#happy holidays it is that time of year

[obsob]

once more around the sun!! :3

[tizzymcwizzy]

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! i have another marichat holiday themed piece for y'all :D (imagine this is stuffed in ur stocking or smth (along with some tiny candy canes))

[ramonapest]

Pressure is, it's kind of my thing

@d20exchange gift for @doodlididi!

[inkskinned]

for the longest time my family used to host one of the biggest haunted houses on my block: elaborate, themed amateur haunts that pearled out along our lawn for one-night-only. spinning circus wheel-of-terrors and walkthrough alien crash-landings and spiders that arched over our driveway, leaking venom onto your feet.

we didn't have a lot of money; and honestly i don't know how we afforded what we did have. there were not going to be pneumatics or projectors or any supply over 20 dollars - and even 20 was a stretch. we were lucky, and we lived in a town that had a "swap shed", where people would drop off any banged-up-but-usable items that they wanted to get rid of. the whole year, my family would pick over someone else's discarded fans and lights and weird decorations, asking each other - what do you think? for halloween?

we would strip the motors out of rusted fans and spraypaint vases and saw broom handles in half and apply a very thick coat of cardboard and duct tape to everything. for our pirate year, i made the mistake of individually drawing woodgrain onto each strip of cardboard that made up the ship. i then gently painted and distressed the "boards" so they'd each have lichen and cracks and unusual patterns. i hid eyes in the knots and shaped skulls. you couldn't see any of it in the dark, even under our "spotlight" (someone's target-branded workshop flashlight).

i have a lot of very strange skills as a result. i know how to make a flying ghost appear both physically and in the mirror. i know how to make a witch's brew that stirs itself. i know how to burn and cut and paint until there is an iron throne you can sit on, or an alien brushing your ankles, or a hearse trundling along. i can't say we ever made it beyond our local newspapers, but we tried so hard that the town would regularly shut down our street.

i can't put any of these skills on a resume, and i haven't been able to put them to use for a while. i live in an apartment, there's no lawn for me to decorate. for years i've wanted to do an alice in wonderland theme, and have been collecting ideas like coins in a fountain. at other houses, i am transfixed by 12 foot skeletons and paper mache spooky lanterns; easily wooed by the knowledge of how much time people put in.

someone asked me once - so what was the point? and why didn't you guys charge anything to show up?

in truth, we probably needed the money. for years there, we were a 1-meal-a-day kind of a family. i was being polite earlier up in this essay: we furnished both our house and our halloweens using things left a recycling center. we live in new england and still didn't turn on the heat until the end of november, no matter how low the temperature.

every year we would collect donations for unicef and other charities. on an average year, we would collect enough to pay for our food for weeks. every year, without fail: we donated every penny.

this endeavor took months to plan and design and execute. we had to organize any volunteers and check safety and hope-for-the-best. it took at least 24 hours to set up, a week to take down. the motors and fans and lights all had to be packed tight. the cardboard would scatter, pangea in the rain and sleet. i remember picking up a plank from that pirate ship, the paint blown clear off, all my hard work completely erased. a new kind of driftwood.

if this was a poem, and not a memory, i could wrap this up prettily. i could say that these skills landed me a cool job in the haunting industry or that it taught me the value of friendship and responsibility. but i actually think it's something better, something very pretty: there wasn't ever a moral to it.

the night was a long one. yes, there were assholes, people who broke stuff. but mostly it was just kids like us in cardboard costumes, dressed as an incredibly niche kind of truck. good parents who were friendly and laughing. teenagers who slunk in at late hours, wide-eyed and secretly delighted; who asked us can i help next year? like, do y'all take volunteers, or whatever? every year more people came, and told their friends, and offered to pay. and every year we said maybe next year and meant absolutely never.

we did it because it was enough to love something, and to make that love visible. we did it because there is very rarely an excuse to have fun. i think maybe especially, for me - we did it because every year, there was one first "customer" somewhere around 3-4PM, while we were still putting on the final touches. the sun would still be up, and we were frazzled and always-running-late, and these kids saw our vision unfinished in the bright light of day.

something about their parents murmuring say thank you and telling my mom this setup is so sweet while this little kid would grin up at us, dazzled by our artistic mediocrity. the fall air and the chill and their coat-over-a-panda-princess-costume. that first phrase of the night awkwardly managed over a pair of overly-large vampire teeth: a beautiful and excited trick or treat!

[starflungwaddledee]

alas, it seems the christmas mystery shall remain unsolved 🎁 happy holidays!

[jinkitsuragi]

[7cfc00]

home is where the heart is (and yours is gone)

[mobius-m-mobius]

#too soon NASA... too soon 😅🎄

[anewp0tat0]

Black Butler Amino, Black Arts Magazine - Holiday Party

it doesn't quite look like a holiday party from here, but what I imagined as a humble little piece is~~ Ciel and Lizzy sneak away from the big bustling midford Christmas party and raid the kitchen desserts, like they did when they were kids(it was Lizzy's idea, Ciel clearly hasn't been himself since he returned, and she wanted to bring him back).

[secretsimpleness]

Sometimes I want to bring Morrigan but then I remember I play as a face-tanking rogue and I bring Wynne. Warden Cousland, Morrigan, Wynne / Dragon Age Origins (c) Bioware

[rileyclaw]

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watch out for rogue snowballs this winter . happy holidays from emerald trio (: !!

[chacerider]

happy holidays 💖🎄

[ambivartence]

🎉 Every Month of 2023 🎉

Link your favorite or most popular post from each month this year <3 (it’s totally fine to skip months!) and tag some CCs you love!

January: Sugar Rush Ride Taehyun February: Best Friend Ever Mark March: Yeonjun Sketches April: For Moonbin 🌙 May: GT Hangyul June: I know You know Lee Know July: Bad Hangyul August: Kuromi Lee Know for Mel September: 90s Love Jeno October: Teddy Bear I.N November: Crush Hanbin December: Candy Jeno

Tagging (no obligation! <3): @agibbangs @aunty-tiger-potato @bangzchan @bibitzy @booskwan @coupsnim @dakbees @dinoboos @gnanii @gyusgal @haechannabelle @hwichanis @kimjiwoong @lee-minhoe @lunetual @marklyluvr @miramizar @mouseoho @nctsworld @oddinarys @quokki @rainknow @seungkwan-s @shorelinnes @snug-gyu @soonhoonsol @sunghanbin @we-survive-endlessly @wifehwa @woodziecup @xiaojuun @xiaoxiongmaos @xuseokgyu + anyone else who wants to join <3

Here's my 2022 and 2021 recaps. Also here's some fun stats i collected on my own posts hehe:

[eelektroenthusiast]

"Someone's missing. It's feels verrrry different. But I'm not alone"

Made this in a day and a night so it's... rushed, this is basically an excuse for me to practice different styles (hopefully it makes sense?)

Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone!!

[cozyautumnhalloween]

[khazure]

Let's GOOO HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY MIKU!! YIPPEE