Football Parties – Raising The Bar
Football season is upon us and if there’s anything better than watching your favorite team, it’s watching your team surrounded by your friends! Great football parties take work, combining a fantastic party with the king of all spectator sports. You can’t control the outcome of the game, but you can host a top notch event! Here’s how to make sure your football party is the highlight of the season:
Set the Mood:
Having awesome decorations can get your crowd excited even before kickoff. In addition, your decorations are the backdrop for all the great pictures that will be shared with friends and family afterwards. It is often said that painting a wall is the easiest way to make a major change in your environment. Team colors are great for the big game, but you might be hesitant to make such a bold statement on a permanent basis! You can achieve a similar effect by using LED lights which can change the color pallet of an entire room.
Battery operated lights are perfect for lighting that place that doesn’t have power, such as mantles or table tops. If you don’t have time to string lights, you can do something as simple as filling a football helmet or empty vase with the strands as your centerpiece or even just bunching the lights under your chair or entertainment center– creating a glow. You can find your specific team color combinations and example images by clicking here.
Leaving footballs lying around can be dangerous if things turn ugly for the home team. Instead, you can make a simple goalpost that adds a lot of fun football theme without adding to your stress level. Goalposts can be in a wide selection of sizes and can be made out of a variety of materials (large and small):
Drinking Straws
Pool Noodles
PVC Pipe
Setting your table can be as easy as picking up some green artificial turf at your local hardware store and using white tape to create the hash marks and yardage markers. It is also a great way to prevent damage to your table from hot dishes.
Also tailgating is an honored tradition at football games. Take the tradition indoors by offering grilled foods and other tailgating staples. You can recreate the outdoor feel of tailgating by using coolers and outdoor chairs in your living room and setting up your travel grill as a prop or second serving surface. When weather is cooperative you could even back your car or truck up to your back door and open all your windows. If you have a vaulted ceiling you could even place a pop-up tent over your TV with your team colors. If you’re brave enough, and if space allows, you can setup yard games, like a bean bag toss.
Food:
It has been said that “The key to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” the same could be said of a great football party. Food and football go hand in hand. Here are some great examples of food that plays into the theme of your epic football party:
Chocolate Covered (FOOTBALL) Strawberries
Football Cupcakes
Watermelon Football Helmets
Franks Red Hot Buffalo Chicken Dip
Knudsen Hot Broccoli Cheese Dip
Boilermaker Chili – top rated Chili recipe on AllRecipes.com
The bright colors of football teams are great inspiration for drinks – both alcoholic and nonalcoholic. With a little creativity and research, these colorful beverages can be as great looking as they are delicious.
Team Inspired Beverages
Football Drinks
Activities:
In addition with all your friends coming to your home dressed in their favorite team’s colors, it can be fun to play the referee instead of the host, especially fun when your friends and family have differing allegiances, find a Ref Jersey here. Don’t forget to bring your whistle to keep the party in order.
Especially relevant games are another fun way to keep everyone engaged in the event, regardless of their actual interest in football.
Therefore some examples are:
1. Best Dressed Fan wins a prize at half time.
2. Have every fan draw a receiver’s name from a hat. If their receiver catches a touchdown pass, hand out a prize.
3. Furthermore ask your guests to predict the final score and whoever gets closest wins.
Also children can be a great part of a football party, but without significant interest in the game or activities to keep them busy kids can become a distraction. They’ll love the attention and you’ll have a great picture for facebook. Take a look at this amazing tutorial for a unique helmet face painting technique.
Therefore while it’s technically a kid’s activity, adults might find themselves just as entertained.
With that said you can have a special kids contest too, with prizes.
Most noteworthy make sure there are some quiet activities too, like football coloring pages.
