Silmarillion Secret Stockings

A gift event for the Silmarillion fandom. Please check the pinned post for more info! Photo credit: Kieran White

[silmarillionstockings]

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Greetings, travelers and gentlefolk! 

Welcome to Silmarillion Secret Stockings.

A fandom event to celebrate the end of year holidays with prompt-based gifts. Who has never wished for a few cheeky elves in their stockings, or a dragon by the fireplace? This is a low-pressure, all-are-welcome event where you can propose prompts and fill people’s stockings with all that Silmarillion goodness!

2026 Schedule:

Sign-ups: October 26th - November 1st

Creation period: November 1st - December 30th

Deadline: December 30th, 9pm UTC

Work reveals: January 1st, 9pm UTC

Creator reveals: January 8th, 9pm UTC

Rules, requirements and FAQ: here

Ao3 collection: here

You are welcome to join the Lost Tales Community Discord server to get in contact with the mods and other participants! While this is not mandatory (you are just as welcome to reach out to us here), we'd love to have you!

[silmarillionstockings]

Save the Date! Silm Stockings will be back!

We know people have already been excited, so for everyone's planning and schedules, here's this year's relevant info:

Rules, requirements and FAQ: here

2026 Schedule:

-> Sign-ups: October 26th - November 1st -> Creation period: November 1st - December 30th -> Deadline: December 30th, 9pm UTC -> Work reveals: January 1st, 9pm UTC -> Creator reveals: January 8th, 9pm UTC

We have made some minor changes for this year, as follows:

The prompting period has been shortened to a week, the creation period has been extended to 8 weeks

You can now request up to 10 relationships & characters, rather than 5

Works upon submission must be complete and be able to stand on their own

We can't wait for another year of stuffing those stockings with all of you! 🧦

[silmarillionstockings]

The Collection is live!

The moment you've all waited for is here—all 201 stocking fills are now live! Please find the collection here, enjoy the treasure trove of fics, and stay tuned for the creator reveals on January 8th!

We want to say a huge, huge thank you to all participants, to the cheerleaders, to everyone who made sure that not a single stocking went unfilled. We're blown away by the enthusiasm for this little event; none of it would have been possible without all of you!

A happy new year to all of you, and 'till next year! 🧦💙

[silmarillionstockings]

And the creators are revealed!

Once more a huge thank you to everyone, it's been a blast! 💙

[silmarillionstockings]

Hi, what happens if the received work includes a DNW specified in the prompt? I'm not sure how much/in what extent the work features it, but the tags and the author's note makes it look like it's included.

Hi, that is very unfortunate. The best thing to do would be to contact us directly via DM so we can have a look at it for you.

[silmarillionstockings]

Hi! I'm not sure if this has been asked before (or if it's listed somewhere and I just can't find it which is very likely), but I was wondering if answering to comments on the fics before the author reveal would reveal the author before time or if it would remain anonymous? Because I got some absolutely lovely comments and I'm dying to answer them but I don't want to accidentally mess up

Hi! Answering to comments on the fics will not reveal the author. They will remain anonymous until the collection reveal - thanks ao3 for this lovely feature. So answer away!

[silmarillionstockings]

The Collection is live!

The moment you've all waited for is here—all 201 stocking fills are now live! Please find the collection here, enjoy the treasure trove of fics, and stay tuned for the creator reveals on January 8th!

We want to say a huge, huge thank you to all participants, to the cheerleaders, to everyone who made sure that not a single stocking went unfilled. We're blown away by the enthusiasm for this little event; none of it would have been possible without all of you!

A happy new year to all of you, and 'till next year! 🧦💙

[silmarillionstockings]

In my experience, it's common for exchanges to have a deadline by which a person's primary assignment has to be done, but I have never seen a standard practice that the collection itself is closed prior to reveals. Closing early means that you cut off that period of pre-reveals excitement where lots of treats tend to get written and posted, so it does surprise me to see you making that decision - though of course it's your event, and you absolutely have the right and are entitled to do whatever you want with it! :)

Respectfully, that is simply not true. Most fests have a considerably longer period between deadline and posting, not shorter, and the schedule of this particular event was published and clear from the start. Thank you for your feedback, but we will be keeping the schedule as it is going forward. You are of course welcome to not participate accordingly, or to run your own event.

[silmarillionstockings]

What is that time gap between the closing of the submission and the revealing of the works ?What purpose does it serve

It have been one very long daayy I dont know how I will survive another

Hi! So having some time between deadline and reveals is pretty standard in fic exchanges and fic fests - it allows time for last-minute pinch hits or for (very short!) extensions for people who need them.

Given that our event didn't have a minimum word count, we figured three days was enough rather than a week or more like you'd see in other events.

[silmarillionstockings]

Hi! I was trying to post a fill, but it looks like the collection is closed. I thought works weren't coming out until the 1st. What's going on?

Hey!

As per the schedule (see also our pinned post or the ao3 collection), works were due on December 29th, so that we could assess if there were any last-minute pinchhits needed before the collection goes live on the 1st. That said, if you reach out to me ( @queerofthedagger here, or under the same username on discord), I can work with you to still get your work in.

[silmarillionstockings]

All the works are going to be revealed at once ?

Like waking up on the second of jan ( timezones) and 130 fics to read ?

This is what rich people Christmas must feel like

Yes! They will be revealed all at once in one big ficstravaganza.

So sit back and enjoy!

[silmarillionstockings]

Many of the prompts have really inspired me but I haven't had time to fi ish all the fills I wanted. Will we be able to fill prompts in future?

Hi! Thanks for the ask and your enthusiasm. We do not plan on keeping the collection open and running beyond the dates of the event. However, the prompts will still be visible for people who want, and you can always gift fics through ao3, the regular way.

[silmarillionstockings]

A few notes on posting

With already a few works in the collection (you're all amazing) just a few pointers:

Please make sure that you're fulfilling the claim you've written for! You can do this either directly through the collection, or by ticking the relevant claim in the "Associations" rider of your posting form (right under the summary box).

Fulfilling a claim does not automatically gift your fic to the prompter. You have to do this manually, if so wanted, within the "Associations" rider yourself. We strongly encourage you to do this!

If you fulfil a claim, ao3 will copy/paste the entire prompt into your notes section. As these tend to run long due to the nature of this, you are more than welcome to delete the parts that don't apply, or to delete all of it, so that it only says "In response to a prompt by [X] in the Silmarillion Secret Stockings 2025 collection," without any of the further info.

If you have posted to the collection and are now looking for your work, you can do this by going to your stats page (Open ao3 -> My Works -> Statistics in the rider on the left). You can then access and edit your works, e.g. to gift it to your prompter.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have further questions, and keep having fun filling those stockings! 🧦💙

[silmarillionstockings]

A reminder, and also a heads-up in case people are confused: the collection will stay open to post all through December 29th, so that all timezones have time to post their works on Monday!

[silmarillionstockings]

Hello, so question, I completed a stocking, I filled it on AO3 just to save it as a draft to be ready for January 1st, and it gave me this lines:

wondering if that means that is already set to be reveal on the 1st, or if I have to go and publish it like any other draft I have save of my own fics. Sorry I had never participated in a promp/claim dynamic before!

Heya, thanks for reaching out!

You do need to publish the draft yes; it will stay unrevealed and anonymous until we reveal the collection (posting on January 1st, author reveals on January 8th), but we can only do that with works that are fully posted to the collection.

And no worries at all, questions are always more than welcome!

[silmarillionstockings]

A few notes on posting

With already a few works in the collection (you're all amazing) just a few pointers:

Please make sure that you're fulfilling the claim you've written for! You can do this either directly through the collection, or by ticking the relevant claim in the "Associations" rider of your posting form (right under the summary box).

Fulfilling a claim does not automatically gift your fic to the prompter. You have to do this manually, if so wanted, within the "Associations" rider yourself. We strongly encourage you to do this!

If you fulfil a claim, ao3 will copy/paste the entire prompt into your notes section. As these tend to run long due to the nature of this, you are more than welcome to delete the parts that don't apply, or to delete all of it, so that it only says "In response to a prompt by [X] in the Silmarillion Secret Stockings 2025 collection," without any of the further info.

If you have posted to the collection and are now looking for your work, you can do this by going to your stats page (Open ao3 -> My Works -> Statistics in the rider on the left). You can then access and edit your works, e.g. to gift it to your prompter.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have further questions, and keep having fun filling those stockings! 🧦💙

[silmarillionstockings]

Hello, I wanted to ask if it is alright to post fics in the collection for our claims? I have one that should be done soon!

Yes, you can fill your claim already! Fics will remain unrevealed until the big reveal day.

[silmarillionstockings]

A quick, general reminder/heads-up that this event is not the space for queer- and transphobia, misogyny, or any other forms of bigotry, discrimination, or harassment. We are and remain very firmly anti-policing of any fictional content, but we also want this to be a joyful and safe space for all, which means not tolerating the intolerant on the non-fictional side of things. Thanks for your notice, and have fun filling those stockings!

[silmarillionstockings]

Hello! I just found out about the event, would I still be able to sign up or contribute to the event in some way or should I just wait for next year?

Heya, thank you for your interest!

Stocking signups are closed now, which means you won't be able to leave any prompts to be filled. If you do feel like giving gifts regardless though, you are more than welcome to claim from the existing prompts!