Holidays rank as favorite family gatherings

How many of us can imagine the holiday season without our families? For most Americans, gathering with family is the holiday gift they cherish most.

According to a national poll conducted by Harris Interactive/Modern Woodmen of America, holidays, including Christmas, are one of the major reasons people attend family gatherings. Eighty-five percent of those polled described celebrating religious holidays as very or somewhat important. In the same poll, 90 percent said they had attended a holiday event with family in the past three years, with 36 percent citing Thanksgiving and Christmas as the favorites. Informal family get-togethers ranked as second favorite at 28 percent.

"The need to bond with family members is wired into us," explains Dr. Vern Bengtson, professor of gerontology and sociology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. "Families provide a sense of support and an identity of who we are and what’s unique about us. Most people rely on family interactions to provide an affirming, positive experience."

The problem is that getting together, either during the holidays or any other time of the year, isn’t simple. Many Americans acknowledge that modern life presents challenges to maintaining the family relationships and attending the family events they feel are important. According to the same poll, 90 percent of Americans agree that spending time with extended family is important, but 75 percent also say that staying in touch with family members can be difficult.

Since there are more constraints than ever on Americans’ time, Modern Woodmen of America, a fraternal life insurance organization based in Rock Island, Ill., wanted to create an easily accessible tool to help bring families together. The result is a Web site, www.gatherings.info, which offers people the tools to make planning a gathering simple and fun. Users can navigate through tips, lists and ideas on how to organize a gathering, whether small or large. The site not only provides checklists and location and travel advice, but also recipes, games, themes, photography tips and more.

"Our role as a fraternal life insurer is to help families improve their quality of life. Creating a tool to help people save time when planning a family get-together is another way to do that," said Sharon Snawerdt, public relations coordinator at Modern Woodmen. "If the planning is a bit easier, the planner can spend more time with his/her family before, during and after the gathering. And it also makes it easier for families to get together more often."

To encourage families to get together, Modern Woodmen is sponsoring the Gatherings Sweepstakes. Entrants can register for a grand prize of a preplanned gathering worth up to $5,000. The winner will receive all the planning details for the gathering, including the site, catering, plates, cups and flatware, invitations and postage, decorations, personalized T-shirts, activity coordinator, cleaning service and commemorative photograph of the event. In addition, when a person enters the Gatherings Sweepstakes, they are automatically entered into a monthly drawing for a Sony digital camera.

While holiday gatherings are at the forefront of family get-togethers, Modern Woodmen and Gatherings.info stress that special occasions and holidays are not the only time of the year when families can meet and bond.

"When most of us think of gatherings, we tend to think about holiday get-togethers or reunions. Gatherings also include quick parties for family members or barbeques with friends," said Jill Lain Weaver, supervisor of communications services at Modern Woodmen of America. "In fact, 87 percent of the participants surveyed have attended an informal family gathering with their ex