QUESTION IDEAS

New Year’s Eve Quiz: Year-in-Review Questions to Play With Friends

Year-in-review questions to guess among friends, a three good things round, New Year’s Eve trivia from around the world and resolutions without pressure.

By the Who Knows Me? team · Published October 18, 2026

On New Year’s Eve, looking back on the year can quickly turn into a list of good intentions. As a quiz, it becomes a game: everyone answers in secret about their own year, and the others guess who wrote what. Here are four rounds ready to play, a short trivia round on New Year’s Eve around the world and a way to talk about resolutions without putting pressure on anyone.

The idea: your year, guessed by everyone else

The game follows the friendship quiz rule. Each player writes answers about their own year on folded slips of paper. The host mixes the slips in a bowl, reads the answers one by one, and everyone else tries to guess the author. One point per correct guess; the author then tells the story behind their answer.

• What you need. Small slips of paper, one pen per person, and a bowl or a party hat for the draw.
• The right time. Start around 10:30 p.m.: four rounds of about fifteen minutes each take you comfortably to the countdown.
• The right number of players. Four to twelve. With more people, form teams that answer together.

Round 1: 10 questions about your year

Everyone answers the ten questions on a sheet of paper, without showing their answers. The host then picks one answer at random for each question.

1. What was your best meal of the year?
2. Which song did you listen to the most?
3. Which place did you discover for the first time?
4. Which new habit did you pick up?
5. Which book, movie or show would you recommend to the whole group?
6. Which object did you use almost every day?
7. Which moment made you laugh the hardest?
8. What did you learn, even something tiny?
9. Which word sums up your year?
10. Which memory from this year would you love to relive once?

Round 2: 10 “Who, this year…?” questions

This time, everyone writes down the name of someone in the group. Keep the questions positive or funny, the kind that put someone in the spotlight.

1. Who traveled the most miles?
2. Who sent the most voice memos?
3. Who tried a completely new activity?
4. Who planned the most outings?
5. Who had the best gift idea?
6. Who changed their hairstyle?
7. Who showed up late with the most memorable excuse?
8. Who cooked a dish people are still talking about?
9. Who discovered a new talent?
10. Who made the group laugh the most?

Round 3: three good things

This round is inspired by an exercise from the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley called “Three Good Things.” Originally, it’s done alone: about ten minutes a day for at least one week, you write down three things that went well for you and explain why they went well. The page notes that writing them down can be more helpful than simply doing the exercise in your head, and that the items can be small, everyday events or more important milestones.

The same page cites a 2005 study by Martin Seligman and colleagues: people who received these instructions on a website showed increased happiness immediately afterward, as well as one week, one month, three months and six months later. According to the page, the exercise teaches you to notice, remember and savor the better things in life.

The party version: everyone writes, on three slips of paper, three good things from their year and, in one sentence, why each one happened. The host reads the slips and the group guesses the author. This group game doesn’t replace the daily exercise; anyone who likes the idea can try it on their own in the first days of January.

Round 4: 10 questions about New Year’s Eve around the world

To wrap up just before midnight, a trivia round. The answers come from Wikipedia’s article on New Year’s Eve.

1. In New York’s Times Square, what is lowered over the final minute of the year? (An illuminated ball, down a 70-foot pole on the roof of One Times Square.)
2. Since what year has the Times Square ball drop been held? (1907.)
3. Which Georgia city drops a peach instead of a ball? (Atlanta, with its Peach Drop.)
4. Which bandleader’s yearly broadcast from New York made “Auld Lang Syne” at midnight synonymous with the holiday in North America? (Guy Lombardo, with his band, the Royal Canadians.)
5. Which TV host anchored New Year’s coverage for 32 straight years, including New Year’s Rockin’ Eve? (Dick Clark.)
6. In Spain, what do people eat at each of the twelve chimes of midnight? (One grape per chime, so twelve grapes.)
7. In what year did grape growers in Alicante promote that custom to sell a surplus harvest? (1909.)
8. What is the New Year called in Scotland? (Hogmanay.)
9. In Japan, how many times do Buddhist temples ring their bells at midnight? (108 times.)
10. Which US territory is among the very last places on Earth to ring in the New Year? (American Samoa.)

Resolutions: talk about them without the pressure

According to Wikipedia’s article on New Year’s resolutions, the tradition consists of resolving, at the beginning of the calendar year, to continue good practices, change an unwanted habit, reach a personal goal or otherwise improve your behavior. The same page cites a 2007 study by Richard Wiseman of the University of Bristol involving 3,000 people: 88% of those who set New Year’s resolutions failed, even though 52% were confident of success at the start. Men reached their goal 22% more often when they set small, measurable goals, such as “lose a pound a week” rather than “lose weight.” In a 2014 report, 35% of people who had failed admitted their goals were unrealistic, and 33% hadn’t kept track of their progress.

Hence a last little game: the mystery resolution. Everyone writes one lighthearted resolution on a folded slip: “learn three new recipes,” “call Grandma more often,” “try a new sport.” The group guesses who wrote each one, then all the slips go into a dated envelope, to be opened next New Year’s Eve. Nobody has to write a serious resolution, or even write one at all.

The game plan for the night

Adjust the schedule to the pace of dinner and to whatever you’re watching on TV. The most important thing is to finish the last round a few minutes before midnight, so you have time for the countdown, the ball drop and a round of “Happy New Year!”

Keep the moment light

• Everyone chooses what they share. It may have been a hard year. A player can pass on a question, answer with a joke or simply listen.
• Laugh with people, never at them. The answers read out loud are not there to judge anyone’s year.
• Dares stay alcohol-free. Singing a chorus or telling a memory is more than enough to keep the game lively, and the champagne toast can wait for midnight.

Keep the fun going

For a longer party, the complete quiz night game plan covers the prep, the teams and the practical details. The 8 friendship quiz variations keep the rules fresh from one year to the next. And to start the year with a game, everyone can create their friendship quiz on January 1 and send it to the group: as the game rules explain, the link stays valid for thirty days.

Create my quiz