How Well-Planned Activities Can Improve Relations at Family Reunions

I dropped off the last family member at the airport on Monday morning after hosting an extraordinary family reunion. Like all families, ours certainly has had our share of drama over the years, so when I planned the activities for this first family reunion, I was both hopeful and worried.

I set up stations where each family member could enter information about themselves and their parents and children; give their oral history via video; and fill out the family tree on a 27-foot cloth banner. While these activities are vital to building our genealogy database, they’re usually not considered a fun activity.

So this year, we had a team of 2 to 3 people to support each interviewee. Even our really shy family members came to life with great stories and we all had fun in the process. When people couldn’t think of answers to personal questions, that was no problem for our group – others chimed in and shared their recollections, which often led to even more interesting anecdotes. Even those with a history of drama bonded as they remembered the good times. Capturing these story-telling sessions on video will certainly be fascinating, and revealing, to future generations.

Playing baby photo match-up and trivia games gave us interesting insight to family traits (physical likenesses) and idiosyncracies. I made reunion “bucks” to encourage everyone to play the games to win prizes. And our youngest family member was appointed banker, which gave him the opportunity to determine who correctly answered each question. No longer hidden behind his father, he was front and center. By the end of the weekend, everyone felt a renewed closeness and appreciation for our lineage. 

We’re already planning the next reunion!