decorating

Team Face-Off! Big Game Party Decorating Tips

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updated Jul 16, 2020
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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

The Big Game kicks off Sunday, February 3 — will you be watching? It’s the most watched sporting event of the year, with eager fans from both sides congregating in homes all over the country. Are you actually hosting the party this year? Read along — we have some tips and festive ideas for throwing a football-themed party!

Maxwell shares some of our best tips for decorating for the Big Game party in the video above.

Football parties are traditionally all about the food, but we also think that a little extra effort put into decorating can pay off with a memorable party!

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Here’s a DIY home theater with a projector by our reader, Hemi

Stadium Seating for Everyone

If you’re inviting a crowd to your party, then the first and most important task is to create a great stadium seating environment.

The Television
• If your television is large, great. If not, try to borrow a projector and a screen and use your cable box or a VCR to to hook up the projector to the game. The bigger the better!

The Seating
• Arrange your living room stadium style, with lower seats like bean bags and floor cushions in front, then the couch, and finally high barstools in the very back. Everyone wants to be able to see!

• Leave mingling room in the very back, with an open space for casual watchers to drift in and out of the room as desired.

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)
(Image credit: Anjali Prasertong)

The Food Arrangement
• To avoid disruption, place food strategically around the room. Put bowls of spiced nuts and M&M’S® on end tables and bookshelves, within easy grabbing distance. Use the coffee table for a platter holding mini cups of chili with pasta and cheddar and, to keep it fresh, bundles of arugula and prosciutto.

• On opposite sides of the room set up two dedicated food tables for the…

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Team Face-Off: With Food!

The best football parties include fans from both sides of the field, hopefully painted up and wearing their best jerseys. If you’re inviting a mixed crowd of fans, then here are a few tips for creating a festive (and competitive) atmosphere during the game.

The Face-Off Tables
• One table for each team! Cover the tables in inexpensive plastic tablecloths in the hue of each team’s primary color.

• Create a runner for each table with M&M’S. Cut a piece of brown craft paper to the length of the table and use clear glue to line the edges with alternating team colors of M&M’S. For instance, if the team’s colors are red and blue, use red and blue M&M’S, alternating back and forth. Alternately, use polka-dotted fabric or paper to create a similar effect.

The Face-Off Food
• On each table, put out food in that team’s colors — like blue Jell-O squares with strawberries inside, or green and yellow fruit (kiwi and mango) on skewers. Scatter bowls of M&M’S in the teams’ colors.

• The centerpiece of each table: Game Predictor Cupcakes! Leave the icing neutral, like chocolate, but fill the homemade cupcakes with icing in the primary color of each team. Mix the cupcakes randomly and put on each table. Tell your guests to count how many times they bite into a cupcake of each team’s colors and keep a running tally! See if the tally matches with the final result of the game.

Happy Game Day!

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

(Images: Hemi/Minhembio; Leela Cyd Ross)