Choosing the right location could be rated up there as one of the most important decisions you’ll make in the planning of this family reunion. You can choose a location, if you wish, once you know what type of reunion you want, the desired dates, and have a fundamental idea how many people will be attending.

The Oceanside Vacation Home is ideal for family reunions - don't take our word for it, check out our testimonial section. Real people. Real experiences!

The Oceanside Vacation Home is perfect because of:

Location – located on a quiet sandy beach, where kids can play in the sand under the supervision of parents.

Geography – mid point between Comox and Nanaimo, both services by major airlines, Nanaimo also by BC Ferries.

Lots of space – 5 bedrooms in the house, 3 beds in the cottage, plus lots of room for extra beds and sleeping bags.

Make your own meals – full kitchen in the house and also in the cottage. Two barbeques as well. Why spend money on food when you can make it yourself?

Easy to get to – just a few minutes off the new highway and right on the Old Island Highway.

Privacy – you have the entire place to yourself.

Flexibility – do what you want when you want.

Lots to see and do – close to so many natural attractions, see other sections under Activities.

Key things to Include in Your Next Family Reunion

Welcome Address
Whether your reunion is large or small, it's nice to have a "Welcoming address" to kick the thing off.  It doesn't have to be long... 5 - 10 minutes unless you have a really good speaker in the family.  Here's a few things you might put in a welcoming address...

• Welcome everyone to the reunion, and thank them for coming.

   

• Mention which different families (or family lines) are at the reunion.

   

• Give a general outline of the day's (or weekend's) festivities.

   

• Thank the people who helped put the reunion together.

   

• Add a few well placed jokes or inspirational thoughts.

Certificates and Awards
Create certificates to be passed out to family members. Use your imagination and try to think up as many categories as possible, so that you can recognize the largest amount of family members that you can. Possible recognition categories include these basics:

• The oldest and youngest family members

   

• Who traveled the least and greatest distances to attend

   

• Who has attended the most consecutive reunions

   

• Youngest grandparents

   

• Couple with the most children or grandchildren

   

A Family Recipe Book
Create a family recipe book using the favorite recipe (or a few of them) from each family. Collect the recipes beforehand and put them into a word processor. You can include food and family-related clipart to spice up the book’s look.  Make sure you give credit to all the contributors.  Everyone likes to see their name in print, even when the only people to see it will be their family.  Print a copy of all the recipes and take them to your local copy shop.  They can put them together in a book format and bind them for you.  You might want to ask family members to chip in for the printing, or take orders for the in advance to pay for it.

Family Newsletter
A family newsletter is a great way to keep in touch with each other between reunions. It doesn’t have to be a monthly thing, no, not at all.   Two or three times a year is plenty to keep everyone in touch.  It doesn’t have to be long, and you can ask for a small donation to offset printing and mailing. Ask family members to send you information, and use your own word processor to write the newsletter. Here are a few ideas on what to include:

• Spotlight one of the family members

   

• Print a list of upcoming birthdays and anniversaries.  You might want to leave the year off for some of those over sensitive female relatives, or better yet, put in a year that makes her younger, and you've got a new friend for life.

   

• Anniversaries of any particular event (next Wednesday marks the third anniversary of when Little Billy fell down the hill and broke a rib)

   

• Print new addresses for families that have moved.

Family Reunion T-Shirts
Have a creative family member create a design for the reunion t-shirts.  Many office supply or hobby stores sell thermal transfer paper, which you can print designs on, and then iron onto a t-shirt.  You can find out when you send the invitations how many people want to buy a family reunion t-shirt, and collect the funds with the ticket price.  If you have the design already done, send a copy of that design to help them make up their mind.   Buy plain white cotton t-shirts in bulk and figure their cost and the cost of the transfer paper.

Guest Book
Buy a guest book (kind of like the ones at wedding receptions) for attendees to sign when they arrive.  In addition to their name, you might ask them to write their address and phone number as well.  Then, as the reunion winds down, ask them to enter a comment about their favorite moment at the reunion ("When dad got dragged through the mud during the tug of war").  Collect these books from each reunion, and have them available for laughs at future reunions.

Name Tags
Use your computer to print out nametags for all the attendees. Hand the name tags out as the family members arrive at the reunion.  Or, if you want a little less work, just buy a big pack of stick-on nametags and have people write their names (or nicknames can be fun) on there themselves.

Family Directory
As that creative name implies, a Family Directory would be…a directory of your family. Anyways, create a family directory to give as a take-home gift to everyone who attends the reunion, or you can charge a small fee to cover the cost of producing it. Use your home computer and a word processing program to create the directory.

List your family members’ names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses if they have one. You could also include their birth dates, ages, important anniversaries (like Little Billy’s trip to the hill where he broke a rib), special interests or hobbies, school information, pictures, and anything else you want to put in that describes them. Don’t forget to include college addresses, et cetera, for kids who are living away at school.

Compile this information into a book format. Use the plastic binders that you can find in the school supplies section of your favorite retailer to bind the information in a cheap manner, or you can take it to your local quick print or copy shop. They can reproduce as many copies as you need and attractively bind it with a variety of bindings in different price ranges.

Family Reunion Scrapbook
Scrapbooking is hot.  After your family reunion is over, have the creative person in the family put together a scrapbook of the reunion.  Then make copies of the scrapbook to send to people, or just bring the scrapbook to the next reunion for folks to browse through.  What should you put in the scrapbook?   Here are some things you might want to include:

Photos that were taken at the reunion (group photos, individual photos, photos of activities, pictures of the location).  If you have a scanner to scan these photos in, it will be much easier to make copies for everybody.

A record page for all those awards you passed out at the reunion (oldest and youngest attendee, greatest distance, Fire Dragon, etc).

A statistics page (how many people attended, how much food you went through, how long it took the back lawn to recover)

Family Reunion Website
To make a long story short... do the scrapbook thing above, but put it online for the whole family to visit throughout the year.  In addition, you can post information about next years reunion.

10 Fun Family History Activities for Family Reunions

Like many families, you and your relatives may have made plans to get together this summer. What a great opportunity for sharing stories and family history! Give one of these 10 fun family history activities a try at your next family reunion to get people talking, sharing and having fun.

1) Memory T-Shirts
If you have more than one branch of an extended family attending your reunion, consider identifying each branch with a different colored shirt. To further incorporate the family history theme, scan in a photo of the branch's progenitor and print it out on an iron-on transfer with identifiers such as "Joe's Kid" or "Joe's Grandkid." These color-coded photo t-shirts make it easy to tell at a glance who is related to who. Color-coded family tree name tags offer a more inexpensive variation.

2) Photo Swap
Invite attendees to bring their old, historic family photos to the reunion, including pictures of people (great, great-grandpa), places (churches, cemetery, the old homestead) and even previous reunions. Encourage everyone to label their photos with the names of the photographees, the date of the photo, and their own name and an ID number (a different number to identify each photo). If you can get a volunteer to bring a scanner and laptop computer with CD burner, then set up a scanning table and create a CD of everyone's photos. You can even encourage people to bring more photos by offering a free CD for each 10 photos contributed. The rest of the CDs you can sell to interested family members to help defray costs of the scanning and CD burning. If your family isn't very tech-savvy, then set up a table with the photos and include signup sheets where people can order copies of their favorites (by name and ID number).

3) Family Scavenger Hunt
Fun for all ages, but an especially good way to get the kids involved, a family scavenger hunt ensures plenty of interaction between different generations. Create a form or booklet with family-related questions such as: What was great-grandfather Powell’s first name? Which Aunt had twins? Where and when were Grandma and Grandpa Bishop married? Is there someone born in the same state as you? Set a deadline, and then gather the family together to judge the results. If you wish, you can award prizes to the people who get the most answers correct, and the booklets themselves make nice reunion souvenirs.

4) Family Tree Wall Chart
Create a large family tree chart to display on a wall, including as many generations of the family as possible. Family members can use it to fill in the blanks and correct any inaccurate information. Wall charts are popular with reunion attendees as they help people visual their place within the family. The finished product also provides a great source of genealogical information.

5) Heritage Cookbook
Invite attendees to submit favorite family recipes -- from their own family or one passed down from a distant ancestor. Ask them to include details on, memories of and a photo (when available) of the family member best known for the dish. The collected recipes can then be turned into a wonderful family cookbook. A great fundraising project for the following year's reunion!

6) Storytime
A rare opportunity to hear interesting and funny stories about your family, a storytelling hour can really encourage family memories. If everyone agrees, have someone audiotape or videotape this session.

7) Tour into the Past
If your family reunion is held near where the family originated, then schedule a trip to the old family homestead, church or cemetery. You can use this as an opportunity to share family memories, or go a step further and recruit the clan to clean up the ancestral cemetery plots or research the family in old church records (be sure to schedule with the pastor in advance). This is a particularly special activity when many members are attending from out-of-town.

8) Family History Skits & Re-enactments
Using stories from your own family history, have groups of attendees develop skits or plays that will retell the tales at your family reunion. You can even stage these reenactments at places that are of importance to your family such as homes, schools, churches and parks (see Tour into the Past above). Non-actors can get into the fun by modeling vintage clothing or ancestral outfits.

9) Oral History Odyssey
Find someone with a video camera who is willing to interview different members about the family. If the reunion is in honor of a special event (Grandma and Grandpa's 50th Anniversary) ask people to talk about the guest(s) of honor. Or ask questions on other select memories, such as growing up on the old homestead. You'll be surprised how differently people remember the same place or event.

10) Memorabilia Table
Set up a table for attendees to bring and display treasured family memorabilia - historic photos, military medals, old jewelry, family bibles, etc. Be sure all items are carefully labeled and the table is always hosted.