Happy Boxing Day! To celebrate the New Year, we will look back on 2024 and look forward into 2025. As is the custom at this blog, we draw on the predictions of you, the reader.

On New Year's Day, I invite you to give predictions for what you think will happen in the coming year.

Then, on or about New Year's Eve of the next year, we will check those predictions and see who made the best one. The winner will receive the coveted but only virtual Gluten Free Award, named after reader BernankeGlutenFree, who predicted the COVID pandemic.

So this New Year's Eve, next Tuesday, we will check the predictions for 2024. Then on Wednesday, New Year's Day, we will start the new contest for 2025.

The best predictions are those that not only come true but are not obvious, indeed, might seem unlikely or out of the blue. Like predicting COVID.

This contest and these posts are free and open to all, whether you are a subscriber or not, so feel free to spread the word.

In the meantime, be thinking about your predictions (you can make as many as you like) for the coming year, and come back on January 1 to post them in the comments.