Distant bells are a'jingling, Sign-ups are a'tingling!

[merlin-hols.livejournal.com]

Welcome to Merlin Holidays 2019!

Sign ups will open at 12pm GMT (UTC) Monday 16th September 2019!
(what time is that for me?)

sign up here!


Sign ups will close at 12pm GMT (UTC) Saturday 21st September 2019!
(what time is that for me?)


A handy sign-up guide we prepared earlier: https://merlin-holidays.livejournal.com/97956.html

Items of note this year:

• Pairing nominations have been increased from 5 to 10 to improve chances of a solid match for all you rarepair lovers!

Reminders for all participants:

• If you're open to receiving art, please also include some art-friendly prompts in your sign ups for the fabulous artists among us!


• Be generous with prompts! Please give as many prompts as possible to enable easy matching, don't be shy! Remember that your gifter is going to need as much help as possible to give you something you will enjoy! If your requests are very few and very closed to interpretation, it will be very difficult to make sure you're happy with your gift! Give the elves as much to work with as you can, and be as open about them as you can to ensure a match and a happy outcome for all!


• Be open minded with requests! Please remember that this is a gift exchange fest, and as such, you are signing up to write or create art for someone else's preferences and likes. There are bound to be elements of the request that do not suit your personal tastes, but we are asking all of you to keep an open mind about your giftee's requests, and to concentrate on the things you can do, rather than those you can't. Please remember that the mods work very hard to ensure that participants are carefully matched up. We don't rely on automation, we do this manually, one participant at a time! Please check your giftee's promps carefully and choose what you can work with and ignore what you can't (except the DNWs - please don't ignore those!).

Unfortunate but necessary updates to our rules:

• Participants who default after receiving their gift will be banned from future participation


• Participants who ghost (do not post on their scheduled day and do not get in touch with the mods) will be banned from future participation


• Participants who defaulted after receiving their gift last year or who ghosted last year are not invited to participate this year. Please contact the mods on merlinholidays at gmail dot com if you're in doubt.

The 2019 schedule:
Sign-ups open: Monday 16th September, 12pm UTC (what time is that for me?)
Sign-ups close: Saturday 21st September, 12pm UTC (what time is that for me?)
Assignments out: Wednesday 25th September
Fanworks due: Sunday 8th December
Posting begins: Wednesday 11th December