Tailgating is a popular and stylish way to watch your favorite team. But if you’re not careful, it can quickly turn into a disaster. Your living rooms are piled with dirty dishes and empty beer cans, your kitchen is filled with leftover meats and snacks, and your garage is full of more trash than you can handle. What if you could arrange your entire house so that it resembled a tailgating party?
Why Throw A Tailgate Party?
In the past, tailgating parties were usually held by college students. The tailgating culture now has a more mature and professional feel to it. Like many other parts of an average American’s life, the tailgating culture has changed since the start of this century. Today, a Home Tailgate Party is also held by companies, families, and even professional sports teams. Tailgating parties are one of the more social and enjoyable ways to get together with friends. While most tailgating has moved indoors with cheaper and smaller portable party tents, there are still people who like to tailgate the old-fashioned way, with a tent, grill, and food. So what are some of the best ways to organize the best one in your neighborhood?
Prepare In Advance
It’s time for a party, and you don’t want to have to stress about what to buy, where to throw it, or who to invite, all while juggling family, work, and other responsibilities. Therefore, the optimal strategy to end up with a winning party is to plan well in advance. You will already know the date so you can prepare little by little. If you set yourself several weeks in advance, you will let everyone know in time and set things up correctly. As the saying goes: “prepare to plan or plan to fail”!
Get In Touch With Your Friends!
The people are what make a party so much fun. You could have the best food in the world, and your team could thrash their opponents, but without others to celebrate and enjoy with, it is fruitless. Ensure that you give your friends plenty of notice about the time, date, and location, so they don’t end up elsewhere. You could utilize social media and set up a dedicated page or event. Facebook has excellent features to create an event and invite everyone on your friend list. This works well because everyone is on Facebook, and it only takes a few minutes to set up. However, a personal invitation is more intimate for family and close friends.
Create a Checklist
When planning a party or event, the most common mistake made by people is forgetting to have a party checklist. Having a party checklist will ensure that everything goes smoothly. It might seem a bit of a buzzkill kind of thing to do for a party but just remember this: you also want to enjoy yourself. Those who decide that they can handle everything and remember all the details in their head will have a bad time. On the other hand, those who understand the benefits of a comprehensive checklist will have a fantastic time. Nevertheless, you must remain flexible and try not to force anything that isn’t meant to be. For example, if your checklist says you need a certain amount of pork, but you can’t find any, you should be flexible enough to substitute another type of meat.
Choose the Food
Following on from the pork and meat example in the last point, food will make or break your party. You should ask your friends to rsvp so that you will have a rough count of how many will attend. When you have this information, you can shop for food. Some traditional tailgate foods include:
- Chips and dip, a classic.
- Burgers.
- Hotdogs.
- Potato salad.
- Pretzel bites.
- An assortment of chips.
- Coleslaw.
- Spare ribs.
- Fried chicken.
- Chilli dogs.
- A variety of sandwiches.
- A mixture of nuts.
- Chilli con Carne.
These are examples that you can choose from; you do not need to provide all of them. While these events are usually aimed at meat-eaters, the modern world is such that there could be vegetarians in your midst. They are your friends and should be taken care of equally well as others. Therefore try to include some veggie options that everyone can enjoy.
Choose The Drink
If food is the king of the party, the drink is the queen. Obviously, there will be beer; that is a given. You can use your judgment as to which beer your friends prefer, or you can mix it up and get a selection. Besides beer, there are other exciting options you can consider. For example, you could make bloody mary’s, these are fun, and if you add in a bit more tabasco than usual, it can really fire things up! If cocktails aren’t your things, then you can provide other hard liquor in the form of bourbon. Do you know what goes great with bourbon? Coke. In fact, you should have a range of soft drinks on hand not only for the little ones who will inevitably be running around like crazy but also for those who don’t drink or are the designated drivers. Speaking of which…
Identify designated drivers
A tailgate party is meant to be fun and full of excitement. Alcohol is an integral part of creating the atmosphere and having a good time. Nevertheless, you must make it your responsibility to speak with those planning to come and plan who will be the designated driver. This is crucial for the safety of you and your friends and other road users, and the general public. Most people don’t mind being chosen because they are unable to drink anyway for one reason or another. But choose someone or some people and have discipline.
Creative A Winning Atmosphere
Once the party has begun, you must keep the momentum going. You can have music playing, BBQs roaring, and the TV on with pregame commentary. The most important thing is that everyone is happy. You should also ensure that you have fun yourself, you worked hard to set it all up, so you should also enjoy the fruits of your labor.
A tailgate party has become somewhat of a tradition these days and for good reasons. They are great occasions to get all of your favorite people together in one place and merely have a great time.