24 New Year’s Riddles with Answers for Kids and Adults

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These New Year’s riddles are a fun way to fill the hour before midnight. Here are 24 riddles with answers about clocks, calendars, countdowns, resolutions and the big night itself. They start easy for kids and finish with brain teasers that will stump the grown-ups. Read them aloud, print them for the table or use them as a game while you wait for the ball to drop.

How to play New Year’s riddles as a game

• Countdown riddles: read one riddle every few minutes in the last hour before midnight. The answer gets revealed at the next riddle.
• Team challenge: split into two teams and score 1 point for easy, 2 for medium and 3 for hard.
• Riddle envelopes: seal one riddle in each envelope and open one every hour from 9 PM.
• Kids’ midnight: use the easy round for an early countdown with younger kids.

Easy New Year’s riddles

1. I come once a year and last only one night, but everyone stays up to see me. What am I? Answer: New Year’s Eve
2. I have a face and two hands, and everyone watches me at midnight. What am I? Answer: A clock
3. I drop at midnight in Times Square, but I never break. What am I? Answer: The ball
4. I start with a bang and end with a sparkle in the sky. What am I? Answer: Fireworks
5. You make me on January 1 and often break me by February. What am I? Answer: A resolution
6. I am full of days, but I am only good for one year. What am I? Answer: A calendar

Medium New Year’s riddles

1. What can you hold without touching, and it gets shorter each second until midnight? Answer: The countdown
2. What goes up when people count down? Answer: The cheering
3. I have twelve parts, and each one has a name, but none of them are people. What am I? Answer: A year, with its twelve months
4. What month has 28 days? Answer: All of them
5. I am tossed into the air at midnight in tiny pieces. What am I? Answer: Confetti
6. What do you call the last day of the year that is also the first day of something? Answer: New Year’s Eve, the eve of the new year
7. I am sung at midnight, but most people only know the first verse. What am I? Answer: “Auld Lang Syne”

Hard New Year’s riddles

1. How can New Year’s Day and Christmas Day fall in the same year? Answer: They always do. Christmas is December 25 and New Year’s Day is January 1 of the same calendar year.
2. A man was born on December 31 but his birthday is always in the summer. How? Answer: He lives in the Southern Hemisphere, where December is summer.
3. What happens once in a minute, twice in a moment and never in a thousand years? Answer: The letter M
4. If you count down from 10 to midnight, how many numbers do you say before “Happy New Year”? Answer: Ten, from 10 down to 1
5. What breaks on New Year’s Eve, even though no one touches it? Answer: The silence at midnight
6. I am always in front of you but can never be seen. What am I? Answer: The future

Riddles for the countdown

1. What runs but never walks, and never stops on New Year’s Eve? Answer: Time
2. The more of me you take, the more you leave behind as the year ends. What am I? Answer: Footsteps
3. What has a ring but no finger, and helps you welcome the new year? Answer: A phone, for midnight calls
4. What is always coming but never arrives? Answer: Tomorrow
5. What did the year say to the next year at midnight? Answer: “Your turn.”

Party games for New Year’s Eve

Riddles fit right in with word games. Just One is a cooperative guessing game for 3 to 7 players where everyone writes one-word clues, and it costs about $25. For a team game, Codenames has two teams race to find their secret agents from one-word clues, for about $25.

Planning the rest of the night? See our New Year’s Eve trivia questions, New Year’s would you rather questions and best New Year’s Eve party games.

New Year’s riddles FAQ

What is a good New Year’s riddle?

“I drop at midnight in Times Square, but I never break. What am I?” The answer is the ball.

Are these riddles good for kids?

Yes. The easy round is written for kids, and the hard round is meant to challenge adults.

How do you use riddles at a New Year’s party?

Read one every few minutes before midnight, play in teams or seal them in envelopes to open each hour.

What is a hard New Year’s riddle?

“What happens once in a minute, twice in a moment and never in a thousand years?” The answer is the letter M.