Germans still have fuel problems. Allies don't get their tactical air into play around Christmas, ends up getting into it later. After Jan 1.
Maybe:
-Bastone may fall.
-3rd Army is stopped.
-German Armor makes it to the Meuse.
Probably:
-XXX Corp is waiting at the Meuse and stops the Germans. Germans at the end of a long supply line. XXX Corp sitting on top of their Supply Depot.
-Shoulders hold. No expansion of the Bulge, American Army does not collapse, holds ground between Dec 25th and Jan 1 (or at least slows German Army to crawl- caused as much by German traffic and supply problems as by American action)
-Operation Bodenplatte is a failure. No change.
Definitely:
-Casualty list are longer. Conditions favor Germans longer than before.
-Germans are stopped at Meuse by Brits/Amer force.
-British casualties are larger.
On a somewhat related topic, and something that always bothered me, what happens if Eisenhower accepts Patton's Plan to make a counter-offensive into the rear of the German advance? Does the German Army get cut off and surrounded 4 months earlier than the Colmar Pocket Battle? Can Montgomery get it together fast enough to make it down to meet Patton's thrust from the South (think of Falaise here)?
I think Eisenhower went with a frontal attack as apposed to a slashing attack because he wanted to fight a war of attrition that he knew the Germans could not win. He wanted to fight a war of machines, relying on Allied firepower. He also wanted to make sure that the Germans knew they had been defeated totally and there was no "stab in the back" myth that grew out of another battle.