Just under the wire, three more:

( Wind Will Rove (Pinsker) [don't need to know canon except that it concerns a generational ship], Arrival/Story of Your Life [don't need to know both canons, do need to know one], Scholomance [do need to know canon] )

I am folding my gifts in because they were SO GOOD, all of them were basically in my Favorites of Yuletide if not My Absolute Favorites :D Trying to get this done in between Family Stuff, so apologies for any inadvertent errors. Have made notes as to whether canon knowledge is needed or not.

( Recs in 18th Century CE RPF x2, In This House of Brede - Rumer Godden, The Instrumentality of Mankind - Cordwainer Smith x2, A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine x2, The Ravens' Tower - Ann Leckie x2, Slings & Arrows x2, Star Trek: Rihannsu - Diane Duane, Tanakh x2 )

I did Trick or Treat for the first time this year and I got three presents, eeee! :D

The assignment gift:
Day of the Ice Queen (383 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary:

A gift for the Trick or Treat Exchange 2018

Just a quick fluff story of Olivier Armstrong, some time after the events of canon take place. Very minor spoilers for FMA:B, but nothing life-changing.

Basically, I will read anything about Olivier Armstrong, particularly when she's interacting with her family :D Cute fluff, yay!

And two treats!

The Sorrows of the Earth (2080 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Don Carlos | Don Carlo - Verdi/du Locle/Méry
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Carlos/Rodrigue, Philip II & Rodrigo, Philip II/Elisabeth de Valois, Carlos/Elisabeth de Valois (unconsummated)
Characters: Rodrigue | Rodrigo, Carlos | Carlo, Élisabeth de Valois | Elisabetta di Valois, Philippe II | Filippo II, The Grand Inquisitor
Additional Tags: Trick or Treat: Trick, Canonical Character Death, Angst, Pining, Betrayal, Ghosts, Loyalty
Summary:

It was not the voice of the Emperor.

:D I wrote the prompt "What if Rodrigo were the ghost that shows up at the end, rather than Charles V?" and it got written for meeeeee!! I really appreciate how it takes all the relationships Rodrigo's formed into account -- Carlo, of course! and the Rodrigo-Philip strained bond, and the Rodrigo-Elisabeth bond that in the opera exists more in reference than in on-screen time, but is brought out here as well -- and how it makes some things different, and changes the meaning of others, while keeping others the same. (Also. This fic's ghost!Rodrigo is sooooo much more effective than useless Carlo V in every way possible. THANK YOU AUTHOR.)

iberiandoctor and I have been having loads of fun writing increasingly less anonymous Don Carlo fic for each other (...I probably win the prize on this, but), so, er, yes. Thank you iberiandoctor!!

Coaching the Princess: A Zombie Epilogue in Verse (4844 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Евгений Онегин | Eugene Onegin - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Tatyana Larina/Eugene Onegin, Gremin/Tatyana Larina
Characters: Tatyana Larina, Gremin (Eugene Onegin), One Zombie Pumpkin, Ensemble
Additional Tags: Trick or Treat: Treat, Humor, Fluff, Moving On, Halloween, Magic
Summary:

Original prompt: Tatyana's cute zombie pumpkin pal helps her get over Onegin and fall properly in love with Gremin! Or something.:)

Now this one. This one. Is the one where someone wrote me almost 5k of Pushkin sonnets. I can't even believe someone did that at all (like, I might... be able to write... one? a it would take me a while), let alone for me! Pushkin sonnets where, indeed, an incredibly cute zombie pumpkin helps Tatyana get over Onegin and fall in love with Gremin, with bonus ghost!Lensky and two ghost letters, and it's also this profound story about what love means and how we love. And also extremely funny! It's just everything I adore about both the verse-novel and the opera, and just so brilliantly done.

I could not imagine who was super amazing enough to do something like this until I got to what may or may not have been a hint tucked in the middle, at which point I immediately realized that selden is indeed super amazing enough to do something like this. ...I don't know this for sure, but it's my guess :D

Other works of note (in the small fraction of the fic I've actually read). Full disclosure that I have betaed for two of the works listed below :)

In the Cards (753 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Alliance-Union - C. J. Cherryh
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Ben Pollard, Jurgen Graff, Meg Kady, Signy Mallory
Summary:

Well, someone has to keep them alive.

Perfect Ben voice, snarky and elliptic and calculating all at the same time. Quite well done.

Catching the Lark (2786 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Les Contes d'Hoffman - Offenbach/Barbier
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Giulietta (Les Contes d'Hoffmann), Dapertutto (Les Contes d'Hoffmann)
Additional Tags: Shadows and Reflections
Summary:

Giulietta makes a bargain with a mysterious stranger.

Can be read without knowing canon. A lovely, beautifully-written, creepy story.

For some reason there isn't a share button on this fic so I can't share it the way I do the others, but I will just drop a link: What Gets You Through, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood/Manga, is a brilliantly Ed-voice huddling-for-warmth/Canadian-shack Ed/Mustang fic.

απολογία | apología (4572 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Greek and Roman Mythology
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ἁδης | Hades/Περσεφόνη | Persephone (Hellenistic Religion & Lore)
Characters: Περσεφόνη | Persephone (Hellenistic Religion & Lore), Ἁδης | Hades (Hellenistic Religion & Lore), Charon
Additional Tags: Worldbuilding, Travelogue, complicated family relationships, Rituals, Love in difficult situations, Wooing, Gift Giving
Summary:

It is not a right and natural place, the underworld, and Hades tries and tries and tries to make her realm's majesty measure up to the up above and never quite makes it right. But he keeps on trying, and she keeps making the journey.

A gorgeously-written story about Persephone, and Hades, and the god-sized compromises that have to be made in a marriage of gods.

Turning Point (1720 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Real Penguin Fiction
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Happy Feet
Additional Tags: First Person, Penguin POV, Creepypasta
Summary:

I knew there was something wrong a long time before I got back to land.

Oh man, this is a creepy story about what happens to a penguin. It has an unambiguously happy ending, but I'm not sure I will ever look at the local zoo's penguins again in quite the same way.

*dusts off this journal*

frayadjacent has convinced me to give snowflake_challenge a chance! We'll see how much of these I actually end up doing :)

Day 1

In your own space, talk about why you're participating in Snowflake and, if you’ve participated in the past, how the challenge has affected you. What drew you to it? What did you take away from it? What do you hope to accomplish this year?

I like reccing, and also the only time I've actually done the challenge it inspired me to go talk to philomytha, which I might never have done otherwise — and my life would have been immeasurably poorer for that, because she is awesome. So. Let's try it out. (…and skip day 2, right off the bat :) )

Day 3

In your own space, post recs for at least three fanworks that you did not create.

The Piper (14736 words) by Stultiloquentia
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tam Lin - Pamela Dean
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Janet Carter/Thomas Lane
Characters: Lily Carter, Andrew Carter, Robin Armin
Additional Tags: Coming Out, Hapless Undergraduates, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Family
Summary:

Seven years after Janet and Thomas' ordeal, Lily and Andrew Carter are both students at Blackstock. The ol' impregnation-and-running-tackle trick isn't going to cut it this time.

Holy cow, I somehow missed this at the time — pitch-perfect Tam Lim voice, old and new friends, a wonderful plot, POETRY, quotations — this is amazing.

A Further Sally, or The Miracles of Amentia (3420 words) by CenozoicSynapsid
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Cyberiad - Stanislaw Lem
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Trurl, Klapaucius
Additional Tags: Mathematics, Humor
Summary:

In which Trurl and Klapaucius, the far-famed constructors, visit a planet whose inhabitants hold ridiculous misconceptions about religion. Can their problems be solved with the aid of the Higher Mathematics?

Perfect Cyberiad adventure. I might have lost it when they define the ring, not to mention the Banach-Tarski theorem. BRILLIANT.

Fimbulwinter (3856 words) by Elsane
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Der Ring des Nibelungen | The Ring of the Nibelung - Wagner
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sieglinde/Siegmund
Characters: Sieglinde, Freyja (Norse Religion & Lore), Hel | Hela, Siegmund
Additional Tags: mad appropriation of mythology, canon twincest
Summary:

Things to do on Yggdrasil when you're dead; or, Sieglinde, too, has a chance to choose her afterlife.

SIEGLINDE. GETS TO CHOOSE. YES. YES.

I got some wonderful fics this year and read other wonderful ones :) I also have a gift-squee post here, but I thought I'd add a couple more to make this a proper rec post :)

My gifts:
( Der Ring des Nibelungen, Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (anthology) - James Tiptree, Jr. )

Other recs:
( Other recs in Expert Judgment on Markers to Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion / 1850s London Cholera Epidemic RPF, Dalemark Quartet, Vorkosigan Saga, Alliance-Union, Dead Authors Podcast, Tam Lin - Pamela Dean, Once and Future King, )

So, a first crack at Yuletide recs! Mostly shorter ones, because I haven't had time to read longer pieces yet. Four from Madness, the rest from the main archive. I'm folding my (five!!) gifts in because I would absolutely rec all of them even if they weren't my gifts! (My gift-squee post is here.) Also, a little heavier on the poetry recs. (I promised elsewhere to read all the poetry-based fics in the archive, and really I thought all of them were good, so even if I don't specifically rec it here, I recommend it!)

( Recs in Blue Castle - L. M. Montgomery, Church Going - Philip Larkin, A Few Figs from Thistles - Edna St. Vincent Millay, Gunnerkrigg Court, The Instrumentality of Mankind - Cordwainer Smith, The Listeners - Walter de la Mare, Norse Myth/Frozen, Preiddeu Annwn | The Spoils of Annwn, Sweeney Todd )

I haven't had time to read that much in the archive, but the ones I have read have been lovely! Here is my present:

To everything there is a season... (11619 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The People - Zenna Henderson
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

This is a lovely story about the power of family/community for redemption, plus which we get to see what happened to Bethie-too, and as an extra bonus that one of the People who was present at the bombing of Hiroshima, which was something I would have asked for if I had had any hope of getting it, and there are so many wonderful details that are so Zenna Henderson. And it is full of life and light and joy and love, just as a People story ought to be. It is probably readable without knowing canon.

( Recs in Arm Joe, Earthsea, Gunnerkrigg Court, and The Lady of Shalott )

YOU GUYS YOU GUYS I GOT THE MOST AWESOME STORIES!

I got TWO stories for rarewomen, first time I've ever gotten more than one, both Dido-focused Aeneid stories, and they are completely different and I love them both so much and I am so, so glad I asked for Didofic because YAY. Go read and comment!

The Wanderer (1298 words) by Adlanth
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Aeneid - Virgil
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Dido of Carthage, Anna (Greek and Roman Mythology)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, IN SPACE!, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And also not AU

Those alt-universe tags, incuding the "And also not AU" one? Yup. Gorgeous story, gorgeous prose, playing with time and alternate Didos and mythology.

Trouble Any Which Way (1033 words) by misura
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Aeneid - Virgil
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Dido of Carthage, Aeneas (Greek and Roman Mythology), Iris (Greek and Roman Mythology)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Space

Dido in SPAAAACE! Dido gets to kick butt and just be awesome! YAY!

(I also wrote three stories, which I'll talk about in another post someday...)