We got to the end of 2024! I’m not saying 2025 is gonna be any easier, but I’m proud of us all for getting through this year. Pour yourself some champagne, grab some eggnog if you can find it, or the bougie seltzer of your choice, and cheers to another one in the books.

It’s a holiday, so we’ll make it quick.

The usual: We can expect a relatively dry day today, but the chance of rain creeps up as we get closer to midnight. If you’re planning on going to the Space Needle tonight, bring a raincoat.

Speaking of Light Shows: For the third time this year, we might be able to see the Northern Lights here in Washington tonight.

Put Down Those Car Keys: Don’t forget that King County Metro, South Transit, Community Transit, Everett Transit, Pierce Transit, the King County Water Taxi and the Seattle Streetcar are all free today, so you have no excuse to drink and drive after your midnight toast tonight. Catch a train, call a car, or stay where you are.

Speaking of the end of the year: We’ve been feeling sentimental, so we’ve got a few year-end round ups for you. Stranger contributor Conor Kelley ran down all of the major worker victories this year. (Surprise, even in end-stage capitalism, there were a lot!) City Hall reporter Hannah Krieg gave us the roses, thorns, and buds of city council. Contributor Katie Lee Ellison shared her favorite PNW book releases this year (and suggested pairings for each). And we’ve got more coming: best bites, best live music, best record releases. Pop back through the holiday to mosey down memory lane with us.

The cookies have been counted: Today marks the very last day of The Stranger’s cookie countdown, and we ended it with a crowd favorite: The Cookie. If you haven’t been following along, you can check out the full list here. Find your new favorite treat in 2025.

Happy Wildrose Day: The City officially declared December 31 Wildrose Day this week, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Seattle’s last remaining lesbian bar. They threw an absolutely packed anniversary party last night to celebrate, but if you missed it, we got you. Wildrose let us dig through their old photos, and we found some gems from decades past to hold you over.

The Harvard Exit: Art Bernstein, the co-founder of Capitol Hill’s Harvard Exit, died on December 20 at 95 years old. The Seattle Times called him “an inveterate party-thrower and innate community builder.” Bernstein co-founded the Exit in 1969, and helped shape Seattle’s art-house film scene. The theater was famous for its free coffee and tea and its lobby, which often had a crackling fireplace and live piano. His son told the Seattle Times: “He always said that a movie isn’t a movie without an audience.”

14 Hours to a New Minimum Wage: At midnight tonight, Seattle’s minimum wage will rise to $20.76, one of the highest in the country. Just to do a little back-of-the-napkin math for you, if someone works 40 hours a week, every week of the year, that still only comes out to about $43k a year—well below the “low income” line of $77k. This also marks the end of the tip credit, which allowed a two-tiered minimum wage for the last decade.

Smiling Faces: The new year also marks the City’s ramped-up food safety mission. Starting in January, Seattle will expand its food safety rating system—the little green sign with the smiley faces—to mobile vendors like food trucks. In theory, that sounds fine, but in practice, I can’t help but worry that it’s giving “NYPD handcuffing churro vendor in the subway” vibes.

No New Year's Eve Sparkle in PR: A sweeping blackout knocked out power for 87 percent of Puerto Rico last night, leaving more than a million people in the dark. Luma Energy, who supplies power to the island, expects it to take at least 24 hours, likely days, to restore power.

Less Friendly Skies: After two plane crashes in as many weeks, 2024 is officially the deadliest year in the skies since 2018, when two Boeing 737 MAX crashes killed more than 500 people. As we head into the new year, South Korea has declared seven days of national mourning, and Boeing stock is down (again). To be clear, aviation deaths are still very rare, so one crash can quickly tip the scales toward this superlative. But I’d love to go a year without reading the phrase “ball of fire” in relation to an airplane. 

Guantanamo Release: Yesterday, the Pentagon released Ridah Bin Saleh al Yazidi from the Guantanamo Bay prison. He was sent to the wartime prison the day it opened, Jan. 11, 2002, and has been there for almost 23 years without charges. He was approved for transfer back to his home country, Tunisia, more than a decade ago.

Who needs raw milk when you can get your very own “raw water.” If you need a weird deep dive today, the New York Times reported on the “spring water aficionados” that are part of the “health freedom movement.” One of the subjects said the water feels “more alive.” Which, well, I believe.

Some tunes for your New Year's: I've been working my way through Derrick Gee's playlists, which are all killer, but this one has been my daytime vibe. Listen to it while you're doing your New Year cleaning or making breakfast for whoever's still hungover at your place tomorrow morning.