If you aren't sure what to ask for, then yeah, unofficial is probably a good way to dip your toes in the water.
There's a post here (http://yuletide.livejournal.com/1166399.html) where participants can put up their letters, i.e. the posts where they talk about what they'd like to receive. There's a bunch now, and I guarantee there will be more before we're done! You can browse through it for fandoms you know and enjoy, and see if any of the prompts catch your fancy. If one does (or more than one), you can write it and upload it to AO3 as part of the Yuletide collection, with the requester tagged as the recipient, and lo! They have a treat.
You can also sign up on the pinch-hit list -- I don't have the details for that on hand, but I can dig them up. That one is more commitment, since if you get assigned a pinch hit, you have to write the story by the deadline. But it can also be a lot of fun, since basically you're swooping in to Save Yuletide for somebody. <g> There's a lot of competition to get pinch-hits, since they're first come, first served, which adds to the excitement. And afterward, pinch hitters are invited (but not required) to make some requests of their own, so that people who want to can write them treats as a thank-you.
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There's a post here (http://yuletide.livejournal.com/1166399.html) where participants can put up their letters, i.e. the posts where they talk about what they'd like to receive. There's a bunch now, and I guarantee there will be more before we're done! You can browse through it for fandoms you know and enjoy, and see if any of the prompts catch your fancy. If one does (or more than one), you can write it and upload it to AO3 as part of the Yuletide collection, with the requester tagged as the recipient, and lo! They have a treat.
You can also sign up on the pinch-hit list -- I don't have the details for that on hand, but I can dig them up. That one is more commitment, since if you get assigned a pinch hit, you have to write the story by the deadline. But it can also be a lot of fun, since basically you're swooping in to Save Yuletide for somebody. <g> There's a lot of competition to get pinch-hits, since they're first come, first served, which adds to the excitement. And afterward, pinch hitters are invited (but not required) to make some requests of their own, so that people who want to can write them treats as a thank-you.
Either of those sound good to you?