Fall and football are two of our favorite things! I wanted to throw a little “tailgate” party over the long weekend for the boys to enjoy. We had a sick kiddo so have been confined to our house for a few days and this was a perfect way to have some fun indoors! I think this would be super fun for a kid’s birthday party too! Jackson is playing his first year of football at his middle school, so we might recreate this for his 13th birthday with friends coming up!
Food
To be honest, I care way more about the decor and games than I do about the food – there I said it! I want get togethers/parties to be fun but I don’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I love the process of decorating and creating the perfect setup with fun details.
For most parties, I make a trip to Sams Club for the food. They have so many ready made options that are so good, so I don’t feel guilty about not cooking homemade recipes.
The List
Here are the items I grabbed! I added details to all the store bought things to make them extra. I’m always a little extra!
- guacamole (ready made)
- tortilla chips
- mini quiches
- crossiant dough
- lil smokies
- cake
- gatorade
- plates
- plastic forks
- nutter butter cookies
- pudding cups
- white chocolate melts
Presentation
So I took all this food and added my own spin on it all to make it football themed. Presentation is everything!
Guacamole
I poured the gaucamole in a rectangle pan, added sour cream yard lines, and tomotaoes for the footfall players. The crowd surrounding the field was tortilla chips!
Drinks
Gatorade is a fav here so I grabbed that, added black & white striped wrapping paper and a whistle to look like referees!
Savory Food
The mini quiches from Sams Club are my go to party food so I jusat added little footabll themed cupckaes toppers (from Party City). I made little kolaches that you can add mustard or ketchup laces to make look like footballs.
Sweets
I bought a football cake from Sams Club THE END! Chocolate pudding cups with painted laces are another fun addition. Nutter butter cookies are a fav, so I just added white chocolate, black icing, and candy eyes to make them look like mini refs!
Decor
The food was mainly the decor but I did add a few extra things to make it all mesh! I added more of the striped wrapping paper to the table as a runner. I then added black crfat paper on top of that. I grabbed little faux grass squares from Amazon to look like turf and add to the ambiance The little plastic field goal from Party City was a cute addition as well as the cute wooden foorball banner from Hobby Lobby.
Why not create some printables for the drinks and napkins to tie the football theme together? I just bought red and yellow napkins for the “flags” and added the drink lable to the field goal with the referee drinks!
Games
We always play cornhole, but I made up a cute (free) game with balloons – called HUT HUT HIKE! Set a timer for 1 minute and see how many balloons you can “hike” into the basket. I modified it for younger ages and just had them throw it in. The ballons kind of go wherever they want!
Here’s a link to how the game looks in person:
https://youtube.com/shorts/K34RV0ymUn8
Hope this helps give you some ideas to take your next tailgate/football party to the next level. Food made fabulous by just adding details! Happy Fall Y’all!
