New Year's Eve questions for friends: 32 questions about the year behind you

Short answer: Before midnight, go round the table with questions about the year: the best day, what surprised you, which photo sums it up, what you are proud of and what you want more of next year. Record the answers or write them down, and read them back next New Year's Eve.

Last updated: 3 November 2026.

New Year's Eve is the one evening when looking back is expected. Friends who have known each other for years sit together until midnight, and the year comes up anyway: the move, the new job, the trip, the loss, the evening everyone still laughs about. A few good questions turn that into stories instead of a quick round of fine, busy, good.

These questions are written for friends, and families can use them just as well. Pick a handful; the evening is long enough.

How to ask

• Start after dinner, well before midnight. People are relaxed, and there is time for a story before the countdown.
• Use a bowl of cards. Everyone draws one question and answers it. Nobody has to think of something, and the order is fair.
• Open your phone's photo gallery. Ask everyone to show one photo from this year and tell what happened just before it was taken.
• Let people pass. Some years were hard. A question that does not fit can go back in the bowl.
• Keep the answers for next year. Record them, or write one line per person, and read them back next New Year's Eve.

This year

1. What was the best day of your year, and where were you?
2. What surprised you most this year?
3. What did you learn this year that you did not know in January?
4. Which photo on your phone sums up your year?
5. What turned out harder than you expected?
6. Who was important to you this year that we might not know about?
7. What are you proud of, even if it was something small?
8. Which song, book or series will always make you think of this year?

The small moments

1. What was the best meal you had this year?
2. When did you laugh the hardest?
3. What was the most beautiful place you saw?
4. Which message or phone call made your day?
5. Which ordinary day from this year would you like to remember?
6. What did you do for the first time this year?

Us

1. When did we see each other this year, and which evening stands out?
2. What is the funniest thing that happened to us as a group this year?
3. What did someone at this table do for you this year that you never thanked them for?
4. How did we meet, and who remembers it differently?
5. Which old joke between us still works every time?
6. Which trip or evening do we keep saying we will do again?
7. What has changed in our friendship over the years, and what has not?

New Year's Eves gone by

1. Where were you on New Year's Eve ten years ago?
2. Which New Year's Eve do you remember best, and why?
3. Which New Year's resolution did you actually keep?
4. Twenty years ago, what did you think your life would look like by now?
5. Which year turned out to be a turning point for you?
6. What did New Year's Eve look like at home when you were a child?

The year ahead

1. What do you want more of next year?
2. What would you like to stop doing?
3. Which place do you want to see?
4. What do you hope we will be talking about at this table next year?
5. What is one thing we should do together next year?

Recording and keeping the answers

• Ask first. Say why you would like to record: so the stories are not lost, and so others can hear them later. If someone prefers not to be recorded, write down a few words afterwards instead.
• Use the voice recorder on your phone and put the phone on the table, not in your hand. After a few minutes people forget it is there. A voice says more than a perfect transcript.
• Write down the basics the same day: who answered, the date, the place and the names that came up. Without names and a date, a recording is hard to place ten years from now.
• Photograph the photos and objects that were passed around, and keep them with the recording.
• Keep two copies in two places, and send them to the people who were there.

A place for the answers

If you want one place for the answers, The Memory Palace is made for this: your own 3D palace with rooms you walk through, where photos, voice recordings, videos and written stories hang side by side. You can make a room for this New Year's Eve, or one for every year you spend it together, write the questions and answers in it as stories, and hang the recordings next to the photos they are about. With a collect link, relatives or friends can add a photo, a memory or a voice recording from their browser, without an account. A palace is private by default and you choose who gets in. It is made by a small team in Leuven, and you can start one for free.

Questions for other occasions

• St Nicholas and Sinterklaas
• Christmas dinner with grandparents
• A 70th, 80th or 90th birthday
• Your parents' wedding anniversary
• Mother's Day
• Father's Day
• A funeral or condolence visit
• Grandparents meeting the new baby
• A school or class reunion
• A road trip or holiday with old friends
• A retirement farewell

Read on: where to keep memories with friends privately, questions for Christmas dinner with grandparents, questions for a road trip with old friends, the free printable sheet of twenty questions to ask your parents.