10 Fun Family Reunion Activities

Are you planning your next family reunion? Lots of work goes into organizing a large family gathering, from finding a venue, deciding on the food and organizing the entertainment. If you’re having either a large or small family reunion, you’ll want to have activities that will not only bring lots of interaction, but also shed light on your genealogy.

Here are ten family reunion activity ideas that will keep your family entertained and, hopefully, teach them a little about your family history:

Image: Erin, Flickr

1. Make a family time capsule

For your next reunion, have everyone in your family bring something that holds a special meaning to them that will be added to a family time capsule. It can be a little piece of artwork, a toy, a photo, anything they want. Make sure to tell everyone before the reunion about it so they have ample time to find something to represent themselves. Set a date in the future, 20 or 25 years, to reopen the time capsule together.

2. Family Bingo

Take the old classic game of Bingo and customize it for your family reunion. Instead of numbers, write in characteristics a person may have, such as physical characteristics (“has blue eyes”), or things a person may have done (“can play a musical instrument”). Each relative gets a card and must find family members who fit the descriptions. The first person who can get a bingo wins! This is a good icebreaker game to get everyone loosened up and talking with each other.

3. Who’s the baby?

Who doesn’t love seeing baby pictures? This is a fun guessing game and a great crowd pleaser. Before the reunion, print out baby pictures for each of your relatives, living and deceased, and have your family members guess who is in the picture. This is a great game to bring up family memories.

4. Family trivia

You can create a Jeopardy-like game filled with facts about your family. This will take a lot of work, but the pay off will be great. Collect questions about your family’s genealogy and any family history stories. Create teams to get everyone involved.

5. Family field trip

If possible, arrange a visit to a place that holds significance to your family’s history. It can be an old house, a park or a church. A trip is a perfect opportunity to share family memories or stories about your ancestors.

6. Fill out the family tree

A family reunion is the perfect place for the youngest members of your family get started in learning more about their family tree. Create some printouts of blank family trees and have them fill them out. Encourage them to talk to relatives at the reunion to help them build out the tree. It’s a great way to get children to catch the genealogy bug!

7. Family cooking

No family gathering is complete without food. For many people, the first dishes they learned to cook were the ones that they grew up eating. Many recipes are often passed down from generation to generation. Have family members bring dishes made from old family recipes for the ultimate family potluck! Food always brings out memories and family stories.

8. Storytime

Share interesting stories about your family. Encourage your relatives to come with a funny or interesting family anecdote in mind, especially your older family members. This is a unique opportunity to hear stories about your family history, so have that tape or video recorder ready!

9. Unidentified photos

If you or your family have old, unidentified photos, consider displaying them at the reunion. You never know who may hold the answer to identifying your mysterious ancestors.

10. Create a family guestbook

A family guestbook is a perfect family reunion memento. Have each person who attended the reunion sign in and leave a little message. After the reunion, you can make copies and distribute them to everyone in the family!