Eat a feast to bring you luck. New Year’s is full of global food traditions that are supposed to bring luck and good fortune for the year ahead. Dishes include pork and sauerkraut from Germany, pickled herring from Scandinavia, black-eyed peas and collard greens from the American South, and the Spanish tradition of eating 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight.
Read about the year to come. Experts are playing Nostradamus as they try to predict the trends and events of 2025. The Financial Post posits some business predictions (like bitcoin continuing to climb), Nylon picks some style trends (sunglasses are getting rounder), and the Hollywood Reporter looks at the near future of entertainment (a new James Bond, perhaps).
Watch a New Year’s Eve movie. If you’re cozying in for a quiet night and want to live vicariously through some fictional characters, throw on something from this list of the best 35 movies set around NYE. Some personal faves are the Best Picture winner The Apartment, the classic ’80s comedy Trading Places, and the modern masterpiece Phantom Thread.
Listen to Money Matters by The Peak. In case you missed it, use tonight as an opportunity to binge our latest podcast that answers the most burning personal finance questions. Over the course of five episodes, we look at spending on fun, budgeting apps, money dysmorphia, finfluencers, and — in case wedding bells are ringing in 2025 — budget weddings.—QH