Birthday Interview Questions for Kids: 50 Questions to Ask Every Year

Updated October 18, 2026 · By the Smalljoy team

Short answer

Pick 10 to 15 questions, ask them on or near your child's birthday, and write down the answers word for word. Ask the same questions every year so you can compare how they've changed. Keep it short and playful, and record their voice if you can.

A young child dancing in a bright living room

A birthday interview is one of the easiest family traditions to start. Once a year, you ask your child the same set of questions and save their answers. It takes ten minutes, and after a few years you have something wonderful: a record of who they were at four, five, six and beyond, in their own words.

The magic is in the repeats. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is cute once. Seeing “a dinosaur,” then “a firefighter,” then “a YouTuber,” then “a vet” side by side is priceless.

How to do a birthday interview

  • Ask on the birthday or the day before. Kids are excited and chatty around their birthday.
  • Keep it to 10 to 15 questions. Little kids lose interest fast. You can rotate extra questions in.
  • Write down their exact words. Don’t fix grammar or tidy it up. The mistakes are the best part.
  • Record their voice. A two-minute audio clip of them answering is a treasure later.
  • Don’t push. “I don’t know” is a perfectly good answer. Write it down too.
  • Save the date and their age with the answers.

Questions for little ones (ages 2 to 4)

Keep these short and concrete.

  1. What’s your name?
  2. How old are you?
  3. What’s your favorite color?
  4. What’s your favorite food?
  5. What’s your favorite toy?
  6. What’s your favorite animal?
  7. What makes you laugh?
  8. What makes you sad?
  9. Who is your best friend?
  10. What song do you like to sing?
  11. What do you like to do outside?
  12. What’s your favorite thing to do with Mom or Dad? (Swap in whatever names your family uses.)
  13. Where do you want to go on an adventure?
  14. How big are you? (Let them show you.)
  15. What do you want for your birthday?

Questions for kids (ages 5 to 8)

  1. What do you want to be when you grow up?
  2. What’s the best thing about being your age?
  3. What’s the hardest thing about being your age?
  4. What are you really good at?
  5. What do you want to get better at?
  6. What’s your favorite book?
  7. What’s your favorite movie or show?
  8. What’s your favorite thing to learn about?
  9. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
  10. What’s the funniest thing that happened this year?
  11. What’s something that scares you?
  12. What makes a good friend?
  13. If you had one wish, what would it be?
  14. What would you do if you were the grown-up for a day?
  15. What’s your favorite thing about our family?
Save the answers in their voice With Smalljoy, you tap and they talk. The answers turn into text as they speak, and the recording is kept, with the date and their age. Get Smalljoy on iPhone

Questions for older kids (ages 9 and up)

  1. How would your friends describe you?
  2. What’s something you’re proud of from this year?
  3. What’s a goal you have for next year?
  4. Who do you look up to, and why?
  5. What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
  6. What do you like to do when you have free time?
  7. What’s a song you can’t stop listening to?
  8. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
  9. What’s something most people don’t know about you?
  10. What’s the best day you had this year?
  11. What do you worry about?
  12. What’s something you changed your mind about?
  13. If you could invent something, what would it be?
  14. What do you think you’ll be doing in ten years?
  15. What’s one thing you want grown-ups to understand about kids?

Fun “this or that” questions (any age)

Great for kids who don’t want to talk much. They just pick one.

  1. Cats or dogs?
  2. Beach or snow?
  3. Pizza or pasta?
  4. Sunrise or sunset?
  5. Read a book or watch a movie?

Ideas to make it special

  • Read last year’s answers aloud after the interview. Kids love hearing what they said before.
  • Take a photo in the same spot every year, like next to the same door frame.
  • Add a question from you each year, like “What do you think I’m good at?” The answers can be very funny and very sweet.
  • Let siblings interview each other. You’ll get answers you’d never get yourself.
  • Keep everything together. If the answers end up scattered across notes, photos and paper, they’re hard to find. One place per child makes it easy to look back.

Why this tradition sticks

Most family traditions take planning. This one takes a list of questions and ten minutes. It works at any age, it costs nothing, and each year makes the earlier years more valuable.

Start this year, even if your child is already older. In five years you’ll be very glad you did.

Looking for more ideas? See what to write in a baby book or our tips on remembering the funny things kids say.