It’s never too early to prepare for your Super Bowl party. The sooner you start, the more impressive it will be, and if you want to host a Super Bowl party that will be remembered for years to come, you need to get started now!
In the following guide, we’ll highlight some of the ways you can make your Super Bowl party spectacular.
Host Your Super Bowl Party Outside
Super Bowl is held during the winter, so it’s not the best time to spend the night outdoors. But with a fire pit burning and a couple of patio heaters keeping you warm—along with copious amounts of alcohol—you’ll barely notice the cold.
There are a few reasons why outdoor parties are best, assuming it’s not pouring with rain:
- More Space: Unless you live in a city apartment, there’s a good chance that your garden is much bigger than your living room and even your entire home. It’s true for the majority of American homes, and that’s what makes Super Bowl such a good idea. You’re not limited by space and the space that you do have is not cluttered with sofas, televisions, dining tables, children’s toys, coffee tables, and all the other things that you have around your home.
- Less Cleaning Issues: If someone drops a glass of red wine on your brand-new rug or sofa, you’re going to be pretty distraught. It’s a sure-fire way to ruin your evening and while you’ll probably insist that everything’s okay and the clumsy guest shouldn’t worry, you’ll be secretly raging and wishing you could rub their face in it. When you host a party outside, you don’t need to worry so much about spills and drops—they’ll land on easy-clean furniture, patios, and grass, and not on your delicate fabrics.
- More Freedom: It’s hard to find room for everyone when you’re hosting a party inside. Eventually, you’ll run out of space and chairs and will need to ask your guests to sit on the floor. You’ll be forced to choose between limiting the number of guests or throwing a party where everyone is shoulder to shoulder. With an outdoor party, you can just use existing outdoor furniture, bring chairs from inside—and borrow some from your neighbors—and everyone has the freedom to move.
- Huge Screens: A Super Bowl party would be nothing without the actual Super Bowl! That’s where the projector comes in. You can pin a sheet to a wall, fence, or the back of your house and then project the game onto it. Projectors are fairly cheap these days and they even come in HD. If you don’t have a suitable surface, you can buy massive inflatable projection screens on Amazon that will do the same job.
- Something Different: More importantly, an outdoor Super Bowl party is unique and something that your neighbors might not be doing. If you have the space, furniture, and accessories to make it a good one, your Super Bowl party will be remembered for years to come. It will be the party against which all other Super Bowl parties are measured.
Invite Some Virtual Guests
It’s fair to say that 2020 was one of the worst years in recent memory. It was a year that terrified us and divided us, a year where it seemed like we were all reliving the first 10 minutes of a terrible disaster movie. But there was one very, very, very small silver lining to emerge from the chaos—everyone now knows how to use Zoom.
That might not sound like much, but if you’ve ever been forced to guide your elderly parents or grandparents through a video call so you can speak with them during the holidays, you’ll know just how much of a game-changer it is.
It also means that people are more willing to swap real meetings, parties, and events for virtual ones, which is great news if there are people who can’t be at your Super Bowl party.
From distant relatives on the other side of the world to friends in another state, if there’s someone who can’t physically join your party, invite them virtually!
It’s also a great way of bringing two Super Bowl parties together across different time zones. All you need is a phone or laptop, and you can also use services like Facebook’s Portal to make things easier.
Go Big on the Themed Food
When you throw a Halloween party, you probably go all-in with the themed food, from hotdogs shaped like dead man’s fingers to grape eyeballs in the punch bowl and oozing PB&J sandwiches. But do you devote the same time to creating themed Super Bowl food? Probably not.
Your Super Bowl party is all about football. In fact, it’s all about the biggest game in football, and so you need to make it special with themed food.
Paint cookies to look like footballs, give those dishes and cocktails some quirky names and do whatever you can to remind everyone that the evening is all about football.
Prepare Some Games
The Super Bowl runs for over 4 hours, but that includes all of the build-up, the half-time show, and the after-show. And even when all of that is over, the night is still young, your guests will still be thirsty, and depending on how things went, they’ll either be preparing to celebrate or desperate to forget their woes.
To make sure you’re not spending the pregame and postgame twiddling your thumbs, drinking endlessly, and chatting nonsense as the night gradually winds down, you need to prepare some games.
The games don’t have to be themed, but it helps if they are. At the very least, they should be accessible to everyone at your party and should be capable of lasting long into the night.
Some ideas for postgame entertainment include:
- Video Games: You’ve just spent the night watching the best football players in the world, now it’s time to show everyone what you’re made of. Games like Madden are a great way to entertain your guests and tie everything into a football theme. You can play 1 vs 1 in a “winner stays on” format or arrange your own Super Bowl-style tournament.
- Cornhole: Cornhole is a cheap game that you can play on the lawn. It’s one of the most popular lawn games in the United States and is something that everyone can enjoy.
- Lawn Darts: Lawn darts is basically a giant version of darts that you play on your lawn. It’s much more accessible than you might think and the sets are also quite cheap. You can buy lawn darts and other lawn games from Amazon.
- Quiz: A quiz is an easy, mess-free way to keep your guests entertained and it’s something that you can host before the game, during half-time, and when the final whistle has been blown. You can even make it sport-themed or football-themed.
- Party Games: Party games like Pictionary, Cards Against Humanity, Exploding Kittens, Trivial Pursuit, and even a murder mystery game will get most of your party guests involved and ensure that the conversation and entertainment flow as easily as the wine and beer.
Entertain the Little Ones
No one wants to babysit kids when the Super Bowl is on. Everyone is watching the game and most people are either hosting parties or attending them. It means that when you invite your friends you will be inviting their kids as well.
To make sure the little ones are entertained and don’t get in the way, give them plenty of games to play and make sure there is enough food and drink for them. Even if their parents insist that they love football and will watch the game, there’s a good chance that they’ll start getting antsy as the night progresses and that can spell disaster for your adult party.
You should also keep dogs and cats out of the way. They may like spending time with people, but that will change when the cheering starts and those people start jumping from their chairs and shouting.
Buy Plenty of Alcohol
Other than a terrible performance from everyone’s favorite team, the only thing that can ruin a Super Bowl party is a blackout and a beer shortage. It’s better to have too much than not enough, so plot the night carefully and ensure you will have everyone’s needs covered.
If you’re worried about overspending, encourage your guests to bring some drinks of their own—they should do it anyway, but if you ask politely, you can make sure of it.
Alternatively, you can premix some cocktails and a punch using cheap mixers, spirits, and wine. It’s a great way to make your money go further while offering something that tastes great and shows that you have put the effort in.
For a true money-saver that will go down well with your football-loving guests, pick up a keg or two.