A family is the basis of happiness.
And…
A happy family is a happy life.
Family gatherings offer the best opportunity to connect with the family members that you don’t meet often.
Extended family members are spread out across neighborhoods, towns, and cities. This makes it hard for a whole family to meet unless you regularly plan for a gathering or an important event.
This is where planning for a fun, memorable family reunion comes in. However, hosting a successful family get-together may not be easy because pleasing everyone is difficult.
But…
It’s doable.
Plan well and be light-hearted and fun throughout the gathering. Be creative and come up with fun activities your family is bound to love and enjoy. Opt for engaging activities everyone in attendance will enjoy.
Statistics show that most families in the United States of America enjoy gathering together for fun. It was also found that 12% of study respondents, parents of younger children, enjoy playing video games and other fun family activities.
They include:
- Reading together
- Cooking and eating meals
- Watching TV or movies
- Taking part in clubs
- Singing songs or dancing
- Outdoor and indoor games, among other fun activities
It takes advance planning and lots of preparation to host a successful family gathering. When planning, take into account the length of the gathering and the purpose for the meeting.
Come up with a family committee to help create a plan and prepare for large gatherings.
Create a budget for the event and a list of the family members to attend, and send out invitations early. Here’re seven tips to hosting a memorable family gathering in your backyard:
- Family interviews
- Cooking a family meal
- Playing games
- Plan for a family photo shoot
- Family art
- Color war
- Singing and dancing
7 Fun Tips to a Memorable Family Gathering
1) Family interviews
Some members of your family are old enough to know more about your family than you do. Conduct family interviews to engage members of your family to share their experiences and what they know with others.
Grandparents and older family members usually have amazing stories about their time. They grew up in a different era, and sharing stories of how they grew up is fascinating.
Ask these members of the family everything you need to know. If possible, use a recorder to record everything they say for future reference.
When such members are gone, you’ll remind yourself of the stories they shared with you. What’s more, the recordings would act as memorabilia of cherished members of your family.
2) Cooking a family meal
Engage your family members in cooking activities at your backyard. Cooking and eating together as a family has many benefits. As you eat your meals together, you also get to converse and share your thoughts.
Share recipes with family members and come up with creative ways of preparing some of the most delicious foods that’ll remain in every person’s memory.
You can barbecue together. The backyard is a good place to do your grilling. Take advantage of the opportunity and have some good time with your family.
Plan meals, prepare food and eat together.
3) Playing games
Playing together brings families together. They say that a family that plays together, lives together.
Come up with a game, keeping your dynamic family in mind. The game should capture the interest of most, if not all, your family members.
Engage everyone in playing, and even those who can’t play should focus their attention to the game. They can cheer those who are playing.
The backyard is a nice place to conduct gaming activities for your family. Gaming together is fun and healthy. It also brings you together through teamwork.
Consider playing foosball among other indoor and outdoor games. It’s an interesting table-top game that somehow draws its ideas from football.
The game has rods with figures attached to it. The rods are manipulated and used to move the ball into an opponent’s goal. Foosball tables vary in size. Choose one that’s appropriate to continue enjoying a foosball table at your home even after the event.
4) Plan for a family photo shoot
You can use your backyard to take memorable family photos. Photos are one of the best ways to preserve family memories. Schedule a family photo session for your entire family.
You can choose to add any background of your liking to your backyard for a quality family photo.
5) Create a family art
Making family art is a sure fun way of engaging your family members to happy moments. As you plan for the gathering, get the art supplies that you’ll require. Be creative and involve your family in doing anything artistic.
You can trace your members’ hands and footprints, and fill the outlines of the beautiful color designs. You can also try to draw your family members. You don’t need to be perfect. Just do it for fun.
Display your family art in a home art museum.
6) Color war
Playing color war is amazing. It’s fun to run around and splash different colors on each other. Your backyard is a spacious place to do this.
Throw clouds of color to one another. You can also capture these magnificent moments with photos and videos of your family playing together.
7) Singing and dancing
Let every member of your family share their favorite songs. Sing together and engage in karaoke as a family. When the tunes hit, you can dance together as family members.
Singing and dancing are an emotional way of expressing your feelings. Dance to happy tunes to make your family happy. Consider musical games for even more fun.
Conclusion
Bringing your family together and planning for happy, fun moments gives your family the opportunity to experience wonderful moments. Coming together as a family connects you.
You develop deep and healthy relationships with each other. Grace your family gathering with fun activities to create good memories.