How to Throw the Best Game Day Party

Game Day. You have been waiting all year for the playoffs and now they're finally happening. You have to celebrate and support your team the way they deserve. With our help, you too can learn How to Throw the Best Game Day Party ever and go down in history along with your favorite team. Your party will be the perfect way to end the football season. People will be talking about the game day food than the funny commercials or the half time show. You are going to win big at football parties this year.

All you need to have a good party is good food and good drinks. But to make it a great party, you need a little bit more. Let's start with something really simple:
 

Football Party Decor

Chances are that your guests will be focused most on the game and the food; however, decorations will get your party apart from others. Luckily, the decorations are sort of obvious: footballs.

If you aren't rooting for a specific team and just watching to watch and have fun with your friends, then you can just turn everything into a football. Make a table runner out of a brown table cloth and some white fabric for the threads. Or, you can get a small amount of turf or green outdoor carpet and white tape and turn your table into a football field!

With some posterboard and chalk paint, you can make a menu that looks like the score board or a coach's gameplay notes. To finish off the football field table look, you can glue together empty soda cans or small PVC pipe to make goal posts at the ends.

Pennants and referee stripes will also make your party look awesome and perfectly themed for the day. You can decorate the pennants to look like the field with stripes and numbers on a green background. 

Okay, now that we've got the decorations in hand, we can now focus on one of the most important aspects of Game Day.
 

Football Food

The games are long. The games are exciting. People are jumping up and down and yelling at the screen or at each other (all in good fun, of course) and that burns a lot of calories. Your guests are going to be so grateful if you have a delicious spread of football appetizers and football snacks.

The games last for a really long time. You and your guests are in this for the long haul so it's best to have a lot of food ideas. To make it easier to eat and watch at the same time, stay away from complicated foods that require a lot of utensils. If your guests can eat most things with their hands, then that's less washing for you and less distraction from the game for them. It's a win win (or a win win win if your fave team wins too!).
 

Chips, dip, sliders, and literally anything that involves cheese, like this Baked Cheesy Dip, will go over well with your guests. Homemade tailgate and concession stand food is what is going to hit the spot in these hungry football fans' stomachs.

Football classics like buffalo chicken wings and seven layer dip are great, but don't be afraid to get creative with your food options. Set up a baked potato bar with bacon bits, sour cream, cheese, onions, and whatever else you can think of to put on potatoes! Your guests will love being able to personalize their food and it will make your game day food setup stand out amongst the crowd.

For dessert, you could set up a Football Sundae bar (get it?) and your guests can fill up on creamy goodness to celebrate the win or mourn the loss.

To keep the football aesthetic going, you can make your desserts look like footballs too! Decorate chocolate cupcakes with white icing for the threads or you could use the white icing to make referee stripes too! You could also dip strawberries in chocolate and decorate them as footballs (yum!).

Drinks are just as important as the food.

There's a good chance that most of your guests will want beer, so get something that is neutral enough that most people will enjoy it. If you try to force a strange new IPA or stout on your guests on Game Day, they will mutiny. Of course, there will be people there that won't want to drink alcohol, so be sure to have a couple soda and juice choices too!

If you don't want to get a keg, then you can turn your bathtub or sink into huge coolers. If you buy a ton of ice and put them in the sink or bathtub, then you don't have to worry about leakage or cleanup. The ice will just melt down the drain and that is one less thing that you have to worry about, which will make your day that much easier. Your guests can refill their plates and cups during the frequent commercial breaks if everything is all in one place rather than scattered around in coolers or the fridge.

For those that don't really like beer, make a signature cocktail that you think people will like and stick with it (bonus points if you name it after a player or color it to match your favorite team). It's easier and more afforable to have one cocktail than to stock your bar. Buy a bunch of one or two things and you won't have to worry about running out.

Here are some yummy cocktail ideas:

Raspberry Gin Cocktail

Grapefruit Mojitos

Texas Peach Sangria

Just don't forget to buy extra ice.

Whether you are serving alcohol or not, you're going to probably need more ice than you think. You don't want to miss an exciting tackle or touchdown because you're running out to the gas station for more ice. You want to be able to relax and spend time with your family and friends. If you buy a few extra bags of ice then you can do just that.