A family reunion can be a wonderful thing where people from the same family get together from all the corners of the globe and hope to not only see family that they see on a regular basis but also see family they have not seen in years or may have never even met. Sometimes a family reunion can be a little uncomfortable when you realize that there are people you don’t know and since they are family you feel an obligation to at least be able to maintain a simple conversation. This is where a family reunion can get stressful but a family reunion does not need to be stressful if you know what kind of party games to play to break the ice.

Typically when you are trying to break the ice at a family reunion you want games that are easy to play and may not require too much team work or at least that team work can be a little loose and still have fun. Many family reunions are also summer picnics and this offers the perfect opportunity to plan activities that everyone can get involved in without feeling the pressure to perform in front of family you have just met. A great example of this is volleyball. Volleyball is a great way to get to know people at your family reunion without there being a lot of pressure to deal with the game. Everyone knows the rules to volleyball and pretty much anyone can play and enjoy the game. As long as it is understood that it is all for fun then there will be no problems with the game at all. You may want to keep volleyball champion Uncle Ray busy though as the game is not meant to be competitive and he just has a way of making things too intense.

Trivia is also a great game to play when you are trying to break the ice. You should keep it to a general trivia game and make it more fun than competitive. Split the group into two teams and let everyone in the team work together. Don’t keep score, just have some fun answering trivia questions and finding out things about your new relatives that you may not have been able to find out any other way. That is the beautiful thing about a casual trivia game, you get the chance to learn about other people interests and what they know based on how they answer the trivia questions. If done properly and for fun then this could be a great way to break the ice at family reunions.

Card games are a great way to break the ice at a family reunion. Euchre, bridge , or even something as simple as poker can help bring people together in a friendly competitive environment. All you need to do is make sure that there is no money being bet and you should have no problem making this simple card game into a huge hit as an ice breaker at the family reunion. It may even help that for the games that require teams like euchre that the teams be determined by drawing a name from a hat or some other random way. This helps to make sure that relatives that just met get the chance to know each other better over a friendly game of cards. It is possible to play for door prizes but be warned that nothing turns a game from an ice breaker into a party breaker faster than prizes. Keep all of the activities casual and make sure that everyone has fun and that the family gets reacquainted.