It's the season of giving, God help us all! In the spirit of things, you have two options for the prompt this week:

Prompt #1 (The Festive Panopticon): write a story about a world where a benevolent presence watches over everything. "Benevolent" does not necessarily mean "intervenes directly to help the protagonist" or even "on the same side as the protagonist," but it must be authentically good -- no secret dystopias or Murder Jesuses or whatever. It probably should not actually be Santa Claus, unless you've got a really killer idea.

Prompt #2: (The Big Gift Pile): Anyone who wants to can and should post a gift to this thread, in the form of a prompt. This can be anything -- a song lyric, video, cat picture, actual story prompt, whatevs -- as long as it hasn't been used in TD before. You do not have to sign up to post a prompt! Just dump 'em in here. Anyone who cares to can take a gift from the pile, and that's their prompt for the week. Alternately, they can take two gifts -- greedy! -- with a toxx.

Clarification of the prompt rules: All you have to do to sign up is declare intention. You don't need to choose a prompt immediately! Just make sure you have your prompt before you actually write your story, and post it with your story, obvs. It's fine to hold off and see what hits the gift pile later in the week.

To start, I will seed the Gift Pile with the Christmas carol line that has been in my head for weeks:
glorious now, behold Him arise / King and God and Sacrifice

Have fun! Give gifts! Receive gifts! Try to post entries!!