Family reunion games are the ultimate ice breaker at a family reunion! They encourage all family members to get out of their shells and open up.
Everyone at your reunion will have so much fun with these games that you’ll be scheduling the next family reunion before even saying goodbye!
Key Takeaways:
- What are fun outdoor games for a big family reunion that don’t involve devices?
- Our Recommendations: Water Balloon Toss and Egg Race
- What games work for both kids and adults at a family reunion?
- What are creative or unique family reunion games?
- What are indoor games for a family reunion that get people talking instead of scrolling?
- Top Picks: Charades and Card Games (Go Fish, Rummy, etc.)
- What are easy games for all ages?
- What are icebreaker games for a large family?
- What downloadable group games are good for family reunions?
- Crowd Favorite: Karaoke Apps, Escape Team, and Spaceteam
Family Reunion Games That Are Totally Device Free! (and still super fun!)
If you’ve already planned and committed to a device-free reunion, you can still have fun with games that will involve family members of all ages.
Use this device-free family reunion game list to get everyone laughing and playing together at your gathering!
Fun Outdoor Games for a Big Family Reunion
Here are a few of our favorite outdoor family reunion games that are guaranteed to be fun and also great exercise!
Water Balloon Toss
If you’re seeking a great game for outdoor gatherings on hot days, this is the game for you.
Divide players into teams of two. Team members stand opposite of each other and toss a water balloon back and forth while gradually widening the space between them. The last team with a balloon intact wins!
Paper Airplane Competition
The record flight for a paper airplane is 226 feet and 10 inches. Get out some paper and see who can create a family record.
Build planes with teamwork or single engineers. The sky is the limit when it comes to paper airplanes.
Egg Race
Grab some spoons and eggs (hard-boiled or plastic) and set up a relay race. Each team member must carry their egg on a spoon from the starting point to a turnaround point, and back again. Then, the egg is passed to a teammate (from spoon-to-spoon) who takes their turn.
Frisbee Golf
Frisbee golf is played in a similar fashion to golf. However, instead of using a ball and club, a frisbee is thrown towards a basket which serves as the hole. After the first throw, the frisbee is thrown again from where it landed. Scoring is kept by counting the number of throws it takes to make the frisbee land in the basket.
Indoor Family Games You’ll Love!
Are you keeping the fun inside? Or perhaps rain or snow have shifted your plans.
Here are some popular indoor games that are fun for groups of all sizes!
Classic Charades
Divide the family into teams. Write out phrases or words on slips of paper to place in a bowl. Choose a player from each team to select a slip of paper and act out the word for his/her teammates. The teammates have one minute to guess as many words as they can. The first team to guess 10 successfully wins!
Two Truths & A Lie
A wonderful game to get to know your family a little better!
Start off by giving everyone a pen and paper so everyone can track their guesses. For this game, you share two things about yourself that are true, and one that is a lie.
So you might say something like; I’m left-handed, I’ve met the Queen of England, and I have auditioned for The Voice.
Family members would then guess which one of those is a lie. Once everyone gets a turn, tally up who got most of the answers right, and that is the winner!
Musical Chairs
This indoor game is pretty simple! Walk around a set of chairs while the music plays, and scramble to sit when the music stops. Take away one chair with each round, so there’s one extra person per chair.
Card Games: More Indoor Games You Can Play with your Family
Rummy
Rummy includes a broad family of card games that involve players scoring points by “melding” their cards via Groups (Books) of three or four of a kind or Sequences (Runs) of three or more consecutive cards of the same suit. When making a sequence in basic rummy, the ace is always a low card. It may not be played above the king.
Spoons
Two or more players, a 52 card deck, and one less spoon than the number of players are all you need to get this game going. Each player is dealt 4 cards. The remaining cards are placed face down in the center of the table. The dealer takes the top card and either switches it with one of their cards or places it on the table to their left. Once a card is passed left, the next player can either keep the card or pass it on. When a player gets 4 of a kind, they can grab a spoon. Other players can grab a spoon as soon as one is picked up. The player with no spoon loses the round.
Crazy 8’s
Each player is dealt 8 cards. Place the rest of the deck face down in the middle of the table. The game starts when you turn over the first card in the deck.
The player to the left of the dealer (clockwise around the table) goes first. To play the person has to match the rank (same number or face card) or suit of the card turned over, or play an 8.
If a player can’t match the rank or suit and doesn’t have an 8, they must draw a card from the deck.
For example, if the player plays an 8 they have to declare a suit for the next player to play.
That person has to follow the named suit or play another 8.
The winner is the first person to get rid of all their cards!
The winner then receives points for all the cards from the other players’ hands:
- Number cards are worth their number value
- Face cards are worth 10 points
- 8’s are worth 50 points
Here’s an example of how a hand might play:
After the 4 of hearts is played, the next player:
- Can play any other 4
- Can play any other heart
- Can play any 8 (then declares a different suit)
- Can draw a card from the deck if no other play is possible
These games are designed to go fast!
War
This is a great card game to play with a lot of young kids!
War has several variations, but one popular way to play is with 2 players that each get half of the cards (26 per player). Each player will turn over their card at the same time.
Whoever has the higher number, wins and takes the other player’s card. When the players each reveal the same card, they enter into a war. They will each grab 3 cards from their deck and flip over the fourth card; whoever’s card is the highest, wins that round and gets the player’s 4 cards. Whoever has the most cards after all the cards have been played, wins.
Go Fish
Each player is dealt 7 cards, and the remaining cards are placed face down in a pile on the table. The first player asks another player for a specific rank of card (e.g., “do you have any 3s?”). If they do, they give them all of them, and the asking player gets another turn. If they don’t, they say “go fish” and the asking player takes a card from the stockpile.
The first person to get rid of all their cards wins!
Family Reunion Games That Use Devices In A Creative Way!
We get it, devices are pretty hard to escape. To throw the kids a bone and give them the chance to use devices a little bit, here are some games that use devices in a fun, creative and interactive way.
Hot Potato Game
Play with one device on a timer and the music of your choice! When someone is caught with the phone in hand when the timer is up, they have to do something silly like a funny dance. Or snap a photo of themselves with a weird expression on their face. The winner is the last person who hasn’t been caught.
Scavenger Hunt
A classic! This game leaves plenty of room to get as creative as you wish. Start off by creating a list of items that must be found and assign a point value to each item. Get everyone into teams of 2 and with their phone in hand. Text them the list.
Each person then goes to look for the items on the list and snapsa photo. Set a time to meet back up and tally the points to assign a winner.
Example List:
- 5 points – Piece of chocolate
- 5 points – Red lipstick
- 10 points – Someone wearing mismatched socks
- 20 points – A teddy bear
Google Image Safari
Everyone gets to be on their phone or device of choice to participate with this family reunion game!
With Google (or your favorite search engine) pulled up, go through the alphabet and for each letter, tell everyone (or teams) to search for an animal that starts with that letter.
Everyone will hold up their device to show the animal they picked. The catch is you only get a point if your animal is unique (nobody else picked the same thing).
Whomever has the most points at the end of the alphabet wins!
Downloadable Reunion Games You Can Play as a Group with One or More Devices
Do you find yourself constantly checking your phone when socializing? Instead of using your phone to disconnect, here are some fun downloadable games that will help you connect with your family!
Karaoke/Smule
Free download on Android or iOS. Also requires a Chromecast or Apple TV to put lyrics on a TV screen.
You don’t have to be a professional to sing karaoke. In fact, that’s half the fun. Instead of dealing with the cost of a karaoke rental, you can download Smule and use your device as a microphone.
Charades Games
There are several charades-like games that can be downloaded onto devices to bring this classic game to family reunions with a modern twist. Try one (or more) of these games to get every family member in on the fun.
- Charades
- Heads Up
- Charades Mimics – GuessUp word Party Game
- Move It! Charades
- Reverse Charades
- Wordie: Guess the Word
Psyche!
Free download on Android or iOS
For a different take on trivia (and some laughs), get everyone involved in a game of Psyche.
Before questions are asked, each player secretly submits a funny but plausible answer to a question. All submissions, along with the correct answer, appear on screen for players to guess which answer is the right one.
You get a point when another player chooses your answer or you choose the right answer. The player with the most points wins.
Escape Team
Free download on Android and iOS
Solve escape room style puzzles at home with 2-4 people (or create teams for a bigger game), using downloaded missions from the website matched with the mission in the app.
The app gives you a countdown clock and a fictional backstory for the missions and multiple puzzles must be completed to finish the mission.
Out of the Loop
Free download on Android and iOS
This family reunion game is designed to be used on one device that’s passed around to all players.
A category is chosen, then a single phone is passed around to allow all players except one to see a secret word. This leaves one player “out of the loop” as players take turns asking each other silly questions about the secret word.
Once the round is over, all players vote on who they think was out of the loop based on the answers provided to the questions.
Spaceteam
Free download on Android or iOS and supports cross-platform players. All players must connect over the same Wi-Fi network.
Join family members together in a virtual life-or-death struggle as a starship bridge team racing against a timer to avoid disaster. Each device displays a different control panel and you all have to work together to follow time-sensitive instructions. Directions are coming from all directions at once, so there’s usually some yelling involved. It’s a frantic fun time for everyone involved.
When they aren’t used as an escape, devices can be a fun way to bring the family together. However, if you’re planning a device-free reunion, there are plenty of games to fall back on.
Get Game Ideas from the Family
Planning a family reunion is an exhaustive task for a single family member. Sharing the responsibilities will help you ensure the gathering suits everyone’s needs and is fun for all age groups.
Reunacy helps you organize and connect with family members to create a master game list of family favorites. Everyone will be looking forward to the special day!
Plan your Reunion with Reunacy
When you’re planning a family reunion, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the details. Reunacy simplifies the process by giving you one central place to organize information, plan events, and communicate with your relatives instead of juggling scattered messages and social media threads.
Reunacy combines the best parts of a yearbook and an event-planning app. You can create a family reunion group, invite family members, set up reunion events, track RSVPs, and share ideas all in one private space. You can also store your family photos in Reunacy! You can collect everyone’s contact info, photos, bios, and even personalized videos so you know who’s who and what they’re up to before you all gather.
Once your group is set up, you can:
- Create and manage reunion events with details, location, and RSVP tracking.
- Use the message board to share game ideas, discuss plans, and coordinate tasks.
- Keep all communications and photos in one private, organized hub without ads or noise.
Planning a reunion should be about fun and connection. The best memories come from laughter and shared activities, not loose ends. Instead of leaving entertainment to chance, get your family on Reunacy to build an epic game list and plan together so everyone’s excited for the next reunion.