Are you looking for activities that are suitable for your family reunion?
Are you wondering what kind of family reunion activities you should plan for parents, grandparents, or kids?
Are you confused about how to begin planning for so many different age groups, and interests?
Here is the bad news. There is no simple answer to the above questions, but if you keep reading, you will get a good idea of what kinds of family reunion activities are popular, which ones to avoid, and some ideas on personalizing the experience for your attendees.
What Kinds Of Activities Are Popular At Family Reunions?
Family reunion planning is notoriously difficult since there are so many moving parts and no one really knows what everyone in the family likes to do in their spare time. Doing some basic research (Facebook, Twitter) into the likes/dislikes of your attendees will save you time as you will be able to narrow down your search considerably.
Most family reunion activities can be categorized into the following
1. Games – Indoor, outdoor, board games etc.
2. Family history – Storytelling, Arts & Crafts, Family videos etc.
3. Contests – Pie Eating, Tall Tales etc.
For some great ideas, read our article on popular family reunion activities.
How Many Family Reunion Activities Should I Plan For?
The answer really depends on how long your reunion is. If your entire reunion is just a potluck in a park, then all you really need to do is decide on some team sport like softball, or football.
If your reunion is a weekend and involves a hotel stay (Click here if you need group hotel rates), then we would say that there should be one outdoor activity per day that involves the entire family (Watch a baseball game? Sightseeing?) and two to three time slots per day for indoor activities.
Plan on having several indoor activities running side by side. Arrange the indoor activities so that adults can participate in some and kids can participate in some so every age group is covered.
Schedule an hour a day of catch up time in the hospitality suite so adults can gather and swap stories. Keep the kids busy during this hour with supervised board games.
How Do I Know What My Family Reunion Members Will Like?
Ask them. Send out an online survey (Surveymonkey.com is free) or just send an email with a list of activities and have your family vote on what they would like to do.
Whether you send out an online survey or an email, make sure to be specific about what activities you are planning. Don’t ask open ended questions like “Which activity would you like to participate in at our family reunion?”. You will get too many vague answers with that question. Be very specific with your questions and list actual activities that people can vote on.
What Age Groups Should I Be Targeting?
There are three types of activities,
Planning on only one of the above will lead to disaster as the other groups will feel left out. Plan for several activities to be in the categories listed above and watch your family reunion come alive.
Family Reunion Activities: Lineage And Genealogy
No matter what other family reunion activities you plan on, make sure to include ample time to build a family tree and get an elder to talk about the lineage of the family. Encourage adults, especially grandparents to talk about the past and relay funny family related stories. This activity is usually the most memorable for attendees so make sure to include it in your plans.
What Activities Should I Avoid?
Avoid any activities that involves only small segments of your family as this will make your reunion very fragmented. Also, avoid sports that involve the skill of one or two people (ex. Tennis). Activities like softball or building a family quilt requires many people to work together as a team and that really should be your end goal.
What should you read next?
Since you’re planning activities for a family reunion, you could check out some more easy to plan activities and games.