New Year's Riddles

Ten New Year's riddles, each answer under a cover: guess first, then tap Show answer.

New Year's Riddles

  1. You fall asleep at eleven on December 31 and wake at seven the next morning. In how many different years were you asleep?
  2. I am a lit ball on a pole above a city square. In the last minute of the year I slide down, and I have been doing it in New York since 1907. What am I?
  3. New Year's Day falls on a Monday. On what day of the week was New Year's Eve?
  4. Two long months stand back to back with a new year between them: 31 days, a midnight, then 31 days more. Which two?
  5. I am a thousand scraps of colored paper thrown at once. I am fun for ten seconds and swept up for an hour. What am I?
  6. I am an atoll in the Pacific, in the country of Kiribati, and my people are among the first on Earth to see each new year. My other name is a holiday in December. What am I called?
  7. We wait in a net near the ceiling all evening. At midnight the net opens, and we fall on everyone's heads without hurting anyone. What are we?
  8. I am named for a Roman god with two faces, one looking back and one looking ahead. Which month am I?
  9. Because of me, midnight reaches Sydney many hours before it reaches New York. I am one slice of the world's clock. What am I?
  10. I am the moment that belongs to two days at once. On December 31 I belong to two years. What am I?

Next step New Year's trivia with answers

How it works

These New Year's riddles are for the night itself and the turn of the calendar: the countdown, the confetti, leap years, resolutions and trick questions with a catch in them.

Read the full guide

New Year's Eve riddles and three more sets

The menu under the button keeps one set. At midnight is the eve itself: the countdown, the clock, the ball. The calendar covers months, weeks and leap years. Resolutions and fresh starts is wordplay. Trick questions about a year each hide a catch.

Fill the last hour of the year

Read one aloud every few minutes while the room waits for midnight. Show answer opens the answer and one line that says why it fits.

Tips
  • For a harder round, choose More filters, then Level, then Hard.

Questions and answers

What is a good New Year's riddle?

One that turns on the date. On December 31 people call me next year. What will they call me one day later? This year.

Are there New Year riddles about the calendar?

Yes, a whole set. Both of us end in two zeros, but only one of us was a leap year: 1900 or 2000. Which one? 2000, because a century year must divide by 400.

Which riddles are funny enough for a party?

The resolution set and the trick questions. A wall calendar makes one promise to itself each January. What is it? To take things one day at a time. Kangaroos wait four years for their favorite kind of year. Which kind? A leap year.

Are the calendar answers checked?

Yes. Every weekday, leap year and day count was recomputed by the editors against the rules of the Gregorian calendar on the day the riddle was written.

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All 50 riddles

At midnight 15

  • Blow into me, and I unroll like a paper tongue and honk. Stop, and I curl back up. What am I? Answer: A party horn. A party blower uncoils when you blow into it.
  • How many strokes does a grandfather clock give at the moment the year changes? Answer: Twelve. A clock strikes twelve at midnight.
  • I am a lit ball on a pole above a city square. In the last minute of the year I slide down, and I have been doing it in New York since 1907. What am I? Answer: The Times Square ball. The ball in Times Square was first lowered in 1907.
  • I am a paper cone with an elastic string that snaps under your chin. Tonight the number of the new year may be printed on me. What am I? Answer: A party hat. Paper hats are worn at New Year's Eve parties.
  • I am a thousand scraps of colored paper thrown at once. I am fun for ten seconds and swept up for an hour. What am I? Answer: Confetti. Confetti is thrown at midnight.
  • I am an atoll in the Pacific, in the country of Kiribati, and my people are among the first on Earth to see each new year. My other name is a holiday in December. What am I called? Answer: Kiritimati, or Christmas Island. Kiritimati lies in the world's furthest-forward time zone.
  • I am ten numbers shouted backward by a whole crowd. When I reach one, everybody cheers. What am I? Answer: The countdown. The last ten seconds of the year are counted down aloud.
  • I am the moment that belongs to two days at once. On December 31 I belong to two years. What am I? Answer: Midnight. Midnight ends one day and starts the next.
  • I am the shortest thing anyone celebrates. I am the last tick of the last minute of the last hour of December 31. What am I? Answer: The last second of the year. The year ends on its final second.
  • I am what children ask to do all year, and tonight the answer is yes. By eleven, the couch has won. What am I? Answer: Staying up until midnight. New Year's Eve is the one late night.
  • The song people link arms and sing at midnight has a title that few of them can translate. What language is the title in? Answer: Scots. Auld Lang Syne is a Scots-language poem written down by Robert Burns in 1788.
  • We are long paper ribbons thrown across the room. We unroll in the air and hang from the lamp until morning. What are we? Answer: Streamers. Paper streamers are thrown at parties.
  • We are two arms, one longer than the other. At the stroke of twelve we point straight up together. What are we? Answer: The hands of a clock. Both hands point to twelve at midnight.
  • We come to the party as a bunch and leave one at a time. In one country's custom, each guest swallows one of us on every chime of midnight, for luck in the months ahead. What are we? Answer: Grapes. Eating twelve grapes at midnight, one on each chime, is a New Year's Eve custom of Spain.
  • We wait in a net near the ceiling all evening. At midnight the net opens, and we fall on everyone's heads without hurting anyone. What are we? Answer: Balloons. A balloon drop is released at the stroke of twelve.

The calendar 15

  • Because of me, midnight reaches Sydney many hours before it reaches New York. I am one slice of the world's clock. What am I? Answer: A time zone. The world is divided into time zones, so the new year arrives hour by hour.
  • Both of us end in two zeros, but only one of us was a leap year: 1900 or 2000. Which one? Answer: 2000. A century year is a leap year only when it divides by 400.
  • Every year has at least one of me and never more than three. I am a Friday with an unlucky number. What am I? Answer: Friday the 13th. Checked for every year of this century: each has one, two or three.
  • I am named for a Roman god with two faces, one looking back and one looking ahead. Which month am I? Answer: January. January is named for Janus, who is shown with two faces.
  • I am ten New Years in a row. What am I? Answer: A decade. A decade is ten years.
  • I am the extra day itself: a square on the calendar that is missing three years out of four. What date am I? Answer: February 29. Leap day is added to February in a leap year.
  • I hang on a nail, and after December 31 I am no use to anyone. In the morning, a new one of me takes my place. What am I? Answer: A wall calendar. A calendar is good for one year.
  • In an ordinary year, fifty-two of me and one day more fill the time from one January 1 to the next. What am I? Answer: Weeks. 52 x 7 = 364, and an ordinary year has 365 days.
  • New Year's Day is in the middle of winter in Chicago. In which season does it fall in Sydney? Answer: Summer. South of the equator the seasons are reversed.
  • On a page-a-day calendar in an ordinary year, I am the 365th and last sheet to be torn off. What date am I? Answer: December 31. The last day of a 365-day year.
  • On December 31 people call me next year. What will they call me one day later? Answer: This year. Next year becomes this year at midnight.
  • Only one of the twelve months has a name as short as a three-letter word. Which month? Answer: May. M-A-Y is the only month with a three-letter name.
  • Page one, square one: I am where every wall calendar begins. What date am I? Answer: January 1. The first day of the first month is New Year's Day.
  • Ring in one hundred New Years, one after another, and you have lived through me. What am I? Answer: A century. A century is a hundred years.
  • Two long months stand back to back with a new year between them: 31 days, a midnight, then 31 days more. Which two? Answer: December and January. December has 31 days, and so does the January that follows it.

Resolutions and fresh starts 10

  • A resolution is meant to break me. Lose my H, and a bit remains. Lose my A, and a bit still remains. What word am I? Answer: Habit. H-ABIT leaves a bit, and A-BIT leaves bit.
  • A wall calendar makes one promise to itself each January. What is it? Answer: To take things one day at a time. A calendar shows one day after another.
  • At one minute to midnight you wave goodbye to a friend. Two minutes later you meet again. How long has it been since you saw each other? Answer: Since last year. The year changed in between.
  • I am a board wiped bare, and I am a year with nothing written in it yet. What two-word phrase am I? Answer: A clean slate. A slate is a writing board, and a clean slate is a fresh start.
  • I am a promise made on January 1, and I am also the sharpness of a screen, counted in pixels. What word am I? Answer: Resolution. A New Year's resolution, and screen resolution.
  • I am the first page of a new diary, white from edge to edge. What am I? Answer: A blank page. Nothing has been written yet.
  • I am written on January 1 and numbered down the side. By March I am at the bottom of a drawer. What am I? Answer: A list of resolutions. Resolutions are easier to write than to keep.
  • I have an ear and cannot hear. Put a Y in front of my ear, and I am twelve months long. What word am I? Answer: Year. Y plus EAR.
  • On a field I am where the ball must go. In January I am what you write at the top of the page. What word am I? Answer: Goal. A goal in a game, and a goal for the year.
  • People say they will turn me over in January, though I grow on a tree and it is winter. What am I? Answer: A new leaf. To turn over a new leaf is to make a fresh start.

Trick questions about a year 10

  • A calendar for 2027 can be hung up again in the next year that starts on the same weekday and is not a leap year. Which year is that? Answer: 2038. 2027 and 2038 both start on a Friday and have 365 days.
  • Christmas is in December, and New Year's Day is in January. In the year 2027, which of the two happens first? Answer: New Year's Day. January 1, 2027 comes long before December 25, 2027.
  • How many times does February 29 come in the hundred years from 2001 to 2100? Answer: 24 times. Every fourth year from 2004 to 2096 is a leap year, and 2100 is not.
  • I was the last year that read the same forward and backward. The next one comes 110 years after me. Which year am I? Answer: 2002. 2002 is a palindrome, and the next is 2112.
  • Kangaroos wait four years for their favorite kind of year. Which kind is it? Answer: A leap year. Kangaroos leap.
  • New Year's Day falls on a Monday. On what day of the week was New Year's Eve? Answer: Sunday. New Year's Eve is the day before.
  • Start with every day of a leap year and take away the whole of February. How many days remain? Answer: 337. 366 - 29 = 337.
  • Suppose the year after next is 2028. Which year ended at the most recent New Year? Answer: 2025. If the year after next is 2028, this year is 2026, and 2025 has just ended.
  • Which year of the 1900s reads the same when you turn the page upside down? Answer: 1961. The 1s stay 1s, and the 6 and the 9 change places.
  • You fall asleep at eleven on December 31 and wake at seven the next morning. In how many different years were you asleep? Answer: Two. One hour in the old year and seven in the new.
How this list was compiled

Written by the Game Night Generator editors on October 3, 2026: 50 riddles for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in four sets. At midnight is the night itself: the countdown, the confetti, the clock. The calendar is about months, leap years and the turn of the year. Resolutions and fresh starts is wordplay. Trick questions about a year are puzzles with a catch. The wording is the editors' own; a few trick forms are traditional and belong to nobody, and each is retold here in new words. None was copied from a book or a site, and trick questions that another list of this site already asks were left out. Every calendar riddle was recomputed by the editors against the rules of the Gregorian calendar on the day it was written (weekdays, leap years, days in a month). The ball in Times Square, the song sung at midnight, Kiritimati, the twelve grapes, the god Janus and the rule for century leap years follow the English Wikipedia articles on those subjects as they read on October 3, 2026 (en.wikipedia.org; text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, restated in our words). The two levels are the editors' judgment. Licence: own work