A Toast to ’26
Ring in the new year and send off the old one—with trivia! In A Toast to 2026: A New Year’s Trivia Game, you can tackle five rounds of light-hearted challenges. You might answer questions about New Year’s traditions from around the world, pop culture making a return in 2026, songs of celebration, and more surprises.
And warming up your brain ahead of time won’t hurt either. So before you play, or just for fun of course, say hello to 2026 with these 20 questions themed around ’26. (You’ll also enjoy an edge on the Toast to 2026 game, since one or two of these questions just might make an appearance in the game itself…)
20 New Year’s Trivia Questions
1. The United States will celebrate its 250th birthday in 2026. On what date in 1776 did the Continental Congress vote to declare independence from British rule?
A. July 1st
B. July 2nd
C. July 3rd
D. July 4th
B. July 2nd
On July 2nd, Congress approved their resolution for independence, declaring the “United Colonies of North America” to be free and independent states. Two days later, they approved their declaration of independence.
2. What event will see 48 teams compete in 16 cities across 3 countries in the summer of 2026?
A. FIFA World Cup
B. Summer Olympics
C. Winter Olympics
D. Formula One Grand Prix
A. FIFA World Cup
Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. share hosting duties for the 2026 edition of this once-every-four years fútbol tournament.
3. In February 2026, the Super Bowl LX halftime show will feature what “beastly” musical act?
A. The Eagles
B. Modest Mouse
C. Gorillaz
D. Bad Bunny
D. Bad Bunny
Who knows? As we write this, the Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny hasn’t announced special guest stars yet. So in theory, the answer could end up being “all of the above”!
4. Which one of the following describes a movie-franchise sequel coming to theaters in 2026?
A. Created in a lab by a once-evil genius, these weird little weirdos in overalls return again for more animated shenanigans.
B. ScarJo and the Sexiest Man Alive dodge genetically engineered dino monstrosities on a tropical island.
C. Benoit Blanc and his baffling accent tackle another convoluted, star-studded murder mystery.
D. A robot built to befriend a little girl just wants to dance…and destroy anyone who gets in her way.
A. Minions
A new Minions movie will arrive in 2026. The others describe sequels that came out in 2025: Jurassic World Rebirth, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, and M3GAN 2.0, respectively.
5. In 1626, what did Peter Minuit supposedly buy for $24 on behalf of the Chartered West India Company?
A. Louisiana
B. Manhattan
C. the Bahamas
D. the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María
B. Manhattan
In reality, Minuit traded goods worth 60 guilders, or around $1,000 today, to the Lenape people.
While this is often mentioned as one of the most foolish sales in history, the Lenape would have understood the arrangement as more of a land rental, not purchase. They expected to see the island of Manhattan relinquished one day…which of course never happened.
6. One hundred years ago, mystery writer Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days, sparking a massive manhunt across Britain. She vanished after her husband asked for a divorce, and her car was found abandoned near a lake. How did fellow novelist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle contribute to the search for Christie?
A. He formed the Baker Street Irregulars to track her down.
B. He dredged the lake where her car was found.
C. He gave a spirit medium one of Christie’s gloves.
D. He didn’t, as the two hated each other.
C. He gave a spirit medium one of Christie’s gloves.
Doyle needn’t have bothered. After 11 days, Christie turned up at a hotel under an assumed name, with seemingly no memory of having (temporarily) disappeared herself.
7. April Fool’s Day now sees the entire Internet overrun with jokes and hoaxes. But there is one thing you can believe this April 1st: the 50th anniversary of what titan of tech?
A. Apple
B. Microsoft
C. Facebook
D. America Online
A. Apple
Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne created Apple Computer Co. on April 1, 1976. Famously, they first operated out of Jobs’ parents’ California garage.
8. What part of the body contains 26 bones?
A. Ear
B. Skull
C. Ribcage
D. Foot
D. Foot
From the ankle down, the typical human foot contains 26 bones. Both feet together account for just over 25% of the body’s total 206 bones.
9. The world’s 26th largest island is perhaps best known for a dizzying—and dizzyingly inaccurate—cartoon version, popular in the ’90s, of a real native animal. What is that island?
A. Madagascar
B. Tasmania
C. New Zealand
D. Guam
B. Tasmania
The Looney Tunes‘ Tasmanian Devil bears little resemblance to Tasmania’s real-life marsupial.
10. Thanks in part to more than 3,000 miles of shoreline and 11,000 inland lakes, you’re never more than six miles from a body of water in the 26th state—and you’re never more than 65 miles from a Great Lake. What is that state?
A. Florida
B. Wisconsin
C. Michigan
D. New York
c. Michigan
It’s also the only U.S. state made up of two distinct peninsulas: the mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula and the thinner Upper Peninsula.
11. In November 2026, the NASA space probe Voyager 1 is expected to reach a distance of one light day away from Earth. How many years will it have taken to get that far?
A. 26
B. 48
C. 75
D. 100
B. 48
Voyager 1 launched on September 5, 1977. So if it hits the spot in November as planed, it will have taken just over 48 years to travel the distance light travels in a single day.
12. Because any of the roughly 43 quintillion possible configurations of a Rubik’s Cube can be solved in 26 quarter-turns or fewer, what have some math-loving fans of the toy dubbed the number 26?
A. Big Daddy
B. Maximal Perfection
C. God’s Number
D. Nothing, because who nicknames a number?
D. God’s Number
We say some fans of the toy call 26 God’s Number because not all do. Others insist that 20 is the true God’s Number, since any configuration can be solved in 20 or fewer face turns, which include 90-, 180-, and 270-degree turns.
13. “Precipitevolissimevolmente!” Those 26 letters in Italian translate to what four letters in English?
A. IMHO
B. FOMO
C. OMFG
D. ASAP
D. ASAP
The Italian word translates more literally into “in a very hasty manner”…which is still a good bit shorter than 26 letters.
14. In a certain game, 26 is a groan-inducing score, with nicknames such as “club sandwich,” “bed and breakfast,” and the simple “classic.” It results from going for the high-value 20 three times, and missing it twice in favor of the adjacent lowest scores: 1 and 5. What is that game?
A. Poker
B. Darts
C. Pickleball
D. Cricket
B. Darts
The hated score of 26 also has earned plenty of much more, uh, colorful nicknames we can’t include here.
15. What single made-up word, uttered 26 years ago, cemented a Saturday Night Live impersonation as one of its most memorable—and potentially helped sway a presidential election?
A. Truthiness
B. Strategery
C. Schwing
D. Cowbell
B. Strategery
Will Ferrell’s wildly popular SNL impersonation of George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential election is credited with humanizing the candidate, and quite possibly helping him win the election.
16. What video-game console released 26 years ago was such a colossal failure that it forced its maker to give up on designing new consoles entirely?
A. Dreamcast
B. Virtual Boy
C. Jaguar
D. Series X
A. Dreamcast
The Dreamcast’s 2000 release was such a flop that by the end of the year, Sega decided it would just make video games.
The rest of the list is full of failures too! The Virtual Boy was bad, but Nintendo survived it of course. The Jaguar was Atari’s final console, but that preceded the Dreamcast by 7 years. And the Xbox Series X is underperforming enough that Microsoft might quit making consoles too.
17. The Winter Olympics kick off in Italy on February 6th. How many continents have never hosted a Winter Olympic Games?
A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4
D. 4
While South America and Australia have hosted the Summer Olympics, they haven’t hosted a winter Games. And neither Africa nor, of course, Antarctica has hosted either.
18. October 31st, 2026 will mark the 75th anniversary of a performer’s death. Despite a sensational life, he died a rather mundane death from an inflamed abdomen, possibly exacerbated by getting punched in the stomach a week and a half earlier. Who was that performer?
A. Charlie Chaplin
B. Fred Astaire
C. Frank Sinatra
D. Harry Houdini
D. Harry Houdini
The popular myth is that a fellow gut-punched and killed an unprepared Houdini. But the escape artist was already plagued with health issues, including a broken ankle, insomnia, and appendicitis.
19. Who performed their final concert on June 26, 1977 in Indianapolis, only weeks before their death at home in Memphis?
A. Maria Callas
B. Elvis Presley
C. Joan Crawford
D. Bing Crosby
B. Elvis Presley
All four performers died in 1977, but only Elvis lived and died in Memphis, at his Graceland Mansion.
20. Thanks to a chart found in every science classroom, what super hero would you expect is a huge fan of the number 26?
A. Batman
B. Spider-Man
C. Black Widow
D. Iron Man
D. Iron Man
Iron (Fe) is atomic number 26 on the Periodic Table, after all. But “Twenty-Six Man” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
Find More Fun
Book A Toast to 2026: A New Year’s Trivia Game for your family, friends, or colleagues anytime, or learn more about our in-person scavenger hunts and virtual games.
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Image credits: Agatha Christie photo by Giovana Miketen on Unsplash; Rubik’s Cube photo by Donald Tran on Unsplash; Tasmania photo by Lochlainn Riordan on Unsplash