Now keep in mind, I have not done any of these events at a virtual family gathering. I am merely collecting fun ideas that I can share with my family members. Maybe we’ll end up using these ideas, maybe we won’t. But at the very least, these ideas looked worth considering.
Brainstorming Virtual Reunion Ideas Increased Family Bonds
Here is a brainstormed list of virtual reunion ideas. I go into more details further down this article.
Virtual Scavenger Hunts
Guess The Family Member
Family Member Interviews
Virtual Musical Numbers
Virtual Talent Show
Family History Memories and Journal Entries
Writing And Drawing Contests
Compile A Family Cookbook
Virtual Games and Contests
Online Tournaments
Online Quiz and Trivia Games
Virtual Family Reunion Activities
Finally, I have compiled an epic list of ideas for virtual family reunion activities that are suitable for many ages. Hopefully you find value in at least one of these ideas.
#1 – Virtual Scavenger Hunt
Who doesn’t love a scavenger hunt? Scavenger hunts are fun for people of all ages from young child to mature adult. I remember as a kid, some of my favorite things to do with my friends was put together a scavenger hunt and then go adventuring together. And there are so many ways you can do a scavenger hunt, too! The only limit is your imagination.
Britni from PlayPartyPlan.com has a very detailed write-up of a virtual scavenger hunt that would be perfect for a virtual get together such as a family reunion. She goes into great detail and tells you exactly how to set things up and what options of rules are best to play by depending on the numbers in your group. She even has a few printable lists if you don’t want to come up with your own. I highly recommend her as a resource.
#2 – Guess The Family Member
This is actually an ongoing activity my cousin has been hosting in our extended family Facebook group for a couple of years now. She gathered a bunch of trivia questions about aunts, uncles, and grandparents, and every once in a while she’ll post a fun trivia question in the Facebook group, complete with a poll for family members to place their guess.
This has been a fun way to get to know fun little facts about family members, but I do wish it included more than just a couple of aunts and uncles, and I also wish it was more interactive than just placing a vote. But in conjunction with some other activities and games, this could be a fun idea to include in a virtual family reunion that is less restrictive time-wise.
#3 – Family Member Interviews
Holding family member interviews is a great way to allow family members to get to know each other.
There are many ways you can go about doing this, but one easy way to do this is to have sign-ups and family members who want to participate sign up. Then each family member who signed up is assigned another family member from the list and that is the person they get to interview. Britni from PlayPartyPlan.com has some printable interview questions you can use, or you can come up with your own.
Participants are given a certain amount of time to come up with interview questions and get answers to these questions. Answers are then shared with the group so everybody can get to know other family members.
This can be done over Facebook or Email and is less restrictive time-wise so you don’t have to worry about time zones or schedules.
#4 – Virtual Musical Numbers
Our extended family is very musical and we all (well, most of us) love singing and getting together in musical ways. When we’re in person, we usually hold at least one, if not more, family musical numbers.
This year, due to social distancing requirements, we will not be able to do this. So what if we held a virtual musical number? I think this would be a lot of fun, and a great way to encourage family bonding.
There are a few ways this could be done, but some options include:
Picking one song as a family, and every individual family unit records themselves singing this song. Footage is then sent to one family member who combines all the videos into one family musical number that features all of the individual families.
Every individual family picks their own song to practice and record, perhaps revolving around a specific theme, and then all footage is shared on the platform of choice for everybody else to enjoy.
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Or, get creative! The availability of online tools these days make hosting a virtual family musical number a fun and decently simple option.
#5 – Virtual Talent Show
Similar to the virtual musical number idea, families could put on a virtual talent show! This might take some planning and organizing on the host’s part, but the general idea is that everybody who wants to share a talent of theirs signs up and then a deadline is set.
Every family member must have their talent recorded and submitted by that deadline and then everything is put together, either in one long video or a bunch of individual files, for everybody else to see and enjoy. This would be a fun way for family members of all ages to share their talents as well as be exposed to each others’ talents. What a great way to really connect with family members from all over!
Some examples of talents could include dancing, singing, telling jokes, or creating art, but really the sky’s the limit.
#6 – Family History Memories and Journal Entries
For the older family members, it could be a lot of fun to participate in some geneology and compile some family history memories and journal entries.
This could be done in a variety of ways. You could either have every family member submit one ‘miracle memory’ or one ‘favorite memory’ and then compile them. These memories could be compiled in a bound notebook or journal of sorts and distributed amongst family members so that they can all go back and read these real-life miracles when times get tough or they just need a pick-me-up.
Or instead, these memories can be entered into FamilySearch for permanent safe-keeping, no matter what moves or natural disasters occur.
For those who are unfamiliar with FamilySearch, FamilySearch is a genealogist’s dream site. It is basically an online tool that allows people to gather their ancestors into a family tree. Many people enjoy going through the entire tree and finding as many long-lost relatives as they possibly can.
But a feature that is not widely talked about is the memories section. Individuals can input family photos and memories into their family tree so that these precious records never get lost. And the best part is these memories all stay completely secret and private as long as the entrant is alive, but once that person dies, it all becomes public for all of that person’s future generations to see and enjoy. It’s amazing!
This online tool is a particular favorite amongst members of the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, but all people are welcome to utilize this free resource, regardless of their religious beliefs. Because being familiar with our ancestors is important for everybody.
My friend Rebecca from homeschool.rebeccareid.com has some great printable pages for younger family members to enjoy filling out their own immediate family tree, so they can be involved too!
#7 – Writing and Drawing Contests
Hosting a writing or drawing contest could be a fun idea for a virtual family reunion. You could either host a serious contest where people try their hardest, or you could hold a spoof contest where family members have to write, say, a haiku about a family memory that has to make sense and be amusing at the same time, or perhaps a self-portrait they drew while blind-folded Everybody shares their writing or drawing with everybody else, and family members can vote on different categories, such as funniest, makes the most sense, the most embarrassing, etc etc.
If you’ve got a good imagination and your family members are good sports, this could make for a lot of laughs as well as some great new memories.
#8 – Compile A Family Cookbook
Compiling a family cookbook might be a bit less interactive than the ideal family reunion, but this is still a good way to connect with each other and to create some long-lasting memories.
Some of my favorite cookbooks are old family or church compilations. You know that every recipe in the book is tried and true, and you also know the overall tastes of the person who submitted the recipe, so you have a pretty good idea of if you will like it or not before you even try it.
And really, who doesn’t love a new, trusted recipe source?
Family cookbooks can be compiled by asking family members to submit their favorite recipe(s) in a variety of categories. The person who collects the recipes can then compile them into a bound notebook, printed by a company such as Shutterfly or Amazon, or perhaps shared on a free blog hosted on Blogspot. It takes a bunch of time, but these cookbooks are a great investment.
#9 – Virtual Games and Contests
One of the best things to do at an in-person family reunion is play a bunch of games. Just because you can’t have an in-person family gathering doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the games!
Again, your level of creativity is your only limitation when it comes to hosting virtual games and contests, but here are a few ideas I was able to come up with to get your gears working.
Game and Contest Ideas for a Virtual Family Gathering
Charades – Family members gather in a live Zoom meeting and then they divide into teams. Each team takes turns with one player acting out a specific item on a card, while other team members have to guess.
They get points equal to the number of correct guesses they make before a timer goes off. Turns rotate until a team reaches a previously decided upon score.
Pictionary – Similar to charades, family members gather in a live Zoom meeting and split into teams. Teams take turns drawing a specific item, either on a pen and paper you can see on the screen, or using a digital paint program. Correct guesses earn points and points are tallied up until one team wins.
Family Feud – Family Feud is a popular game show that can easily be duplicated over Zoom! A few days or weeks beforehand, split your group into teams of 6-9 players.
Send each team a survey to fill out and collect their answers. This works best when you have a very large group with at least six or more teams.
On the day of the event, all you have to do is make sure competing teams do not answer questions they filled out originally.
You can check out Hobby Lark for more detailed Family Fued gameplay rules, as well as for some survey question ideas. Just adapt the game to take place over Zoom instead of in person.
Bingo – This can be played in Zoom or in a Facebook group. Make sure every family member has a predetermined Bingo board. The host can either read a story and every time an object on the Bingo board gets mentioned, they can fill in their spot on the board, or the host can draw objects randomly from a hat or bowl.
The first one with 5 in a row wins! Then you could try for a black-out. It’s up to you to decide if you want to host prizes or not, but that could be a bit more tricky online.
Encore – Are you familiar with the board game Encore? This is a fun game that might be easily adjusted to play virtually.
If I was playing this game virtually, I would do something like this: Gather family members into a Zoom meeting and split them into teams, They do not have to be in two even teams, in fact, it’s better if there are multiple groups of 5 or 6.
One team begins with one member singing a song – any song. Other team members can jump in and sing a different song at any time, but the catch is the new song must have a word in common with the previous song. That team goes through as many songs as possible before a timer goes off and they get points equalling the number of songs they successfully connected.
Simon Says – Simon Says could also easily be adapted for a digital space, especially for younger kids. Gameplay goes just like it does in real life, only everybody is in front of a device instead of in the same room.
If you’re looking for more ideas, this post I found on games to play on virtual calls might get your imagination running. They are mostly geared towards grandparents and grandkids on one-on-one calls, but maybe something will work for your virtual family reunion?
#10 – Online Tournaments
A lot of people enjoy playing online games such as Age Of Empires, Cashflow, or World Of Warcraft. There are many online games that people enjoy playing nowadays. And if you want to keep costs down while still allowing everybody to play, Fanatical is a great option for inexpensive computer games.
The problem with using these games at a virtual family reunion is the number of participants. My family’s reunion, for example, is probably going to be hosting between 75 and 200 people. That’s way too many to jump on an Age Of Empires game at one time.
The workaround for this is an elimination-style tournament. With an elimination style tournament, you can literally choose any game that is popular amongst your family members and keep track of who won which game and who got what score.
Narrow it down until you have ended up with a champion. It’s like March Madness, family-style!
Take a poll of your family members’ favorite digital games and see if there are any in common that can be turned into a tournament. This is another fun way to include family members who are otherwise uninterested in the activities you’ve chosen thus far.
#11 – Online Quiz and Trivia Games
If you want to have some live fun that is good for all ages, consider a virtual quiz or trivia game.
Come up with quiz or trivia questions about certain family members or your family’s history. You can come up with as many as you want! Make a game out of seeing how many correct answers other family members can get. You might even consider a prize for the winner! Or if you don’t want to come up with a prize, bragging rights are always fun.
This is particularly fun when using the free app/website, Kahoot.
I hope these ideas have been helpful to you and that you enjoy your next virtual family gathering. And I also hope you (and we) are able to get together in person, soon!
Article Published by: Benjamin and Charlene Hess
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