Charades
Charades is a game of pantomime, long shots and over-the-top acting. Play it with family members to see how creative your clan is. Before you begin, find a spot large enough for everyone to sit comfortably while an individual stands and performs. Pass out one slip of paper to each person. Have them write down the name of a famous person, the title of a book, a popular saying, a movie or song title, and label it as such. The paper should look something like this: “I Love Rock and Roll--song title.”
Place all the papers in a bag or bowl. Pick a person to start the game and have him draw one slip of paper without looking to see what is written on the paper before he picks it. If he picks the one he wrote, he must return it and pick another. It is his job, without speaking, to get the group to guess what is written on his paper. To begin, he must act out the category. For example, if his selection is the title of a book, he will pretend he is reading. If it is a movie, he will pretend to hold and crank an old movie camera. For a song title he should pretend to sing. He will hold up his fingers to show how many words the players need to guess, then before he acts the words out, hold up one finger for the first word, two for the second word, etc. He must pull on his ear if he wants you to guess a word that sounds like the one he’s about to act out. Some people keep score, giving one point to the first person who guesses correctly. Other people just play until each person has had a turn.
Family Scavenger Hunt
Before the big gathering, create a scavenger sheet and make enough copies for everyone attending. Include items like a specific eye color, year of birth, maiden name, make and model of first car, person who traveled the farthest to attend, person who never moved out of the town she was born in and someone whose first name starts with a specific letter. When you pass out the scavenger list, tell the group that each answer must be a different person and they have only 15 minutes to complete the hunt. The goal is to find a family member who matches the description or listed item. The person who correctly answers the most questions is the winner. This is an interesting way to get to know your extended family.
Name the Baby
Ask every family member who plans to attend the gathering to send you a baby picture of him or herself. Number the pictures and display them on a wall or table. Hand out a piece of paper with everyone’s name printed on it. Ask everyone to try to match each baby picture to the correct name. They can just write the number of the picture next to the pre-printed name. Whoever gets the most correct is the winner.