How to Throw a Super Bowl Party

The Super Bowl comes once a year and provides the perfect opportunity to get your football loving family and friends together in a party at home, where you can watch the game on your big screen TV, nibble on snacks and enjoy a range of drinks.

In fact, your guests don't even have to be keen on football or sports to get into the spirit of the Super Bowl, as it's a great excuse just to get together and have fun. Here are a few suggested ways to throw your Super Bowl party at home.

Edit Steps

Invite your family and friends, even your colleagues. The more, the merrier, as long as everyone can see the television clearly and you have enough bathrooms. There is a lot of easy ways to invite them. One good way is to send a mass picture text. What ever way you invite, just make sure its easy for them to see all the details and address of the party. Estimate how many people will end up sitting around your TV and if seating is going to be an issue, ask your friends and neighbors if you can borrow some ahead of the event, especially if they're coming along too. Another idea is to use smaller TVs in spaces that might be to awkward to see the big screen TV from. This will ensure that wherever guests end up spilling into, they can always keep an eye on the game as it progresses.
- Create a budget for your party. If you think funding the party on your own is too much to handle, include with your invitation a request that guests RSVP and bring food or drink to share. When the RSVP call comes through, you have the opportunity to request a specific item type (appetizer, dessert, beverages) and you'll decrease the odds of over-representing a particular item or dish.

Clean the house. Ensure that the house is in a decent condition when your guests arrive. Welcoming your guests into a pig sty with laundry on the floor or empty soda cans isn't conducive to a party atmosphere! Get the whole household involved in cleaning up to make light work of it. If it's really awful, at least clean the TV room, kitchen, and bathroom, and shut the doors to all other rooms. Don't wait until the last minute!
- If you're living in an area under snow, ensure that there is plenty of space for boots, jackets, and cold weather accessories to be placed near the front door.
- Clear ice and snow from the path to your house if relevant. Guests who slip over won't be in a merry mood.

Set up the house. Lay out any tables you'll need, bring along chairs, and bring out the barbecue set. Cover the tables with tablecloths (choose ones that are easy to remove stains from) and tuck several garbage bags somewhere close to the table for easy access. When creating drink and food space, bear in mind where people will stand so that you won't have them blocking the TV view.
- Decorate. Put up decorations or team names and colors. If your hometown or other favorite team is playing, go all out and decorate the front door entrance way, the mailbox, and even consider dressing up in your team colors.
- If you're going to have guests who are rooting for different teams, establish an imaginary line (or for fun, "draw" one with masking tape) down the center of the room. Decorate each side in one team's colors.
- If you know you're going to have non-fan guests, consider setting aside a quiet area somewhere else in the house where they can congregate and chat, rest, or watch something they'd prefer to see. This might also be helpful for very young children and those caring for them.

Go shopping for food and beverages. If you wish, you can ask people to pitch in either with money or to bring food to the house. Food can include chips and dip, picnic or barbecue items like hamburgers and hot dogs, or order food in advance, like pizza or super-long deli sandwiches.
- Make food football themed where possible.
- Plan for some homemade baked or dessert treats with football decorations.
- Beverages include soda and juice for kids and non-drinkers, and various kinds of beer for adults. Usually stores will have Super Bowl specials, for example a 2 for 1 deal or discounts or sales for the week, so take advantage of these.
- Don't forget to account for any special dietary needs or preferences (for example, sugar-free treats for diabetics and meat-free choices for vegetarians).

Organize the food layout. The best advice is – don't fuss overly much. This is a mates and fans party, and the idea is that everyone is free to help themselves and enjoy the informality of the occasion. You don't need to choose which chips you'll open first; just open everything and put some of each in large bowls, choosing the amount of bowls depending on how many people are coming over for the game. Place the drinks in coolers or plastic bins first, then dump ice over them. Ensure that there are places to set down the hot food when it comes out, and leave plates, cutlery, napkins, and seasoning out for everyone to help themselves to.
- The more food that can be cooked in advance, the better, so that everyone is freed up from too much kitchen time.

Make your guests feel at home when they arrive. Talk about the game while the pre-show is going on. Make bets to see who thinks which team is going to win. Add side bets, for example, point spreads and the amount of yards the MVP (most valuable player) ran. Talk about the how you think the whole season went generally.
- Pour drinks at the beginning if wished but be sure to let guests know where the drinks are and that they're welcome to keep helping themselves at any time throughout the party. A good host will also keep checking the supply level of the drinks and restocking as needed.
- Have everyone write down who they think will win and what the final score will be before the game starts. Award a silly prize, like a big football piñata, to the person who comes the closest.
- If you want a drinking game, work out the triggers in advance with everyone presents, such as certain phrases or plays made. Read How to make a sports drinking game for more ideas.

Use half time as the lunch break. Super Bowl commercials are renowned for being the best and highest paid commercials played on TV (indeed it is said that 10 million people tune in for this aspect alone),^[1] so you might want to make it easy for guests to hang about with plates of food. For those not so excited by watching ads, use half time to discuss the game progression and other things. If there are kids around, spend a little time asking them what they think of the game so far and explaining anything to them that might not understand.
- Organize in advance who will be responsible for popping out of the room to heat up the snack foods, barbecue, or whatever you've decided to serve for lunch. To make it fair, you might like to roster people to take turns unless the chef really doesn't mind missing part of the game.
- Make sure the dishwasher is clear at the beginning of the game. You can quickly fill it at the end of break to help lessen the cleaning up needed later. Alternatively, use disposable items and there will be less mess to contend with.

Recruit people to help you clean or tidy the place after the game. Ask people if they want to take any of the leftovers of the food and drinks. After everyone leaves, do some very light cleaning and then relax!

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Edit Tips

Plastic and paper over silverware is the key! Paper plates, plastic utensils, and cups are disposable and cheap. Use silverware, like tongs, for food.

Consider getting or making a cake that is decorated in some way to reflect the Super Bowl event.

If there is a barbecue, help each other or cook the food prior to the start of the game. Unless one person doesn't mind being in front of smoke and not the TV, everyone should help in some way.

Coolers that contain alcohol should be secured while children are around.

You can make things really easy on yourself by ordering a "Super Bowl Party in a Box" that includes plates, napkins, cups and a football snack bowl.

Edit Warnings

Limit your guests' alcohol intakes, if they intend to drive later. Offer to drop home anyone who has had too much to drink, or call them a taxi. They can collect their car the next day.

Warn your guests that there may be people coming back on the road from bars and their own parties; so take extra caution.

Do not use a barbecue grill indoors unless it's an electric one. If you're in a cold climate, either get an electric grill or cook on the stove.

Canadians watching the Super Bowl may not see the great advertisements during the break but will get locally produced ones, depending on the station you're watching.