This will require a lot of preparation, but how about your own version of Trivial Pursuit. Send out a request for questions/answers with the invitations.

Example: In 1974, Aunt Ella got no less than four of what common household item for Christmas? Bonus: who did she receive them from?

We've been doing a Chinese Auction at ours. Each family brings an unwrapped item, new or handmade. Then we sell tickets 5 for a $1.00 and the person then puts tickets in the coffee can beside each item that they would like to win. It goes over very well and each year it seems there are more prizes to be won since some families like to bring more than 1 item. The kids really get into because we make sure there are items to fit all ages. The ticket money then goes into the pot for next years's expenses.

Thanks for your ideas.......I've got them all printed out and ready to take to my cousins when we get together and plan........
THANX!!!!!!!!!!

For Games - I have used paper placemats from a restaurant, put them all together, marked the top one with cookie cutters, and then cut up for a puzzle. Divide up into teams, and the first to put their puzzle together wins. Both the older and younger members of the family seemed to like this.

We have a huge family reunion every 2 years (Great Grandma had 15 kids). Every year, a different clan runs the reunion. We have an auction to raise $ for the next year's reunion. Anyway, for the little kids, place a pile of sawdust on a tarp and let them look for coins in the sawdust. For the kids 5-12 they have races with a prize for the winners. For the teenages, either a balloon toss or egg toss.

One year, we had an enlarging machine. We placed a blanket over a line and had the items already set up. A kid would throw a small ball over the blanket and a large ball would be thrown back to the kid. We used all kinds of toys for this.

We asked all family members to submit recipes and made a Family Cookbook out of it.

Each family provides their own meal and have each family bring a dessert for pot-luck.

We have a 50/50 raffle, with half going to the winner and the other half given to the family having it for next year.

Hope this helps!

We had a big family reunion in the summer of 2004,we're talking over 300 people and that wasn't all of us.They and i say they because i wasn't involved in the planning of it since i live 3000 miles away.Anyway they had all different kinds of games,dances,karoke,etc for the younger generation .For the real small kids they had age approiate stuff,those jumping things,tunnels they could crawl in and out of ,and for all the kids they had bubble blowing contest,3 legged races and all kinds of things. For most of us older ones we just went around socializing eating and catching up on everything.Of course the guys had card games ,checkers,dominos,chess etc.

The food was never ending every one made stuff,there were plenty of things to drink,BUT no alcohol was allowed under any circumstances.

My family had reserved and rented the field in my home town and the clubhouse that goes with it.So we had full kitchen priveleges.My sisters,cousins, and i went down the night b4 and set up the tables in the hall,and got things ready.Alll the food was made in everyones homes and brought to the site either hot or cold,whichever way it was supposed to be served.It was set up buffet style.

During the reunion,the town mayor came up and complimented us on what a great and civil group we were.We also did our own cleanup and made sure everything was left just as we found it,if not better.

The next morning the majority of us went to church,even those that are catholic attended the presbyterian church.
The minister made the comment that they love us having reunions as that's the only time the church has standing room only.
Everyone had a wonderful time,and we told the younger ones the next one is up to them to plan.

Oh i almost forgot,there is a lady in town that does photography for the newspaper and the church,so we hired her for the day.She took a lot of wonderful pictures,and then she made up photo books for sale ,half of the profits went to the reunion fund,the other half went to her.Plus she would take individual pictures of anyone that wanted them for a fee.No one was dissappointed.

Wow,sorry this is so long.
Kathi

WOW! Great Ideas! I love hearing them all......we need to keep this post going as it will soon be time to get busy on summer projects!
Thanx

How about some kind of small craft. Or a match game where you try to match baby pictures with the older person they are now. ~Anj

We had a reunion last summer after many years of not having one. It wasn't near as organized as most of the suggestions listed above. We plan to have another one this summer. Hopefully better and more innovative this year. Turn out was light last year but hoping for a bigger turn out this summer. We reserved a shelter at one of the local parks and put an ad in the local newspaper giving the date and place. Some people received personal invitations if they lived further away and didn't subscribe to the local newspaper. The ad was costly so probably would have been cheaper to send out invitations to each family. I do family history research so I took along my book for everyone to look at. Then I also made a poster board with wedding pictures of my grandparents, parents and aunts and uncles. Underneath each picture I put their birthdates, wedding dates and if deceased put that date also. Both were a big hit.We had a playground in front of our shelter for the smaller children and was also a swimming beach nearby. Food was potluck and worked out well. People just had fun visiting. Most of the crowd was seniors so I don't think games would have gone over too well at our gathering but I love hearing all the ideas. I took my camera and snapped pictures of each individual family as they arrived. Then we took one group shot but some had already left. I wish I had thought of the group shot earlier in the day. I love the idea of hiring a photographer but that would get too expensive for our group. I also have heard where some reunions each family wears different colored tshirts to identify which group they belong to. We had name tags at our gathering. One other reunion we attended had a notebook on a table as you entered the shelter and you wrote your name, address, email and a memory of your descendants. Everybody could read those notes and next year it will be shared at the next reunion. Also one couple was in charge of pictures and then they posted them to a web site to be shared with the reunion attendees. All the pictures were labeled so if you forgot some names it was a nice reminder. Keep posting ideas. I will be checking to see what other ideas come up.

I organized our family reunion for the past two years after a 20 year gap since the prior reunion. We rented a park grove with a picnic area and playground. For the kids, we had lots of games and crafts - we set up a blanket in the grass and put out those foam visor with stickers, glitter and the like and then had a contest for the best visor (actually all the kids got ribbons so no one was really a loser). We also had a "Signature Scavenger Hunt" where I typed up a page of questions and the kids had to get signatures of relatives that matched the question. For example - "Find a relative that works in a hospital", "Find two relatives that went to the same college", "Find a relative over 40 years old that owns a Playstation", "Find a relative with 5 or more brothers or sisters",etc. This worked out great because the kids had to go to the elders that they didn't know and ask them questions to see if they fit the description. This activity was a big hit. There were kids running all over the place asking relatives they never met about themselves. It was a great ice breaker and helped the kids get to know their family. The three kids who finished first won a prize.

For the adults, we sent out questionnaires early with the invitations so we could give out awards for the oldest/youngest/longest married/etc. We asked questions like "Which relative is most likely to show up with a camera at a family function" and gave out an award titled "Family Historian", or "Which relative would you call at 2am if you had a flat tire?" and called that one the "Good Samaritan" award. We read the top three nominations and then gave out computer-made certificates for each category to the winner with the most votes.

I ordered t-shirts from an online site, they were about $6 each for about 150 shirts. We had goodie bags with custom pens (relatively inexpensive), notepads, personalized sport bottles with the same logo that was on the t-shirt. I also made up adhesive nametags on the computer.