We’ve done ten fun family reunion ideas now here are a few “bonus” ideas.

Family Reunion Idea #11- Make a Family Crest

Create a family crest or family logo. Brainstorm together what your family means and how that can be represented on paper. In European tradition, a coat of arms, which includes a crest, is a symbolic way of identifying a group of people. There is a wonderful site that makes designing your family crest easy and it’s free. After designing your family crest, enter your email address and then print it out and make your own family crest shirts and other reunion gear. http://www.makeyourcoatofarms.com/index.asp

Family Reunion Idea #12. Hillbilly Dinner

Host a Host a “Hillbilly” dinner at your family reunion. Decorate with gunny sacks, old tires, aluminum cans and a clothesline with long johns and flannel shirts strung between trees or hanging on a prominent wall. Be sure and use plenty of duct tape when decorating your reunion site. Use old newspapers or burlap for your tablecloths.

A hillbilly theme is a great theme idea if you will be cooking hot dogs over a fire or tin foil dinners. Be sure and serve homemade root beer in pint jars (I like the jars with handles but they’re kind of hard to find.) and serve your food on pie tins you get from your local thrift store.

Get your family involved with a pig calling contest and use individual pies (Like Hostess pies) for a pie eating contest.

Family Reunion Idea #13- Make a Human Family Tree

Take a family tree picture. Arrange your family just like their names would appear on a genealogical chart of the family tree. Take a picture from the young end first, then have everyone turn around and get a picture of the group from the oldest end.

Family Reunion Idea #14- “Who’s Who” Photo Game

Ask Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents or invite everyone to send photocopies of baby pictures of each family member. This is easy to do now that everything s digital. Mount and number each picture on a large poster board. Give each player a piece of paper numbered to match the number of pictures. Each player writes baby’s names that match the numbers. It’s so funny to see who the children at your family reunion think the pictures are of.  They have a difficult time imagining Uncle Ben or Aunt Lisa as a baby.

Family Reunion Idea #15- Have a video scavenger hunt.

This activity will only work if you have access to video cameras and a way to watch the completed videos. A projection system is the best for a large family group. Be sure you have at least one adult with each group. It is probably best to ask adults to bring their video camera and do the filming of the group.

THE RULES:
You have ________ (specify time) to complete as many items on the list as possible.
You must return to ____________ by the designated time for your tape to be valid.
Teams must limit the filming of each item to 20 seconds or shorter.
All team players except cameraperson must appear in each video segment.
Stay in the specified region for the hunt.
Wear your seat belt whenever the car is moving.
Cell phones cannot be used to complete tasks.

The following list of tasks is a list used at an activity I attended. This is the list they gave us. I’m not a big fan of embarrassing people so some of the tasks made me feel uncomfortable. You can use this list but I highly recommend adapting it to your location and family group.

THE TASKS: (Each task is worth 5 points)

Sing Happy Birthday Song (you may have to sing fast to get it recorded in 20 seconds)
Find a runner. Have your team jog with him or her.
Video of everyone searching on the floor for a contact lens.
Pump someone else’s gas and wash their windshield
Someone ordering a cheeseburger without any cheese.
Doing a cartwheel inside 7-11.
Team riding an automated kiddie ride in front of store.
Go to a restaurant and stand in front of it singing the restaurant’s theme song.
Do a good deed for someone you do not know.
Your group standing by a movie poster rated PG or less.
Someone doing a stupid human trick.
Organize apples at grocery store.
Form human pyramid in front of a famous landmark in the community.
Everyone wearing king hats from Burger King.
Get your whole group into a tree and have them sing “In the Leafy Tree Tops”.
Have a stranger tell you a joke.

When the time is over, teams return to the starting point, your family reunion site.  Dock teams 1 point for each minute they are late.  To view the scavenger hunt videos pop the tape into the player.  Choose two or three judges from your family to keep track of each teams’ score and award prizes to the top teams.