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.

We have a family reunion every year. We usually have games for the kids, but we also have some activities for the older family members. One year, we have everyone bring a baby picture. We mounted them on a display board and had a "guess who" contest. We usually have bingo, because that is popular with our crowd. Probably the most popular thing that we have done is to have everyone bring two or three of their favorite recipes to the reunion with a short (1-2 sentences) explination of why the recipe is a favorite. Then, I took all of them and typed them and put them in 3 ring binders so that everyone would have a "family" cookbook. The grossest thing we ever did was when my 80+ grandmother started a guess-how-many-flies-will-land-on-the-flystrip contest. She charged everyone $1 per guess with the winner getting the money. My family is full of gamblers who will be on ANYTHHING. I would not suggest this, but it is a funny memory that I have of my grandmother.

For a family reunion, it might be nice to have some type of game tournament. You could set up a chess, checkers, backgammon, or cribbage tournament. These are games most adults know, or could easily learn. And many families have the equipment, so you won't be out buying several copies. This would give an excuse for each adult to sit across from another and talk and catch up with each others lives. You could then have some silly prize that the winner would hang onto with instructions to bring it back for the next tournament when the family gets together again. For the kids, I bet their parents will be bringing some stuff. One fun thing might be to give each kid a glow stick. The kids can all get together and throw them up in the air making something kind of like fireworks. Or they can try to play catch with them. And they can help act as night lights just in case sleeping away from home is a little scarey. You might also want to bring some paper and crayons so that they can make pictures of all of their family or fun camping experiences or what they saw on a nature hike or whatever. For food, I too think that if each family were to take one meal it would be easiest. That way too you have your cooking and clean up crew already assigned. You could announce some basics that you will be bringing - salt and pepper, pb&j fixings just in case, etc. Also ask each family to bring one snack for everyone - fruit, cheese and crackers, smores. With each family bringing one meal and one snack, everyone knows there will be SOMETHING they will like. You will also need to determine who is bringing cooking, cleaning, serving stuff.

Not much help here either for several reasons. I don't like the forced games and stuff either. And usually there's enough competition between family members that you don't need more contests promoting it. If it's a pot luck, you could have a vote for the favorite dish of the day. Funniest story told that day? Best reminiscence? I suppose you would rather have it planned ahead of time but this is about all I can come up with. Things like best dressed, ugliest car, projectile vomited the greatest distance, volume, fluidity and stickiness and those things are usually fuel for fires. Same thing with giving trophies for the games. And a most-inbred award would be a slam dunk if you had Paula Deen as a relative. :) OK, not many ideas here. I'd be more inclined to have a bunch of little prizes and pull the names out of a jar or something. Once you win once, you don't get another chance. Could have separate drawings for adults & kids and could be something as small as a candy bar or whatever. People could bring stuff, even a white elephant giveaway if not too obnoxious. Extra jug of laundry detergent? Extra pair of gloves you didn't like? Oil change gift certificate? Depends on the group I guess. With the bulk being 55-75 I guess I'd look in a different direction but it sounds like you know what you want. Sorry I couldn't be more help! Good luck. And hey, don't lose a lot of sleep over it. Don't spoil it for yourself worrying about something that probably doesn't make a difference. Sounds like the group enjoys the get-together and the awards or something would be minor.