Family Reunion Activities
A Fun Way to Reacquaint in 3 Easy Steps
Once upon a time you were a little kid and you knew your mom, your dad, your siblings, your grandparents, your aunts, your uncles, and all of your little (and not-so-little) cousins. Fast-forward thirty years to your pending family reunion and you realize that not only do you not know everyone who is attending, but you don’t even know who it is you won’t know and how they’re possibly connected to your cute little family of a bygone era.
Instead of frantically combing through social media to try to find little glimpses into the lives of these strangers and who they might be, wouldn’t it be better to go into this thing armed with a plan of attack on getting to know “The Family”? As if that isn’t encouragement enough, here are the top three reasons you should use well planned family reunion activities that include structured game play at your next family hoopla:
1. Not All Families Are Connected by Blood
You may be related to your family, but that doesn’t mean that you automatically become a crazy, riotous group when you’re physically in the same room! Instead, you need to work to find those common bonds and family resemblances that TV families appear to live and breathe. Especially if you haven’t all grown up physically living on the same street, it takes work to get to know these familiar strangers and you have to start somewhere. If you can use a modified ice breaker to get the fun and conversation started, then you’ve won half of the battle already. Plus, a structured activity is going to make sure the conversation doesn’t begin with Great Aunt Martha asking when you’re finally going to get married and have kids.
2. Make Sure You Have Family Reunion Activities for All Ages
One noticeable change that happens in every family is that the old get older while the young simply multiply. That is, of course, the circle of life, but sometimes it can leave some weird age gaps in there where Great Grandma Sue is the only octogenarian in the mix. Since it would be impossible to all bond over episodes of As the World Turns or rousing hunts for Pokemon Go, the goal is to plan family reunion activities for all ages – games and activities that participants of every age can enjoy. Structured game play is going to fill that void and provide activities that the whole family can partake in – from the very small to the very tall and the very young to the very not-young.
3. WARNING! DANGER!! USE EXTREME CAUTION!!!
Finally, and perhaps most importantly of all, structured game play means that the controversial conversation topics that plague all families across the world can be practically avoided altogether. Rather than the family settling into resolute camps of the Trumpers and Clintonites; the Protestants and Catholics; or the shoppers and the adopters, you can partake in pleasant, focused conversation that draws family members out of their “opinions” and into their interest in hearing from others.
Helping families laugh and bond is the number one goal of our programs. If you are looking for fun family reunion ideas, check out our game play activities for your next reunion.
