12 Days of Hidden Gems, presented by Microsoft , will showcase some amazing apps in the scenarios that matter most to you, such as Health and Fitness, Smart Living, Travel and Entertainment, while giving the community a chance to win some awesome prizes!! We'll also be exploring the Internet of Things in depth, bringing attention to connected devices and wearables that deliver an exceptional experience with Windows devices.

The Holiday season is upon us and at Windows Central we're celebrating with a fresh season of "Hidden Gems", highlighting new and cool apps on Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone.

Beginning Monday, December 15th and running until the end of the year, we'll publish a series of 12 Hidden Gems feature articles. And in the spirit of holiday giving, as part of the 12 Days of Hidden Gems, we'll also run a series of 12 sweepstakes, with $1,000 in prizes available to be won each day. The prizes will be relevant to the Hidden Gem(s) of the day, which means there is an awesome mix of items up for grabs. We'll follow up shortly with another post outlining the sweepstakes rules and how you can participate each day for a chance to win.

Keep up with 12 Days of Hidden Gems!

Hidden Gems features will be clearly labeled as such so you don't miss them (just look for the cool little graphic above that will be featured on each article). We are also creating a primary event page, where you can view all of the Hidden Gems articles and sweepstakes as they are published and re-visit in case you miss any and need to catch up. You can find that page at windowscentral.com/hidden-gems — make sure you bookmark it! Below you can find the themes we'll be diving into during the 12 Days of Hidden Gems, along with our tentative publishing dates.

We really enjoy running events like this that are fun for our community of fans and also help spread the awareness of Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone apps to a broader audience. Big thanks go to Microsoft – without their support we wouldn't be able to wind down 2014 with an awesome feature like the 12 Days of Hidden Gems. We are confident we can deliver an exciting and unique series for you, our core audience. We are not expecting you to love everything we cover, but we are sure that you'll find something to like.

Help us make this a fun series – be sure to join in and spread the word!