Fun Family Reunion Activities

Sure family reunions are great for historical purposes and helps your family stay very close but there might be a problem. What the heck is everyone going to do for hours together?
Sure you can eat and talk but how much time can that really kill? You will need to plan some activities!

Activities can be fun for almost everyone depending on what you want to do. You should have activities that are fun for the entire family and also special activities to help keep the children busy and under control.

So, what are some good all-inclusive activities? Well, most people's problem with these is that they try way too hard on them.

The best activities are very simple ones. Sports and games are two of the easiest things to organize and very fun for a lot of family members.

Depending on the size of your family, you could do anything from volleyball to softball and anything in between. If your family is very athletic, you could hold a mini family Olympics complete with ribbons and awards.

Children can get bored easily at family reunions. Teenagers will most likely wander around playing their gameboys or complaining but the younger ones definitely need entertainment.

If you are going to be at a park, a great thing to consider is a giant bouncy house or slide. You can usually rent these by the hour and the rental place will set them up and take them down for you. Kids love these and they help burn off a lot of energy.

Children's games or tables for coloring are also great ideas. Sack races and other fun stuff can really give children a memory that will last a lifetime. Read more...

Recording Your Family Reunion

A family reunion might take forever to plan for and successfully pull off so you will want to make sure to capture all the memories you can.
Some people are lucky and have a photographer or videographer already in the family and they have all of their own equipment. For the rest of us, there are a couple of options available. You could hire someone or do it yourself.

Hiring a professional to record your family reunion can save a lot of time and trouble if you can afford it.
Professionals know the right cameras and lenses to use for every kind of lighting and weather condition and it can make a normal picture look amazing.

Most people don't have the kind of special equipment laying around to do this. Of course, professionals cost quite a bit of money but if each household of the family pitches in a little bit, it won't be so bad. You could always just hire them for a couple of hours also instead of the entire day.

If you decide to do it yourself, it can be overwhelming if nobody helps. You will need to try to delegate others to help with pictures and filming. It can be easy to miss all the fun and be very disappointed later on if you are the only one running around with a camera.

Most people have digital cameras these days so just make sure there some reliable people operating them. Even 2 cameras can work as long as the people using them aren't always standing side by side.

Family reunions don't happen all the time so you want to make sure you are taking good pictures and movies that will be mementos for years to come. Read more...

Gifts for Family Reunions

Family reunions are the perfect place to incorporate a birthday, anniversary, or other event in your family's life. Naturally, gifts can play an important role at large family events.

Though this isn't necessary for family members you see on a daily or weekly basis, it can really mean something to those Cousins, Aunts, and Uncles you don't get to see as often as you like.
Younger family members and children love gifts and it's fun to incorporate them somewhere in your family reunion.

One fun idea for giving gifts that includes the entire family is the Secret Santa. It doesn't have to be near Christmas for this to be a lot of fun.
You assign someone to each family member making sure not to have doubles and allot a certain dollar amount like $10. The gift buyer gets something the family member would like or something silly and wraps it up.

Sometime during the family reunion, everyone gathers together and the names are read off and gifts are exchanged. This can be a lot of fun.

Some of the best gifts you can give are family pictures. If you rarely see some of your extended family, by giving or exchanging family pictures, you can be a little closer with each other.
Everyone has some picture of a family member that hasn't been updated for years so this is the perfect time to fix that.

Someone should also be the designated reunion photographer. They can be in charge of taking pictures of everyone all day long. Read more...