words in canon. Good characterization, good atmosphere.

Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin

to be useful, if not free. My gift! A backstory/canon diverge AU for Serret, the enchantress in A Wizard of Earthsea. Beautifully written, beautifully structured.

The Long Walk - Stephen King

There's No Discharge in the War. Stebbins in a time loop. Long, intense, often horrifying, sometimes very moving, and cleverly constructed story about Stebbins and the other Walkers.

"The Lottery" - Shirley Jackson; New Yorker RPF

Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death. Isaac Chotiner interviews the guy who runs the lottery in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." If you've never heard of him, he's a journalist who's very good at letting people hang themselves with their own words. The story is dead-on, hilarious, and chilling.

Lyra series/Caught in Crystal - Patricia Wrede

Three Things That Might Have Happened to Kayl Larrinar. My treat! A very satisfyingly bittersweet canon divergence AU for Kayl's Star Cluster, full of camaraderie and atmosphere.

Mushishi

I want to taste the shadows, too. A lovely little casefic/character study about Adashino, the guy who collects mushi-related stuff. It really feels like an episode of the anime, especially the final portion.

Some Like It Hot

Anchors Away. A short and very sweet post-movie coda.

Watership Down - Richard Adams

There is no bargain. Five encounters with The Black Rabbit of Inlé. An exploration of how the Black Rabbit is different things to different rabbits in different circumstances, very well-done, sometimes moving, sometimes chilling. The Black Rabbit is Death, so warning for rabbit death.

What have you enjoyed in the collection?

Yuletide Madness Is Live

Dec. 25th, 2025 09:28 pm
[syndicated profile] yuletide_admin_feed

Posted by morbane

There's a new post up on the Yuletide Admin comm regarding Yuletide Madness Is Live. Please note that there may have been a delay between that post and this crosspost.

You can go through to DW to check the details:

Dreamwidth Post

If you have follow-up questions, they can be asked in the DW comment section using a DW login, OpenID with another login, or a signed anonymous comment.

Rec list 2025

Dec. 25th, 2025 04:38 pm
sarajayechan: Touga and Saionji lying head to head on the floor of the dueling arena in another intentional parallel to Utena/Anthy ([RG Utena] Touga/Saionji)
[personal profile] sarajayechan posting in [community profile] yuletide
19 recs in 16 fandoms (Mahou Sentai Magiranger, American Girl, A Christmas Carol, Dirty Dancing, The Great Mouse Detective, The Haunting, Home Alone, Home Improvement, The Last Unicorn, The Lottery, Magic Knight Rayearth, Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, Mork & Mindy, The Odd Couple, The Secret Garden, Revolutionary Girl Utena)
bimo: (Cary_Christmas)
[personal profile] bimo


A happy and safe Christmas to everyone! Happy and safe holidays! I figured in times like these we all might need a bit of magic :-)

Yuletide Reading Bingo 2025

Dec. 25th, 2025 03:04 am
dianafortyseven: Agent 47 on a background of fluttering glitter (Default)
[personal profile] dianafortyseven posting in [community profile] yuletide
The 2025 Yuletide collection is revealed (and I managed to finish this with a slight delay), and many of us love to read more than just our own gifts and treats. If gamification is your thing, why not enhance your Yuletide reading experience with a fun challenge?
Yuletide Reading Bingo
Yuletide Reading Bingo 2025 (Permanent link to the 2025 version)

Yuletide Reading Bingo 2023 (Permanent link to the 2023 version)
Yuletide Reading Bingo 2024 (Permanent link to the 2024 version)

With this bingo card generator, you can generate your own Yuletide Reading Bingo Card and try to finish it over a timespan of your choice. If you like, you can challenge yourself to not only reading the fics, but also commenting on them. Last year, I saw people making reclists based on their bingo cards, which is such a cool idea to keep track of the fics they read for each square.

There are no fanfic/fandom/Yuletide-negative or bashing items in the lists. This bingo card is meant to be a positive experience and celebrate fanfiction and fanworks in general and Yuletide in specific.

Screenshot of the Desktop Version
example screenshot of the desktop version bingo card

Screenshot of the Mobile Version
example screenshot of the mobile version bingo card

How to Play
Generate a new bingo card until you're (mostly) happy with the results. If some fields are duplicates or contain items you don't want to have in your card, you can then re-roll every single bingo field separately by clicking/tapping on it.
Once you have a card that fits your reading habits (or that takes you out of your comfort zone, if you want to challenge yourself), take a screenshot of the card to keep it.

Closing the page and reloading it will reset the card.

Cross off the bingo fields on your screenshot as you read (or read and comment on) fics that you think count for a field.

Items like "Fandom with over 500 works" mean works in the fandom tag, not in the collection. There are specific versions for the number of works in the collection.
Items like "Fandom with over 1,000 works" doesn't mean qualifying works. There are specific versions for the number of qualifying works.
Items like "Highest number of hits in fandom" or similar however mean in this collection, not in the fandom tag.

If a work you read has a tag that's similar but not identical to a tag on your card, let it count. There were some almost-duplicates that I trimmed.

The Lists
  • Canon (options like canon released this year, book fandom, etc)
  • Category (the AO3 categories and their platonic versions: F/F, F & F Gen, etc)
  • Challenge (the unofficial mini-challenges like Yuleporn, Crueltide, Wrapping Paper, etc)
  • Creator (only if you checked the "After Reveals" box; options like favourite author, mutuals, etc)
  • Discovery (various ways you could've found a fic)
  • Fandom (options like previously ineligible fandom, uncategorised fandom)
  • Length (wordcounts from drabble to 30k)
  • Meta (a fic's front-end and stats, also "citrus scale for rating" xD
  • Protagonist (and side-characters, and POV; new list in 2025 that adds items like "female/non-binary/gender-neutral/male protagonist", various POVs and such)
  • Reader (your relationship with the fic; is it your comfort fic, or your first fic in a fandom?)
  • Style (chatfic, iambic pentameter, custom workskin, stuff like that)
  • Tag (roughly 1,800 tags from the 2024 main collection; more than 100 additional tags Madness)
  • Trope (roughly 100 tropes)


What do the Checkboxes Mean?
  • NSFW is basically what it says on the tin. If you tick this box, the NSFW tropes will be added to the mix. If you also ticked the Tags box, NSFW tags will be added.
  • Tags is also what it says on the tin. It's a list with currently roughly 1,800 tags from the Yuletide 2025 main collection. Around 300 of them are currently marked NSFW and can only be generated if you ticked both the NSFW box and the Tags box.
  • After Reveals includes items that only make sense after creator reveals, such as "work by last year's recipient" or "creator is your Tumblr mutual".
Leaving the NSFW checkbox unchecked should remove all NSFW tags and tropes, but you could still come across content you find objectionable. Leaving the Tags checkbox unchecked removes all tags, but you could still come across tropes you find objectionable.

This bingo generator can be used to generate totally safe-for-work or family-friendly bingo cards, but it was created by an adult with an adult audience in mind.

If you run into any issues or come across any bugs, please let me know.
If you find something that should be in the NSFW category, but isn't, please also let me know. It's possible that I missed a few tags when I worked through the list of over 2,000 tags in the 2025 main collection. Please don't ask me to remove content you find objectionable.
If there's anything unclear, feel free to ask! I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible, but please understand if it takes a while; it's a busy time for all of us. :D

Just FYI, the platform I'm using, Perchance, added AI options for their generators two years ago. This is a regrettable decision that I don't condone, and I'd like to emphasise that this generator is 100% handcrafted chaos.

This generator is based on my Fanfiction Reading Bingo I made as a little practice piece. It's responsive, which means it should work on desktop and mobile. The mobile layout isn't ideal yet; I'm trying my best to make it better (but I'd also still consider myself a newbie and I'm learning by doing).

The background image is an edited version of this photo by Stijn Verplancke on Unsplash.

I hope you'll find as much fun in using this generator as I found in making it! <3

Have a lovely Yuletide!

Yuletide 2025 Anonymous Period

Dec. 24th, 2025 10:35 pm
[syndicated profile] yuletide_admin_feed

Posted by morbane

There's a new post up on the Yuletide Admin comm regarding Yuletide 2025 Anonymous Period. Please note that there may have been a delay between that post and this crosspost.

You can go through to DW to check the details:

Dreamwidth Post

If you have follow-up questions, they can be asked in the DW comment section using a DW login, OpenID with another login, or a signed anonymous comment.

Yuletide 2025 is live!

Dec. 24th, 2025 09:36 pm
[syndicated profile] yuletide_admin_feed

Posted by morbane

There's a new post up on the Yuletide Admin comm regarding Yuletide 2025 is live!. Please note that there may have been a delay between that post and this crosspost.

You can go through to DW to check the details:

Dreamwidth Post

If you have follow-up questions, they can be asked in the DW comment section using a DW login, OpenID with another login, or a signed anonymous comment.

Happy Yuletide!

Dec. 24th, 2025 01:03 pm
rachelmanija: (Autumn: small leaves)
[personal profile] rachelmanija
The Yuletide collection is live!

Enjoy browsing the collection! Leave kudos and/or comments if you enjoy a story! Comment here to recommend stories, and/or recommend them at the [community profile] yuletide comm!

I have three stories in the collection. Can you find them?

I shall now spend the rest of the day cuddling with my cats and reading Yuletide stories.

[admin post] Admin Post: Snap, Reccle, Pop! Rec Index Post 2025

Dec. 25th, 2025 10:01 am
morbane: pohutukawa blossom and leaves (Default)
[personal profile] morbane posting in [community profile] yuletide

Recs: in general

The main Yuletide collection has just opened, with Yuletide Madness to follow shortly, so it's time to think about recs (recommendations)! It's traditional to kudos or comment on works and tell their anonymous creators that you liked them. It's also traditional to tell other people about the Yuletide stuff you like. There are many different ways to share your recommendations for works.

On AO3 itself
You can bookmark a story and add the bookmark and its notes to the Yuletide Recs collection. (Note: This is not the same as the main Yuletide collection.) Detailed tutorials can be found here and here.

In Discord
At the Yuletide Discord, you can post recs with very brief comments in the #yuletide-recs channel.

Here at Dreamwidth
You are welcome to post recs to this community Please follow the guidelines:
  • Any individual post to the community must contain recs for at least 3 separate works.

  • You can put the full text of your recs post in a post to the community, OR you can post your recs on some other platform, then put the link in a post on the community or in a comment to this post.

  • If your post is long, consider cut text code (DW) or details code to compress your text.



Recs: central/index post


THIS POST can also serve as a hub for recs. You're welcome to reply with your recs (especially useful if you don't have a Dreamwidth account). Or you can ask for recs that follow a theme, or just make a comment linking to a recs post elsewhere. Collect Your Recs Here!

36 Hours to Reveals

Dec. 23rd, 2025 09:28 am
[syndicated profile] yuletide_admin_feed

Posted by morbane

There's a new post up on the Yuletide Admin comm regarding 36 Hours to Reveals. Please note that there may have been a delay between that post and this crosspost.

You can go through to DW to check the details:

Dreamwidth Post

If you have follow-up questions, they can be asked in the DW comment section using a DW login, OpenID with another login, or a signed anonymous comment.
[syndicated profile] yuletide_admin_feed

Posted by morbane

There's a new post up on the Yuletide Admin comm regarding Reveals approaching! Help us get there!. Please note that there may have been a delay between that post and this crosspost.

You can go through to DW to check the details:

Dreamwidth Post

If you have follow-up questions, they can be asked in the DW comment section using a DW login, OpenID with another login, or a signed anonymous comment.

2025 Deadline Has Passed - What Next

Dec. 17th, 2025 09:28 pm
[syndicated profile] yuletide_admin_feed

Posted by morbane

There's a new post up on the Yuletide Admin comm regarding 2025 Deadline Has Passed - What Next. Please note that there may have been a delay between that post and this crosspost.

You can go through to DW to check the details:

Dreamwidth Post

If you have follow-up questions, they can be asked in the DW comment section using a DW login, OpenID with another login, or a signed anonymous comment.

(Less Than) 48 Hours to Deadline

Dec. 15th, 2025 09:34 pm
[syndicated profile] yuletide_admin_feed

Posted by morbane

There's a new post up on the Yuletide Admin comm regarding (Less Than) 48 Hours to Deadline. Please note that there may have been a delay between that post and this crosspost.

You can go through to DW to check the details:

Dreamwidth Post

If you have follow-up questions, they can be asked in the DW comment section using a DW login, OpenID with another login, or a signed anonymous comment.

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