It's sign-up time for...

(21st ANNUAL)
Do you know what time of year is coming upon us? That's right! It's Secret Santa time! This year marks PJ & Pixelation's 21st annual Secret Santa.
Unsure of how the Secret Santa works? You sign up here within the sign-up time. When sign-ups close you get assigned a random partner (giftee). Before the deadline you check their wishlist and make a pixel art gift for them. But SHH it's all a secret who you're pixelling for - you are the Secret Santa!!! When finished you send your gift to Mirre. In turn, somebody else (you don't know who) will be making a gift for you! Gifts will be revealed on December 27th on the forum, in the PJ News, and in a Twitch livestream hosted by Mirre.
Take a look at the previous years' Secret Santas here:
2024 - 2023 - 2022 - 2021 - 2020 - 2019 - 2018 - 2017 - 2016 - 2015 - 2014
2013 - 2012 - 2011 - 2010 - 2009 - 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005Still awake? Read everything? Great!! If you sign up below before or on the 25th of November, you'll be added to this list. After you submit your gift, we'll mark you on our list with a little
Last minute (almost) to sign up
I'm in!
Likes:
extra terrestrial
The X-files
Cute things
Colourful/ Cartoonish pixel
Dislikes:
Nooooo, just draw what you want is fine!
I'm in!
Likes:
- Metroid
- Weird l'il creatures
- Anticapitalism
- Spaceships and alien landscapes
Dislikes:
- Body horror
- being overly cutesy
I'm in ![]()
Likes:
- Beaches
- Cool breezes
- Green and blue
- Burgers
- Riding my bicycle
- Airports
- Medieval Armor
- Science Fiction
- Lovecraft
Dislikes:
- Politics
I'm in
I'm in ![]()
Likes:
- steampunk,
- Lovecraft
- black comedy
- dark fantasy
- zombie and happy goths (example: Nemi)
Dislikes:
- anime/manga
- sweet things like kittens
- policy
I'm in ![]()
Likes include:
- cityscapes
- warm colors
- Persona 1 & 2
- aquatic themes
- dolls (particularly a fan of classic porcelain dolls and ball-jointed dolls)
- the Commodore Amiga and the NEC PC-9801 series (the computers themselves. As far as hardware constraints in pixel art go, my favorite is the Commodore 64)
- art focused on characters/people
Dislikes:
- modern military themes
I'm finally getting around to joining in one of these.
My likes include:
- Body horror (I'm a fan of Junji Ito's work, Tomie is my favourite specifically)
- Earthbound/Mother 3
- Pokemon (Swampert is my favourite, Salamence, Togekiss, Duskull, Clefairy, Azumarill are a few others I also like a lot, otherwise I generally like Water types and Ghost types the most)
- Birds, king parrots are my favourite but I like most birds
- Rats
- Metroid
- 2d Fighting Games
- GBA/DS era pixel art
- Spooky stuff that's not inherently scary (although scary stuff is also good)
- skeletons
- vibrant plant life
- If you're partial to anime style, then my style preferences would be things like Soul Eater, Gachiakuta, and Bleach
- Indomitable human spirit
- Elder Scrolls
- Uncanny stuff
- Fictional Creatures, Urban myths, cryptids
- Early Simpsons
Dislikes are:
- Bananas
- Big mechs (evangelion is an exception, and I also don't mind small scale biomechanical stuff)
- Nothing overtly sexual please
- political figures
- Modern Military/War stuff
Hopefully there's enough here to spark an idea for someone without being overwhelming. Take as much or as little inspiration as you like, even if you have an idea based just off the vibes this list gives I'm sure I'll love it :)
Let's gooo! I'm in
Likes: Fantasy, dark fantasy (Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Game of Thrones, etc.), knights, castles, vast landscapes, mountains, Romanticism, Baroque, owls, naturalism / realism, academic drawing, anatomy / figure drawing, sci-fi, dragons, etc etc
Dislikes: the more years I do this the less I really care about dislikes, lol... tbh I'm happy with whatever someone has the time to make. If I had to pick, maybe cutesy / cartoony stuff / super saturated bright colors
I'm in!
What I likes:
You know what.... I'm in!
I like:
- Nature imagery, landscapes, liminal spaces and buildings
- Slice of life scenes and still life setups
- Cats (not in a furry way, but like, if you were to place a cat in your scene casually, I'd go nuts for that)
- Hot dogs
- Food in general (I enjoy a good depiction of meals and sweets)
- Pastel gothic vibes
- Sunsets and sunrises, small moments of peace and tranquility
- Hollow Knight, Silksong, Hades, Animal Crossing (Canberra my beloved villager), Fortnite
- Bees, insects, beetles, bugs of all kinds
- cute things
- limited palettes (obviously optional, but I strongly love pastels, especially the colours sunflower yellow, orange, light blue, green of all shades, purples, and pinks)
- when people make art they love and are proud of that leans into their strengths
- creativity, fun and whimsy !
AKA, feel free to ignore the prompts list if nothing there vibes with you. I'd much rather you had fun with this!
I dislike:
- gore / overly creepy, gross, or shocking things / war / political imagery
- NSFW (can be acceptable if tasteful)
- neon colours (they hurt my eyes)
I'm In!
I like:
'Risk of rain, hollow knight/silksong, deep rock galactic, wallpapers
I dislike:
nsfw, also anything that's considered gross or overly gorey
I'm in!
Likes:
- Shadowy people, spooky and eldritch or cute and friendly, or both (Hatman, Vivi, King in Yellow, Shadow Wizard Money Gang, that sort of thing)
- Demons (may be combined with 1st item)
- Robots (visibly robotic, not DBH type, think Daft Punk, Kay/0, etc.)
- Knights/warriors in full coverage helmets (it's like a creature!)
- Monsters with a masculine humanoid aesthetic, especially together with each other :)))
- Masks, robes, staves, orbs, tomes, different shiny baubles and neat-looking magical artifacts
- 70s sci-fi/fantasy artstyles, colorful surreal/alien landscapes, floating islands, Myst vibe
- RPG Maker or other horror game aesthetics
- Old weird tech, keitai phones, Sony Vaio P
- Nice-to-have but very optional colors: black, burgundy, dark magenta, dark cyan/emerald green, burnt orange
Dislikes:
- Overly sexualized women, bikini armor (on women. feel free to put one on a guy :p)
- "Soviet decay" aesthetic (I have enough of that IRL)
- Toilet/Gross-out humor, crazy caricatures (sorry)
- Post-WWI military
- Decay and rot
- Brainrot memes (time and place)
- Certain fandoms (Harry Potter, Marvel/DC)
I am in!
I like:
- Video games: Kirby, Sonic, Portal, Undertale/Deltarune, Hollow knights, in order of most to least beloved
- Weird/unexpected places/architecture (liminal or otherwise, also whatever they had going on in the first Digimon Adventure anime)
- Dark and gothic aesthetics
- The creature designs from Digimon
- Ruins
- Tense, subtle, or otherwise restrained horror
- Togedemaru
- The visuals I like sit anywhere in a triangle drawn between Kirby, ENA and Bloodborne
I dislike:
- Mean spirited and purposefully upsetting things
- Gore for pure shock value
- Food in the sink like who does that who put food in the sink it's gross
(PS: I'm fine with nsfw themes and artistic nudity as long as it's tasteful/respectful.)
Bluesky if you want to pry additional information from the corpse of my social media presence:
https://bsky.app/profile/birdsprobably.bsky.social
I'm in!
(Once again, don't mind the copy-pasted list. :'D)
I'm kinda all over the place for likes but you can look through my tumblr for some ideas too.
I like: (in no particular order)
-Colorful stuff! Especially with pastels or rich colors!
-Cute/interesting critters/creatures (I'm a big fan of Pokemon! Here's a list of my favs)
-Harlequinesque/jester/clown stuff, think like Jules Chéret, George Barbier, Armand Vallée etc.
-Old school fantasy illustration stuff like Warwick Goble, Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen, John Bauer etc.
-Memphis Group design :'D
-Imps, demons and devils
-Puffy Dresses! (cool/interesting fashion in general)
-"tasteful" gore/body horror (examples)
-Jojo's Bizarre Adventure :'D (Part 4 is my fav lol)
-Studio Ghibli films (my favorite is Kiki's Delivery Service)
-Katamari!
Dislikes:
-Mean spirited stuff
-Bleak dystopian/war stuff
-Politics
-Overtly sexual stuff (a cute pin-up is fine though)
So excited to join in on this!
I'm in.
Love animals, especially cats (most in the world), nature overall.
Dislike gore, violence.
I'm innnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn ! 3rd time yeeheheheherufdjwclxk. Copy pasting my previous message cuz im lazy asf lmao
I'm in! It seems I only do santa these days.
Media I love:
- Deltarune!!!
- Death Stranding 1& 2!!!
- Remembrance of Earth's Past! (aka the Three Body Problem trilogy)
- Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou!!
- BLAME!
- Control (2019)
- Ashita no Joe
- JJBA (especially Steel Ball Run)
- Serial Experiments Lain
- Last Exile!
- Project Hail Mary
Miscellaneous likes:
- Wallpapers!! Anything 16:9 to put in my slideshow folder
- Floating islands!!!
- Electronics!!! PCBs, schematics, components, silicon dies
- Old web!!!
- Göndola the bear!!
- Old phones!! (think pre-android java phones circa 00's)
- Post-Y2K PC & electronics aesthetics!! Win7, CRT monitors, Vaio netbooks, you name it
- Platonic solids and related polyhedra
- Smith Chart
- Futurism and retro-futurism, especially Soviet-esque and space-themed
- Brutalism!
- Dieselpunk
- Cats
- Frogs
Dislikes:
- Gore
- Violence
- Horror
Hello, I'm in!
> In:{
Desolate and Liminal Spaces,
Anomalies or Unknown objects,
Cosmic Horrors,
Dungeon Crawling,
Casette Futurism.
}
> Out:{
Politics,
Memes,
Too Much Colors.
}
And you can draw whatever you like to if you aren't having fun with the themes I said. I'll be happy with anything you loved making! ![]()
Hi! I'm in!
I'm in!
Likes: 2bit, abstract, portraits &figure drawings, anything really!
Can't think of any strong dislikes :)
I'm in!
i'm in!
i like sci-fi. alien worlds, space stations, robots, that sort of stuff.
not much a fan of fantasy. i don't like gore and spiders.
Innnnn
As always I'll be specific. This year I want a toy-turned-to-monster. It can be a scene, just the character or even a game sprite.
Joining again this year because I like SS.
Things I like
Things I don't like
I'm in!
I like:
-animals of any kind, fictional, wearing clothes, on four legs, whatever you name it! especially goofy looking ones. yes, even bugs though in that case maybe just a little less realistic looking
-non-humanoid races- related to above slightly.
-limited colour palette
-tokusatsu, especially showa era (I am most familiar with Ultra series and Godzilla)
-fictionalised knights
-robots/cyborgs
-men (as in like *like*)
-worldbuilding, especially if it focuses on mundane details, for example how elegant outfit would look like for orcs
-style studies (for example: drawing non-kirby characters in the first kirby's game style)
I dislike:
-gross-out humour
-anything military related thats not at least 3 centuries old
I'm in!
Likes: Common magpies, birds (especially corvids), cats, rats, scarves, autumn, winter, sci-fi, medieval fantasy, luminism, clouds, idyllic or bittersweet/thought-provoking moods
I'm in!
I'm in!
I'm in!
digs: space & spaceships, something I could use as a phone wallpaper would be cool so a scene with a vertical focus with these two items would be really nice(you don't have to make something incredibly complex or animated, but i enjoy the "rule of cool").
yikes: yellow
I'm in !
I like
First thing first is if you don't fancy any of these themes feel free to do whatever moves you! I like all these but i like even more art, pixel art, so go for it
portraits, gestures, landscapes are fine too especially if it features some characters.
Fantasy setting with no Manichaeism (like no "humans good, orcs bad"), mythical or folklore creatures like chimeras, harpies etc..
19th/20th century, impressionism/ post-impressionism, expressionism, belle époque and pretty dresses and costumes.
Circus golden age/ western stuff. If historical, anachronisms really welcome
Sci fi too (Final Fantasy 8!!, Ursula k le guin, outer wilds, the expanse, disco elisyum, etc...)
Children book style illustrations.
Nudity welcome but really not necessary.
Don't like :
Toilet humour, caricatures are risky too, nationalism
I'm in! ![]()
I like:
- birds
- mountains and all sorts of landscapes
- everything related to hiking, mountaineering and adventures
- I'm a huge fan of Disco Elysium and Like a Dragon game series
- Team Fortress 2
- Golden Kamuy manga
- colorful pictures
- medieval stuff, knights espesially
- fonts design, calligraphy, typography and everything related to it
- modern orthodox iconography
I do not like:
- nsfw
- war and military stuff
I'm in!
Likes:
Dislikes:
I'm in ![]()
I enjoy fantastical maps, fortresses, cities, geographies, landscapes, monuments, machinery, tools, equipment and character archetypes. There isn't much i particularly dislike. I'm particularly fond of the weapon designs of Paladins and Team Fortress 2.
I'm in!
I especially like:
Since that's a bit general, some other things I like:
Dislikes:
You don't have to do all of these at once of course, just pick what you feel like, and don't worry too much about the style, I like pretty much everything as long as it's made of pixels.
I'm in!
I like dark dungeons, weird knights, studs, spikes, witchcraft, sorcery, landsknecht style mercenary outfits, rotten atmospheres, detailed sprites, tiles, unique palettes, cursed items, helmets, towers, abondoned machinery, ruins, lil houses, mollusc spirals, strange doors, crustacean creatures, tunnels, statues, wires, fucked up tanks, horned beetles, scythes, bizarre skulls, secrets, lottsa lil guys.
I'm in!
Likes;
Original works with some form of storytelling in them.
Take inspiration and make whatever you like. I enjoy a surprise.
Dislikes;
Transparency/things without a background.
Remakes/redraws of existing media/paintings etc.
But most of all! Have fun!
I'm in!
I like:
- bridges and the liminal
- moody landscapes
- medieval knights
- moody video game mockups
I dislike: subjects and things that people would call you a degenerate for if you drew them.
I'm in!
I Like: ...dang, a lot of things XD. I like anything DnD or Videogame-related, specially retro (Snes era). my favorite games are Megaman (Classic and X), Terranigma, Zelda, Odin Sphere and Chrono Trigger/Cross, so anything akin to that would be amazing, specially Terranigma and Megaman inspired art! Regarding styles I like Fantasy, Steampunk and also Mecha (Think Gundam or Eighty-Six), so you can choose your forte ^^. Adding more possible things, I love Wolves, Owls, Dogs, Cats, Tigers and colorful birds :3. My favorite colors are blue, purple and teal.
I dislike: gore, nsfw, abuse/violent scenes and while I don't mind antropomorphic or furry art, it's not my preference unless it's like a DnD inspired character like a Tabaxi, Frog and the rest of the antropomorphic characters in Chrono Trigger and Cross or a Charr from Guild Wars to give some examples. If it's tasteful and cool, I'll love it :3!
I'm in!
I'm in!
I like:
I dislike:
Pixel Art Restrictions
I am in!
I like:
-limited palette
-small format
-vibrant color block compositions
-stylized dithering
-atmospheric scenes
-visual tension
-lanscapes
-botanical elements.
I don't like:
none,just have hun!
I'm in!
I'm in,
I like
I don't like
There isn't much I dislike, but you have a lot of leeway to work with! Go ham.
i'm in
i like
birds, flowers/plants/fungi, broken statues, haloes, joan of arc, interesting palettes, patterns, james turrell, félix vallotton, mythology, retrofuturist sci-fi, a sense of scale
i don't like
epic pop culture mash-ups
"internet culture"

I’m in. Some things I like: aardvarks, birds, cityscapes, dynamism, exoplanets, fantasy adventures, giant robots, hidden worlds, imaginative details, jackalopes, keas, large robots, magicians, nineteenth century art & illustration, one-bit dither, personal vision, quite small robots, robots, silksong, tasteful melancholy, ultra tiny robots, very impressive clouds, William Gibson, xenon 2, yaks, zebras or zebroid animals that are secretly robots after all. And some I don't: brand name TV/movie scifi (Star Wars and Treks etc.)
I'm in!!!!!
I like, in no particular order:
I dislike: not much really. Feel free to lean into your strengths.
I'll just copy last year requests![]()
I love:
Things I don't like do exist, but I don't want to hit the things you like drawing. Really hope even if you don't like my themes you'll make the piece the way you enjoy
![]()
I'm in!
I like many things.
I dislike:
In the end, do whatever inspires you. Add your own flair.
I'm in!
Likes:
Dislikes:
IM IN!!!
Likes:
Dislikes:
The more contrasting concepts you can fit into one piece the better!!! I love insane drawings. :)
I'm in!
Likes:
Dislikes:
I'm in!
Likes:
Please don't:
I'm in
.
I likes: Bug (especially Beetle) ,Uniqued Fantasy Weapon ,Eldritch Monster, Silkweave Pallete, Turquoise, Dark purple
I dont like: What i see when i stand infront of a mirror, Fish eye perspective, industrial product
yeaahh
Likes:
Unbounded self-expression
Dislikes:
descriptions writing
I'm in.
Likes:
Not necessarily all at once.
Closing the Sign Ups now!