There are two collections each year. You can post to either one. Gifts which are at least 1000 words long go into the main Yuletide collection which opens on December 25th once everyone has a story. Yuletide Madness opens 24 hours later and there is no word count requirement. I missed signups one year, so I ended up writing 100 word drabbles for prompts or letters I found interesting, and I posted the Invitational hoping other people would like to play too. And they have!

Does that help?