Our Favorite Things From 2025

The things readers and I loved the most this year.

Today’s post is exclusively for my paid subs. If you recently upgraded, THANK YOU and welcome.

What are your plans for New Year’s? We’re doing the same thing we do every year: ordering Chinese with our family, hanging out in our sweats, celebrating my husband (shout out to any other NYE birthday babies), watching whatever bad NYE programming is on TV, and letting the kids stay up as late as they want. Last year, we put on a “PJ Fashion Show.” We’ll see if it gets a reprise this year…

Last week, I sent out an end-of-year reader survey, and a few hundred of you replied. To round out the year, I thought it would be fun to have a group huddle and reflect on our “best of the best” from the year.

Today’s letter is equal parts entertaining and thoughtful, and really captures the range of taste, curiosity, and life stages that make this readership what it is. Your “lessons learned this year” especially gave me pause and some good food for thought. Thank you to everyone who took the time to reply.