Free printable, no sign-up Year in Review

What's on the year-in-review sheet

The sheet has a line for your name and 12 questions, in the order people tend to think back: the big picture first, then the small moments, then the year ahead. Each one takes a minute or two to answer, and none of them asks for anything private, so the same sheet works at a family table, with friends or with coworkers you mostly know from meetings.

Two questions get an extra line: the best thing that happened this year and a goal for the new year. Those are the answers people most like to read out loud, so they get a little more room. Everything fits on one page, or on half a page if you print two forms per sheet and cut them apart.

How to use it on New Year's Eve

The sheet works best an hour or two before midnight, once everyone has eaten and the countdown still feels far away.

1. 1Print one form per person, or two per page and cut along the dashed line. Put the forms and a few pens in the middle of the table.
2. 2Give everyone about 10 minutes to write. Younger kids can draw an answer instead, and anyone can skip a question.
3. 3Go around the table one question at a time. Each person reads their answer out loud, or says “pass.”
4. 4Save the best thing that happened this year and the goal for the new year for last, close to the countdown.
5. 5Keep the forms. Put them in an envelope, write the year on it and open it next New Year's Eve.

Running the countdown from a phone? Our countdown timer fills the screen with big numbers, so nobody misses midnight.

For a family table, a classroom or the office

At home, it gives a mixed group something to talk about besides the TV. Teens and grandparents answer the same questions, and the answers often surprise even the people who wrote them. Friends can fill it in at a New Year's Eve party, or on a group video call the week before if everyone is spread out.

Teachers can hand it out on the last day of class before winter break. Students write quietly for ten minutes, then share one answer with a partner or the class. It works again in June: the questions say “this year” and “next year,” never a year number, so the same sheet fits the end of the school year. Our classroom games have more ideas for that last day.

At work, use it in the team's last meeting of the year. Ask each person to share just one answer, like the song or the word for next year, so it stays quick and nobody feels put on the spot. For something louder, try our office holiday party games.

Ways to share the answers

Want more to do before the countdown? Our New Year's Eve bingo cards print up to 60 different cards, and the New Year's Eve games play on one phone, with no app and no sign-up.

Tips for answers people want to hear

• Ask for one specific moment, not a summary. “The road trip to see my cousins” says more than “a good year.”
• Let people pass on any question. A form with a few blanks is still fun to read.
• Set a time limit for writing, about 10 minutes, so the table doesn't go quiet for too long.
• Fill in your own form first and read yours first, so everyone sees how short or long an answer can be.
• Print 2 forms per page to save paper with a big group, or 1 per page for kids and anyone who writes big.
• Write the year on the back of each form before they go in the envelope. Next year, you'll want to know which year they're from.

Questions