Grumpy Beastie's Other Lair

This was originally going to be five posts and posted last week, but I didn't want to spam my reading circle and they are all on semi related topics. I hope I was able to organize this in a coherent way.

What seems to be happening with stockings and exchanges I subscribe to:
2020stockings: I have no idea if they are running again this year, despite the name, or if the mods are opening up a 2021 Stockings for this year. Though last year, sign ups were from November 2 to December 1, so it seems unlikely they will run again this year.

fandom_stocking: Had a good run on DW from 2011 – 2018 (and before that on LJ). In 2019, the mod announced that due to serious IRL issues, they had to cancel, but hoped to come back later. No one seems to have heard from them since, so it doesn't look like this year is the year. I hope they are doing well.

fandomtrees: Haven't seen a peep from them on my reading circle, but the sticky post at the comm does say “updated schedule for 2021” with sign ups from November 18 – December 6 and gifting from November 20 – January 5.

holiday_horror: Technically, not a stocking, but a “Dear Krampus” letter comm. Nominations are closed and sign ups start the November 14th.

holiday_wishes: Are officially opening for wishlists and gifting Monday, November 15, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. PST (GMT-8)

in_a_peartree: They chose not to run last year and I see no signs of them running this year.

stocking_wishlist: Has not been updated since December 24, 2019. (Weirdly enough, my stocking is the last stocking ever posted there.) The admin's personal journal is active, but *shrug*

Things I just found:
mistletoe_exchange: They are running this year, but nominations and sign ups have already happens and are closed.

newyearcntdown: It's a post a day, prompts based challenge focusing on December and the end of the year. Sign ups end November 30th.

If you are looking for something more fandom specific, fandomcalendar has quite a few things listed there, though many have already closed their sign ups.

Other Stuff
seasonofkink: I believe their holiday challenge runs from December to February 14th, but they're in amnesty right now and all the info I can find is from their bingo they do earlier in the year.

For my madrona_project peeps:
The holidays are upon us and for the last 12 years we have always struggled to make a holiday event happen. Right now, we have the school fall festival and autumn table to play with. We were thinking we should continue to keep things simple, that would take place over December and January, yes both months. And yes, it will overlap with Sinterklaas, New Year's, and Dragon Fest. Those are not canceled.

These are the current options:

(1) I make a public 5x5 bingo card with prompts that are very specific to Madrona for everyone to play with

(2) I make a list of prompts very specific to Madrona for everyone to make their own 2x2 bingo cards

(3) I make a 10 prompt table of prompts very specific to Madrona

Which would you prefer?

With only 3 or 4 of us currently active, it does not make sense to try to run an exchange or a larger event like the Queen's Ball again at this time. (Though if you missed out on the Queen's Ball when we did it, you can revisit it or anything else ever hosted at Madrona in the past, like always.)

I will be crossposting this to the info comm.

SGA Secret Santa: Sorry, I don't have the link for this one. I have heard through someone doing the Miserable Fucks November Social that the SGA Secret Santa mods are trying to figure out why participation is down and it's apparently a pre-pandemic problem. Their sign ups are from the end of September to the beginning of October-ish and I know in the past I have heard people say that they don't do that exchange because sign ups are early and they miss it. If you are one of those people, this might be the time to say something. (Again, I have heard this indirectly, so take with a grain of salt.)

Non-DW Things:
If you are doing an exchange like Holiday_wishes or something else where you are allowed to ask and link to IRL things you want/need, but are not wanting to link to an Amazon wishlist for whatever reason, Etsy wishlists are public. It's their default. You can also separate things out into public and private wishlists, like on Amazon. I'm just putting it out there.

There are websites where you can compile wishlists linking to things you want from all over the internet, but I don't know which ones are the best. Having never used one or known anyone who has used one effectively, I can't make any recommendations. Though, if there is one you use and like, please let me know.

Supernatural Fans:
STANDS' holiday shop opened November 2nd. There are a lot of things they are saying they will no longer be reordering after the holiday shop ends, so if there was something you were waiting on, now might be the time.

Also, once again GISH and STANDS are doing Matching for the Holidays, stating, “We want every Gisher to be able to experience the joys/wtf of getting something fun & weird from our exclusive #GISH holiday shop.” Basically, you can apply to receive one item or you can apply to donate an item to someone who has requested to receive an item. You can donate as many items as you want. Matching is available world wide, meaning donors and recipients can be from outside the US. They will be accepting final submissions on December 3rd

Please go to gish or shopstands on Instagram for details.