How to Throw a Super Bowl Party

• by Sarah

Introduction

• Why go to the hassle and expense of going all the way to Glendale, Arizona to watch the Super Bowl on February 3, 2008 when you can have a blowout of a bash right at home? If you do it right, your Super Bowl Party will be more comfortable, with better food. And best of all, you get to watch the million dollar commercials (and the game, too).

Step 1: Find Out the Date, Time, and Teams

• Most of the people you would invite to your Super Bowl Party will be aware of what date Super Bowl Sunday is, and what teams are playing. However, you still want to plan and invite people with enough notice.

1. Find out the date and time of the game
   • The Super Bowl is held on a Sunday in early February, usually the first weekend of February.
   • The NFL website has schedule information for the Super Bowl every year.
   • In 2008 (for the 2007 playing season), the Super Bowl will be held on Sunday, February 3, 6 PM EST. The game will be televised on FOX television.
2. Find out the teams who are playing
   • Knowing who the teams are can affect the décor and the food you serve, if you plan to incorporate team colors, mascots, and themes based on the team’s city.
   • The teams in the Super Bowl are determined during the NFL Playoffs several weeks before the big game.
   • For Super Bowl XLII, the New York Giants will face off against the New England Patriots.
3. Find out what city is hosting the Super Bowl
   • It’s fun to incorporate the hosting city into your party’s theme.
   • For example, since Super Bowl XLII will be held in Phoenix, Arizona, your Super Bowl Party theme could be “Duel in the Desert.”
   • Super Bowl XLIII (2009) will be in Tampa, FL.

Step 2: Create a Guest List and Send Invitations

• There’d be no Super Bowl if there were no players, and there’d be no Super Bowl Party if there were no guests. Here is how to create a roster of champion guests and invite them:

1. Determine the number of people to invite, taking into account the size of your house and your preparation and cooking resources.
   • 

     (Creative Commons photo by Meg Fawbush)
2. Make a list of the people you want to invite, keeping in mind the standard guidelines for an ideal mix of people: different personality types, yet common interests.
   • It’s okay if not everyone knows one another. Because the true focus of the party will be watching a football game, the game is an easy common topic of discussion.
3. Send an email invitation —it's a fast, easy, and inexpensive way to invite guests and keep track of their responses.
   • You can simply send a regular email and keep track of responses yourself.
   • Or use a website that tracks RSVPs for you. Evite has invitation templates that are already themed for Super Bowl parties.
4. Make the invitation clear—definitely include the following:
   • A start time that will allow for habitually late people to be there before kickoff.
   • An end time, to give people an idea of when they should head home. The game is on a Sunday and you don’t want people hanging around too late when you have work the next day.
   • If you expect people to bring something to eat or drink, the invitation is a good place to let people know what you will be providing and make suggestions.
   • Address and directions to your house. To make it really easy on your guests, you can link them to an online map with your address already filled in.
   • Ask for an RSVP by a certain date.
5. Encourage people to dress up!
   • Having your guests dress up in the teams' colors, football jerseys, or even in casual wear like shirts and hoodies with logos will add to a festive environment.
6. Finalize your guest list by confirming RSVPs
   • If you haven’t heard from people by the RSVP date, email or call them so you can finalize your list and prepare accurate amounts of food and drink.

Step 3: Plan the Atmosphere and Decorations

• By default, the theme of your party is set—it’s the Super Bowl. Naturally, the décor will reflect that, but there are several sub-themes you can incorporate into your decorations. This depends on whether the majority of your guests will be rooting for the same team, opposing teams, or are just football fans in general.

1. Start with the basic theme of "football" and incorporate it into all of your party supplies like balloons, tablecloths, centerpieces, serving dishes, and paper tableware.
2. Go for the extra point by incorporating the teams’ colors and mascots.
   • If most of your guests are fans of the same team, stick with decorations that reflect that team’s city, colors, and mascot.
   • If there is a fairly even fan split among your guests, go with a fun, competitive atmosphere that focuses the décor, food, and activities on both teams. The team colors for Super Bowl XLII are:
     • New England Patriots – Blue, silver, and red
     • New York Giants – Royal blue and red
3. Use tablecloths to spread football fever.
   • Turn a green tablecloth into a football field with white tape or ribbons as the yard lines.
   • You can even indicate opposing teams in the endzones.
4. Use coordinated tableware, plastic flatware, and cups.
   • You can find paper plates and napkins printed with NFL team colors and logos.
   • Plates and plastic flatware in team colors are good, too.
5. Buy other decorations.
   • Football-shaped balloons, balloons in team colors, team jerseys, pompoms, and other "fan paraphernalia" are great decorations to put up around the living room.
   • If there will be guests who have never been to your house, putting balloons (in the team colors!) visible from the street will help them find your place.

Step 4: Prepare for the Ultimate Viewing Experience

1. Get your TV ready.
   • A Super Bowl Party is all about watching the game, so you need a giant TV. In fact, if you don’t have a giant TV, now is a good time to take advantage of post-holiday sales to buy a new TV.
   • Make sure the picture is clear and the sound is good.
     

     Creative Commons photo by Wendy Harman
2. Set up more than one TV.
   • You can set up more than one television with the game on so that people have options: serious viewers may want a place where they can concentrate while others like to chat as they watch.
   • You may also want to set up TVs in other rooms for people who aren’t interested in watching the game.
3. Provide lots of places to sit.
   • Your couch will seat four people, maybe five if they’ve been sticking to their New Year’s Resolutions, so bring chairs in from other rooms.
   • Provide other comfortable seating like bean bags and floor pillows.

Step 5: Have Other Options Available

• While the main activity of a Super Bowl Party is watching the game on TV, having other activities and places in your house to talk or do things are a nice alternative: for pre-game and half-time, guests who are kids, and those who aren't interested in the game.

1. Plan pre-game activities, especially if many of your guests will not know each other:
   • Set up a traditional football pool.
   • Let guests choose who they think the MVP of the game will be.
     • Print up each team's roster: (New York Giants team roster, New England Patriots team roster) and make it available, as well as a history of past Super Bowl MVPs to help your guests decide.
   • Create a short trivia game. If most of your guests are die-hard pro football fans and know a lot of trivia about the NFL, print up sheets with trivia questions.
2. Plan activities and space for people who may not be interested in the game.
   • During the regular season, we call these people the NFL widows (or widowers), the people who lose their spouses to the TV on Sundays.
   • Because these guests may not be interested in watching the game, set up a space in another room, e.g. kitchen or a different sitting area.
   • You can have a TV there for them to watch something else (like a movie), or just let them mingle with one another.
3. Plan activities for children of guests.
   • It's hard for kids to focus on a a 3+ hour football game. Setting up a separate room for them to watch movies or play video games will keep them (and you) happy.

Step 6: Put Together Your Menu

• A Super Bowl Party is not the time to go gourmet and serve a fancy meal paired with expensive wines. Think of it as an indoor tailgate, sports bar at home, or a home stadium. That means everything should taste good, be easy to eat while watching the game, and be fairly low maintenance throughout your party.

• The three basic parts of a Super Bowl menu are food, drinks, and dessert.

Food

1. First make a list of the dishes you’d like to serve.
2. Lots of recipe and food sites have special sections dedicated to Super Bowl menus:
   • Epicurious: Super Bowl Recipes
   • AllRecipes: Super Bowl Recipe Collection
   • Food Network: Super Bowl Party
   • iVillage: 50 Big Game Recipes
3. Consider the following when deciding on what foods to make and serve:
   • 

     Create a chili buffet bar. (Photo by The Delicious Life)
   • Think about the timing of your party. Depending on what time zone you’re in, your party will start and end at different times.
   • If you’re on the West Coast, you might be serving appetizers like Buffalo wings and meatballs all afternoon.
   • If you’re on the East Coast, you’re more likely to serve “dinner” type foods like chili.
   • Then again, this is the Super Bowl and you can serve whatever you want!
4. Whatever you plan to serve, remember that most of your guests will be sitting or standing in front of the TV watching the game.
   • Make your food easy to eat. Set out foods buffet-style, throughout the room.
   • Serve snack-like foods like roasted nuts, vegetable crudité with dip, and chips.
5. Have food available throughout the entire party. For some people, the Super Bowl is all about the food.
6. Use the host city and team themes when thinking about what foods to serve.
   • For Super Bowl XLII, the host city is Phoenix, so Southwestern foods are more than appropriate: think tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole, nachos, taquitos, and chili
   • To honor the teams, you may have New York style pizza or New England clam chowder.
7. Don’t be restricted by health and diet. Your guests get a free pass from their New Year’s Resolutions on this one Sunday.
8. As with any dinner party, a Super Bowl Party is not the right time to make something you’ve never made before.
9. Unless you can see your television set from the kitchen, serve foods that let you do all or most of the preparation in advance; no sense in spending the whole time in the kitchen and missing key plays.
10. Hot foods are nice to have, but cold or room temperature foods are the kind that require little maintenance during the party.
11. Add dishes you plan to buy to your shopping list along with where you plan to buy them.
    • Make sure to note any places that require pre-ordering.
12. Make a list of additional supplies, utensils, and equipment you need to make the food. You can buy kitchen, cooking, and serving tools online from places like Williams-Sonoma, Cooking.com, and Sur La Table.
13. Separate the list into dishes you will make, dishes you can buy or order, and dishes you can ask guests to bring.
14. If you need to, don’t be afraid to order food.

Drinks

1. Make a list of the drinks you’d like to serve, including water, soda, juices, and alcohol.
2. Separate the list into drinks you will provide and drinks you can ask guests to bring.
3. Make a list of additional supplies, utensils, and equipment you need to serve drinks, such as: ice, an ice bucket, and plastic cups.
4. Consider the following when planning drinks:
   • Expensive wine and fancy cocktails are less important for a Super Bowl Party, but still good to have for those guests who prefer them. Try Football-themed cocktails or Super Bowl Cocktails.
   • The Super Bowl is an American event, so serving American beer is appropriate.
   • 

     (Photo by The Delicious Life)
5. Provide a recycling bin for glass bottles.
6. Pay attention as guests drink: make sure people who drove either don't overindulge, or can get a safe ride home!

Dessert

1. Plan to offer desserts through the duration of the party.
2. Stick with simple things that don’t require utensils: cookies, brownies, and cupcakes.
3. If you bake or make cupcakes or cookies at home, decorate them appropriately: team colors, the Super Bowl logo, or any other appropriate football decorations.
4. Desserts are particularly easy for guests to bring.

Step 7: Prepare in Advance

• Now that your party plan's set, it's time to get ready!

1. Clean up your place.
   • This is the first step in any advance party preparation. Do the standard cleaning that you would do for any party.
2. Put fragile things in another room for the day.
   • When the game gets very intense, your guests may get excited and start waving their arms and jumping around.
   • Really passionate fans might actually pick things up and throw them; so put breakables in a room guests won't go to.
3. Move furniture in the main room to allow for good viewing, additional seating, and mingling during commercials.
4. Shop for supplies.
   • A lot of people will be looking for themed party supplies like decorations and paper plates. Look for your supplies earlier rather than later, especially if you are purchasing online.
5. Do grocery shopping—shop early on Saturday in order to beat the crowds of people who will also be shopping the day before.
   • Shopping early will also allow you to spend the rest of Saturday preparing.
6. Cook everything you can in advance.
   • Most dips and spreads can be made in advance (except guacamole because avocadoes turn brown quickly).
   • Other things that can be made in advance are chili, ribs, and meatballs.
7. Prep ingredients for dishes that cannot be made in advance, like washing and chopping vegetables.
8. Set up serving platters and trays around the room to visualize how your food will be spread out.
9. Make space for your bar. If you plan to be running in and out of the kitchen to refresh food, you may want to set up a bar area away from the kitchen.
   • This means keeping drinks cold in a cooler or a tub of ice.
   • You don’t necessarily have to put bottles of alcohol and garnishes out just yet, but make sure you reserve the space in your house, cover the table with a cloth (if needed), set out bottle openers, cups and glasses, napkins, and (if you’re serving wine or cocktails), a corkscrew and stirrers.
10. Put drinks in the refrigerator to start the “chilling” process.
    • This includes bottles of beer, mixers for cocktails, white wines, and water.

Step 8: Set Up on the Day of the Party

• In the morning:

1. Finish up any last minute cleaning.
2. Set up your bar area with bottles of alcohol.
   • Wait until the last hour before putting out ice, garnishes, and the drinks chilling in the refrigerator.
3. Put any non-perishable food out and keep covered until just before the party starts.
   • This includes things like roasted nuts and chips (but keep any dips in the refrigerator until the party starts, particularly dairy-based dips).
4. Start cooking any food that has yet to be prepared.

• In the hour before the party:

1. Prepare garnishes for any mixed drinks you will be serving.
2. Open any bottles of wine that need to “breathe.”
3. Put chilled beer on ice by the bar.
4. Set out food on your beautifully decorated table, and keep it covered.
   • Put small notes in or on serving dishes of what's in the food, so guests have no need to ask.
5. Turn the TV to the channel that’s broadcasting the Super Bowl.
   • For 2008, The Super Bowl will be broadcast on FOX.
6. Get dressed! If you like, have fun with what you're wearing: put on a team jersey or T-shirt, or a cheerleading uniform.

Step 9: At Your Party

• Pre-Game Warm-up – As Guests Arrive

1. Introduce guests who don’t know one another.
2. Offer guests a drink or cocktail as they arrive, or point them toward the area you’ve set up as a bar to help themselves.
3. If you have games set up, encourage guests to participate.

• Game Time – During the Party

1. Allow guests to watch the game, since it's the primary focus of the party.
2. Refresh food and drinks from the kitchen as necessary.
   • Pay attention to the USDA's advice on food safety: don't leave perishable food at room temperature for more than two hours.
3. Encourage guests who are drinking alcohol to pace themselves with water. Remind them that they may have work or school the next day.
   • The last thing you want to do is turn your Super Bowl Party into a sleepover for guests who are too drunk to drive home.
4. Above all else, enjoy yourself.

• During Half-time

1. Refresh the food if you haven’t been doing so already.
2. If you have "half-time games," now is the time to round up any guests who may not be in the room to watch the game and include them.

• Game Over – At the End of the Night

1. The end of the game will likely be a good enough signal that the party is winding down, but if you have to, start cleaning up to signify that you’re starting to shut down.
2. Thank your guests for coming.
3. Make sure any guests who have been drinking have a safe ride home.

Resources for How to Throw a Super Bowl Party

• About.com: Planning Your Super Bowl Party  
• About.com: Super Bowl Table | Football Trivia Games  
• Celebrations.com: Duel in the Desert
• Celebrations.com: Half-time Blitz Party
• eHow: How to Set Up a Football Pool
• eHow: How to Throw a Super Bowl Party
• Epicurious: Super Bowl Planning Guide
• evite: Football Themed Invitations
• Food Network: Football Party
• Giants.com: New York Giants | New York Giants Team Roster
• NFL.com: Super Bowl
• NFLShop.com: Football Jerseys
• Patriots.com: New England Patriots | New England Patriots Team Roster
• Profootballparties.com: Decorations
• USDA: USDA Offers Food Safety Advice for Your Super Bowl Party (January 27, 2006)
• WikiHow: How to Throw a Super Bowl Party
• Wikipedia: Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Award
• Wikipedia: Football widow

Super Bowl Party Recipes

• About.com: Buffalo wings recipes | Chili recipes | Meatballs recipes  
• About.com: Super Bowl Cocktails  
• AllRecipes.com: Super Bowl Menu
• Cocktail.com: Football-themed Cocktails
• iVillage: 50 Big Game Recipes
• Martha Stewart: Guacamole recipe

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