December 30: My Favorite New Year Tradition

Several years ago, I shared my family’s favorite version of year-end reflection: our New Year’s Eve Survey. Today I’m sharing a lightly edited version of a previous newsletter describing this tradition. The New Year’s Eve survey is a fun and flexible tradition that can grow with your family. If you have babies, toddlers, or preschoolers at home, adults can answer the questions and reflect on the year. Once children are in mid-elementary school, they can join in and, perhaps with adult assistance, fill out a written survey, a google doc, or simply have a conversation as a family. If your survey is in written form, plan some time to talk together about everybody’s answers. For our group, I send a google doc with the survey and we each respond in a different color so that it is easy to see and share everyone’s responses.

Here are some of the topics I like to cover and a few sample prompts (some of which are most relevant for tweens or teens):

Reflections on the past year:

• Think of a time that you showed kindness or compassion in 2025.

• If you could re-live one day in 2025 – and it would be just the same – which day would it be?

• Can you think of a time that you were brave or showed courage during 2025?

• If you could re-do one day in 2025, which day would it be and what would you change?

• What is a time that you dealt with disappointment or frustration in 2025?

Favorites – for example, favorite book, movie, show, playlist, podcast, and/or song from the past year.

A couple of questions that specifically appeal to children:

• What is your funniest memory from the past year?

• What was the best food that you ate this year?

• During the past year, what was your most disgusting or gross experience?

General predictions – for example, who will win the World Series?

Looking ahead to the New Year:

• What is one habit that you want to break in 2026?

• What is one new skill that you hope to acquire this coming year?

• What are your 2 greatest wishes, hope, and/or dreams for 2026?

Personalized predictions – each year, I write one specific question for each young person who is completing the survey. I leave these for the end because they are generally the part the children look forward to most. For example:

• Predict how many teeth Sam will lose this year.

• Charlie is getting a new hamster in January – do you have a suggestion for what it should be named?

  
  

Ideally, I’d suggest trying to strike a balance between questions that require thought and reflection and those that are fun or silly. While it may be tempting to include loads of questions, I’d suggest limiting the overall length of the survey so that participation feels enjoyable and not burdensome. If you decide to give this a try, I’d love to hear back about how it went.