Remus/Sirius Small Gifts

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Challenge
Name: R/S Small Gifts
Date(s): 2006-2019
Moderator(s): busaikko (2006-2007), magnetic_pole (2006-), mindabbles (2008-), sambethe (2008-)
Founder: busaikko & magnetic_pole
Type: holiday exchange
Fandom: Harry Potter
Associated Community: rs_small_gifts on Livejournal, small_gifts on Dreamwidth
URL: RS_Small_Gifts on AO3, R/S Small Gifts on tumblr
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R/S Small Gifts is a holiday themed gift exchange founded in 2006 by busaikko, as it would've been "a sad and lonely year without a Remus/Sirius holiday gift exchange". (http://rs-small-gifts.livejournal.com/399.html)

Along with Remus/Sirius Games, R/S Small Gifts is widely considered to be a highlight of the year in the Remus/Sirius fandom, with many fans returning to the fandom only to participate in the fest.

In 2012 R/S Small Gifts joined AO3 and tumblr. In 2017 R/S Small Gifts moved to Dreamwidth, due to the LJ controversy causing many fans to leave Livejournal.

Rules & Procedures

As the theme of the fest is small gifts, each participants signs up to create something small, like stocking stuffers, for another participants. Fics could be 500-3000 words, for example. Writing longer fic or creating elaborate art is discouraged as it goes against the spirit of small gifts.

Sign ups & Claims worked by participants commenting on the sign up post with their information and a small handful of short prompts. To claim, participants would comment on another participant's sign-up comment with a statement such as "I claim X's prompt 3!"

The fest is self-posting to the community's queue. The moderators "reveal" one or more gift per day until all gifts have been posted.

The fest isn't anonymous in the slightest, and participants are allowed to repost their works as soon as they have been posted to the community.

Bonus Round

During the 2009 Round, a Bonus Round was created. After the posting has wrapped up in December or early January, the Bonus Round starts. For this, anyone (not only participants) can create something for another person and post it to the queue.

The Bonus Round has been a part of the fest ever since.

Masterlists

Quirks

In 2010, R/S Small Gifts started a tradition in which they announced the sign-ups through what can at this time be best described as 4th-wall-breaking fanfiction; by having Sirius and Remus announce it. Below is an excerpt from 2010:

“Some small token, eh?” Remus asks, and he stops resisting the urge to fold Sirius in his arms. “Something that fits in your stocking?”

“That’s right.” Sirius rests his cheek against Remus’ and smiles. “The best gifts always come in small packages.”

“And you know,” Remus says, placing a soft kiss on Sirius’ lips, “sometimes they don’t come in packages at all.”

This tradition was likely inspired by the Remus/Sirius Games, which has had a similar tradition since 2009: They use they same format to announce the winners during the Reveals Party.