Stranger Things Secret Santa 2025 - Of Soulmates and Coffees - For Dan - 20.12.2025
It was a pleasure to work on this gift for @yesdangerpls for the @strangerthingsfests's Secret Santa !
I hope I did alright with combining things to make it a cute Coffee Shop with Soulmates AU doubling as a meet-cute 😊💕
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays !
Done using ink pens, colored pencils, alcohol markers, graphite pencils, gel pens, acrylic paint pens and Photoshop for the light and shadows effects, the background and foreground elements, the pattern on Steve's polo shirt, the patches and pins, the jewelry, Steve's glasses, the drink in Eddie's and Steve's hands, and the glow on the red string of fate
AO3 post / Bluesky post / DeviantArt post / Instagram post / Pillowfort post / Twitter post
Hi mods !
I might be a big dumdumb, but I wanted to check because I couldn't find the info anywhere, if there was any about it : Do we have an AO3 collection we need to post to ?
Have a nice day !
Hi!
There's no AO3 collection for this event, so everyone can post their finished gifts on their preferred platforms following the instructions below.
How to post your finished gift:
- Posting period: from December 20th to December 24th
- You have to post the 100% completed gift during the posting period.
- The gift must be posted in its entirety during the posting period. Serial posting (posting in chapters across several days) is not allowed.
- The anonymity lasts only until posting, so you can post your fic and art under your own name, and as an Artist you may use your watermark on the art piece.
- The finished gift can be posted on any of your chosen platforms, such as Tumblr, AO3, Dreamwidth, Bluesky, etc.
- There will be a post about every gift on the STSS blog, so if you have Tumblr, please make a gift post that can be reblogged easily. If you don't have Tumblr, please send the posting info to [email protected] and the post will be made for you on the blog.
- Please tag your Tumblr post with “strangerthingssecretsanta2025”, @strangerthingsfests, and @ your giftee if they have a Tumblr.
- Tag your AO3 post with “Stranger Things Secret Santa 2025” and gift them to your giftee if they have an AO3 account.
- Please tag your gift and use warnings accordingly!
The Stranger Things Secret Santa event is here! ❄️⛄️🎄🚲🌟❄️
If you would like to take part in a low pressure winter holiday season gift exchange, and turn someone’s world on its better side with a fanfic or fanart that was created based on their own prompt(s), you’re at the right place.
Everyone is welcome to join the fun if they love the Stranger Things universe and the characters within. This event is open to all ships and characters.
Since the creating time period will overlap with the release of the first four episodes of the 5th season – and there’re more than one spoilery trailers out there –, it will be mandatory for every participant to answer the question on the sign-up form if they’d be okay with spoilers (from the trailers and/or released episodes) when it comes to their requests and offers. Spoilers are taken very seriously.
❄️You can SIGN UP HERE!❄️
⛄️SCHEDULE⛄️
September 16-30 – Sign-up period
October 2 – Assignments sent out
October 5 – 1st Check-in
November 20 – 2nd Check-in
December 5 – Last day to ask for an extension
December 10 – Assignments due
December 20-24 – Posting period
⛄️RULES and GUIDELINES⛄️
🌟General🌟
The STRANGER THINGS Secret Santa is a gift exchange kind of event focusing on The Stranger Things tv series.
All participants must register via the sign-up form providing their preferred contact information, age, acknowledgement of reading and understanding the rules, gift requests and offers.
Participants must be at least 16 years old to sign up, and only those 18 years old or older may request and submit Mature- or Explicit-rated artwork or writing. If a participant is found not to be honest about their age, they will be disqualified and banned from possible future events.
Participants may register as both a Creator (Author and/or Artist) and Pinch hitter.
Signing up as a Pinch hitter is not a commitment, it just indicates your willingness to take on a gift in case of a drop-out. If a pinch-hit opportunity comes up, the Mod will reach out to all participants who have signed up as a Pinch hitter.
Participants are expected to read and adhere to the rules of the event. If you need clarification about any of them, it is your responsibility to ask the Mod for clarification.
All writing and art for this event must be your own, previously unpublished, and inspired by your given assignment.
This event is being promoted/hosted on Tumblr; however, it is not mandatory for participants to have a Tumblr account. Works can be posted on Tumblr, AO3, Dreamwidth, etc.
To ensure the anonymity of the gifts, participants are prohibited from sharing any details of what they’re working on prior the posting and revealing period.
🌟Ships/Characters🌟
This is an open-to-all-ships-and-characters event with only one rule: works are expected to center around one or more characters from the Stranger Things universe.
Works do not have to be strictly canon in nature, but should still have some element related to canon universe, characters.
Creating in an Alternate Universe is allowed if it is mentioned by the giftee in their request.
If you don't feel like working with any kind of character or ship (be it romantic/platonic relationship or friendship), you have to mention it on your sign-up form.
Bashing or shaming any actors, characters, ships, kinks, tropes or stylistic preferences will not be tolerated and will result in a ban from the event.
🌟Communication🌟
Check-ins are mandatory, and will be conducted via a form which will be emailed to participants in the week preceding the due date.
If a participant misses a check-in, the Mod will make one attempt to reach out. If no response is forthcoming in the next 48 hours, the participant will be dropped from the event and a pinch-hitter found if necessary.
If a participant needs to drop out or they are having trouble working on their assignment, they have to contact the Mod as soon as possible.
Limited extensions may be possible. If a participant is in need of an extension, they must contact the Mod until December 5th.
If a participant does not submit their gift by the deadline (December 10) and fail to contact the Mod, they will not be eligible to participate in possible future events.
🌟Author Requirements🌟
Authors will create one complete story inspired by one of their giftee’s requests.
The story must be at least 1,000 words in length. There is no maximum length.
The story must have all the appropriate warnings and ratings.
The story must be at least minimally beta-read for spelling and grammar before posting.
Any character depicted in a mature or explicit sexual situation should be 18 years or older. Pedophilia and zoophilia as a theme, or rape that is glorified is not allowed.
🌟Artist Requirements🌟
Artist will create an artwork inspired by one of their giftee’s requests.
Artists are required to complete one (1) piece of artwork.
Accepted art forms:
Digital art/drawing/painting
Traditional media artwork such as pencil, charcoal, acrylic, watercolor, etc. Both 2D and 3D works are acceptable as long as they are clearly photographable or scanned to minimum image requirements.
Comic strip
Moodboards with min. 6 images
Gifsets with min. 6 images (made and edited by the artist)
Playlists with at least 10 songs.
Video submissions minimum 30 seconds in length (Must include a disclaimer for any and all clips and music used.)
Other artwork guidelines/restrictions:
Images should be of a minimum 500px width, with no maximum size limit.
Any character depicted in a mature or explicit sexual situation should be 18 years or older. Pedophilia and zoophilia as a theme, or rape that is glorified is not allowed.
NO AI-generated artwork will be allowed.
The artwork must have all the appropriate warnings and ratings.
Credit to any source material must be given.
🌟How it works🌟
You can sign up for the Stranger Things Secret Santa by filling out the sign-up form.
The information you give in your sign-up form will be the deciding factor in the gift you’re going to create and the gift you’re going to receive.
You have to request 3 different prompts. You can specify your favorite characters or ships and any characters or ships that you don’t want to be featured in your gift, or that you don’t want to include in the gift you make. You can also add the content you are comfortable creating (SFW and NSWF likes, favorite tropes, Do Not Wants). You can also give additional tags that could help with the matching process.
If any of the requests contains spoilers for the 5th season, the request have to start with “SPOILER ALERT”.
During sign-up everyone have to answer the question if they're okay or not with any spoiler from season 5.
After the sign-up closes, every participant will be matched with an other participant based on both what they are able to create, and what they are willing to create.
After all the participants have been matched, you will receive your assignment until October 2nd.
🌟Posting🌟
Participants will have to submit their finished (or at least 90% completed) gifts until December 10th. This will give us a 10-day window to work around any last-minute dropouts. Hopefully, there will be none, but life happens, as we all know, so it never hurts to be prepared.
How to submit the finished gifts: Participants can submit their gifts via a Google Form by uploading the files or providing access to them via a share link until December 10 th. (This is needed just to make sure that the gifts are completed and everything will go smoothly when the time comes for posting.)
The gift posting will start on December 20th and ends on December 24th. This means that every participant will have to post the 100% completed gift during this time period. The anonymity lasts only until posting, so everyone can post their fic and art under their own name, and Artists may use their watermark on the art piece.
The finished gift can be posted on Tumblr, AO3, Dreamwidth, Bluesky, etc.
The gift must be posted in its entirety during the posting period. Serial posting (posting in chapters across several days) is not allowed.
When the gift is posted, you have to send the permalink to the Mod via email.
If the gift is posted on AO3, it can be gifted to the giftee. If the gift is posted on Tumblr, you can tag your giftee and @strangerthingsfests.
Every gift will be promoted, reblogged on the event blog.
In case you have any more questions, feel free to send in an ask or PM!
Also, if you can, please share/reblog this post to spread the word. ✨
If you don’t want to miss anything, you can follow this blog or you can also track the #strangerthingssecretsanta and #strangersanta tags.
@strangerthingssecretsanta gift for daphne (@should-i-gay-or-should-i-go)
link to playlist
Merry Christmas, Daphne! I hope you enjoy your gift. Below the cut is the track list and a short rationale of my choices for you. I hope you love this mix! Wishing you all the health and happiness this holiday. ❤️
01. fall out boy; alone together. i picked this because of the line mike says to will, “if we’re going to be crazy, at least we can be crazy together.” this song always reminded me of that!
02. callum scott; dancing on my own. this robyn cover is perfect and amazing because it doesn’t change pronouns at all and so reminds me of will longing after mike, tbh.
03. the fray; look after you. an old, cute track that makes me think of mike taking care of will and looking after him while he’s recovering from the upside down.
04. onerepublic; kids. innocence at its best, honestly! it makes me think of mike and will growing up, believing they’re invincible, and as long as they’re together, nothing can touch them.
05. imagine dragons; monster. poor will. this song reminds me of him during season 2!
06. fenech-soler; demons. this is seriously one of my favorite songs of all time. despite its sort of angsty message, the beat is so poppy and fun and always sort of reminded me of the 80′s. the lyrics remind me of will speaking to mike and needing support while he literally runs from literal demons.
07. callum scott feat. tiesto; dancing on my own. i doubled this track because it screams byeler to me, honestly, but this version is more upbeat and fun to dance to.
08. boyce avenue; time after time. boyce avenue is one of my favorite artists! they always release the best covers. i threw this in for some cute snow ball nostalgia while maintaining a modern twist on the song.
09. kygo feat. john newman; never let you go. this song comes off an album called kids in love, which i felt was so perfect for byeler, honestly. the songs are all so cute and innocent and sort of relate to that first-crush feeling you have when you first fall for someone as a kid, which is super appropriate for will and mike. this song reminds me of exactly that -- a first crush that you can’t get enough of, someone you always want to spend your time with!
10. foster the people; sit next to me. in a similar vein to the last track, i chose this one because it reminded me of that first-crush feel. mike and will are enamored with one another and want to spend time together, period, the end. they want to sit next to each other.
11. mgmt; kids. this is a personal favorite song of mine because it reminds me of my adolescence, honestly. super coming-of-age, which is what stranger things is all about. PLUS the line “the water is warm, but it’s sending me shivers” is SO will s2!
12. boyce avenue; castle on the hill. another cute cover that reminds me a lot of will and castle byers. i know this song is all about ed’s childhood, but i can definitely hear it from will’s perspective, too.
13. kygo feat. onerepublic; stranger things. an obvious choice, also from the album kids in love. it’s literally the perfect song and again reminds me of first crushes.
that’s it, my dear! i hope you love the mix! happy holidays!
Heya, for secret santa, my name is Aubrey, I love plants, alternative/indie music, sooo many fandoms (hp, st, twd, htgawm, got, more..), aesthetics/photography, and cats. This is such a great idea! Thank you ❤
Aweee thank you! I really appreciate you participating <3
hey there! for the secret santa thing, i'm pearl, (i'm also reallyjustaneggoscommerical) im IN LOVE with stranger things (it is my life force). i ship mileven with every bone in my body! i also love bob's burgers, tøp, melanie martinez, artic monkeys, halsey (im alt trash), and art! i'm so excited for this!
Ahhhh me too! Thank you for participating and being a helper <3
