Merlin Holidays

Put on your comfiest winter gear and grab your supplies because Merlin Holidays is coming to town! 2020 has been a year, but the holidays are still on the horizon in the distance and what would they be without some Merlin-themed treats?

We hope to see old and new faces join us in our cocoa-sipping, scented-candle-infused frenzy!


The schedule for Merlin Holidays 2020 is as follows:
Sign-ups open: Monday 14th September
Sign-ups close: Friday 24th September, 12pm UTC (What time is that for me?)
Assignments out: Wednesday 30th September
Fanworks due: Tuesday 1st December
Posting begins: Monday 7th December

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

We are happy to announce that sign-ups for the 2017 Merlin Holidays Exchange Fest will open:

Saturday, September 16, at 10 a.m. EDT/2 p.m. GMT/3 p.m. BST.

Sign-ups will close on Thursday, September 21, at 11:59 p.m. EDT

This is an anonymous exchange fest for Merlin fandom. All pairings and ratings are welcome! Below you will find community rules and the schedule. This is not a sign-up post. This is an information post so you can decide if this fest is for you!

2017 Schedule
Sign-ups open: Saturday, September 16 (10AM EDT/2PM GMT/3PM BST)
Sign-ups close: Thursday, September 21 (11:59PM EDT/3:59AM GMT/4:5 BST)
Assignments out: Monday, September 25
Fanworks Due: Sunday, December 4
Posting begins: Monday, December 11


1. All participants must be at least 18 years of age. No exceptions.

2. Sign ups will take place through AO3. There is no cap on sign-ups, so you can sign up right up until the sign ups close.

3. This is a fanwork exchange, which means that you will sign up to create a gift work (art or fic) for another participant based on their prompts. In return, yet another participant will create a gift work for you based on your prompts. WIN-WIN-WIN!

4a. For your request:
You must submit 3-5 distinct prompts for your gift creator to work with. You can give as much or as little detail as you like, but please try to strike a balance between giving your creator enough to work with versus overwhelming them and restricting their creativity. If you don’t put any detail at all and just say “whatever you want to create is fine!” you are someday going to end up with the first Merlin Hols non-con mpreg scat fic, and your mods will be powerless to help you.
You must choose whether you would like to receive fic, art, or either.
You must choose some freeform tags indicating various tropes or kinks that you would enjoy seeing in your gift (a minimum of 3, a maximum of 20)
You must indicate any tropes/kinks/genres that you absolutely would not enjoy seeing in your gift -- if you don’t indicate it here, it’s fair game!
You should include your twitter and tumblr names so that we can tag you when your gift is posted

4b. For your offer:
You must choose whether you would like to create fic, art, or either.
You must choose at least one pairing you are willing to write or create art for.
You must choose the ratings you would be willing to create.
You must choose some freeform tags indicating various tropes or kinks that you would enjoy writing or creating art for (a minimum of 3, a maximum of 20).
You must indicate in the text box any tropes/kinks/genres that you absolutely would not want to write or create art for.

4c. WHY TAGS ARE SUPER IMPORTANT OMG. AO3 uses the tags in your sign-up to match you with your recipient and your gift creator. The more specific you can be about what you want, the better a match you’ll get and the happier everyone will be with their gifts. Your mods also use the tags to double check the matches.

5. You cannot choose the person for whom you will create a fanwork. You will be assigned a recipient via email after matching is complete. You will also be able to find your assignment on your AO3 dashboard.

6. All fics must be at least 1,000 words. Fanvids must be at least 45 seconds long. Fanarts must be a complete piece and more than a sketch or preview (lines inked or seams blended). All graphics should have some element of storytelling. There is no upper limit as to length or quality.

7. You do not have to use all of the prompts or tags listed in your assignment (that would get messy fast!) Just focus on creating something you think your recipient would enjoy!

6. All fanworks must be able to stand on their own and not be part of another series or a sequel/prequel to other works by the same fan.

7. All works must be cleaned up and beta-ed. Please do not thank your beta(s) by name in your notes until after the reveals to preserve anonymity. They’ll understand.

8. The moderators reserve the right to return any fanwork for revision if they feel it does not meet the recipient's request, or does not meet the quality standards (beta-ed and cleaned-up).

9. You will post your work to the Merlin Holidays collection on AO3 on or before the due date (see schedule). If you need an extension, you may request one no sooner than one week before the due date. If you know you will not be able to complete your assignment, please use the AO3 default button as soon as possible to give us time to find a pinch hitter for your recipient. That being said, please don’t sign up if you are not 100% committed to fulfilling your assignment and know you’ll have the time to do it before the due date. IF YOU DEFAULT LESS THAN ONE WEEK BEFORE THE DUE DATE, YOU WILL NOT PARTICIPATE NEXT YEAR.

10. All fanworks posted to the collection will be exclusive to Merlin Holidays until the names of the creators have been revealed. Please do not post them elsewhere on the Internet until that time.

11. Anyone who defaults ONE WEEK PRIOR TO THE DEADLINE OR LATER will not be able to participate next year. If you ask for an extension and then default or disappear, you also will not participate next year.

We are happy to announce that sign-ups for the 2016 Merlin Holidays Exchange Fest will open TOMORROW TOMORROW TOMORROW:

Monday, September 5, at 10 a.m. EDT/2 p.m. GMT/3 p.m. BST.

Sign-ups will close at 10 a.m. EDT/2 p.m. GMT/3 p.m. BST on Tuesday, September 13.

This is an anonymous exchange fest for Merlin fandom. All pairings and ratings are welcome! Below you will find community rules and the schedule. This is not a sign-up post. This is an information post so you can decide if this fest is for you!

NEW FOR THIS YEAR -- YES, YOU MUST READ THIS

• This is optional, but please consider including your twitter and tumblr usernames with your sign-up. This is so we can tag you when your gift is posted!


• There will be no cap on sign-ups this year. So relax, take some time to really perfect your sign-up. You won’t get shut out.


• Anyone who defaults ONE WEEK PRIOR TO THE DEADLINE OR LATER will not be able to participate next year. If you ask for an extension and then default or disappear, you will not participate next year. We feel super mean and sad to have to be so strict, but honestly guys, last year was really brutal with the extensions and the nagging and the frantic search for pinch hitters. We will explain this a little more in the next post.


• The tagging requirements are changing slightly this year in the hopes of making the matching process a little easier. We will not require genre tags (i.e., angst, fluff, etc) as we found that they didn’t really help with matching in the past. Instead, we recommend that you use as many specific tags for the tropes, kinks, or other story/art elements that you want to receive or create.

( Full 2016 Rules and Schedule )