January 31, 2026

How to Host the Best Super Bowl Party

How to Host the Best Super Bowl Party – Ever!

Super Bowl Party – is it important? You betcha! Here in the good old U S of A, we love to throw elaborate watch parties for a game that most people at the party don’t care about. The food is SUPER fun though, and the company is always divine.

This menu can be easily adapted for any two teams playing on any Sunday of the year – it does not have to be Super Bowl Sunday. It doesn’t even have to be football. As always, here are the standard entertaining strategies:

Seating Alert for the big game:

One additional requirement for a Super Bowl Party is that you need to have enough chairs around the TV for all the guests to be able to sit down. You can do it with additional folding chairs, or big pillows on the ground or turning the TV on in two rooms. Everybody won’t want to be sitting down at the same time, but it’s a good idea to have seating like they will.

Tips and Tricks ~

If ever there was a better time for paper plates, napkins and plastic glasses, I don’t know when it could be. Buy some fun assorted paper goods in team colors to trick out your table. (Affiliate links follow – see Disclaimer Page for details.) Here’s a fun three pack of Football Tablecovers to make the place a bit more festive.

Grill the steak and or vegetables, and prep the sammies, dogs, chili, pork and/or chicken to be ready for everyone to put together on their own just before Half Time. No one wants to miss Half Time – it’s the best part. The dips, sides and desserts should be ready before the festivities begin, and keeping warm (for the dips) until you want to put them out. I like cute casserole dishes to cook and serve in.

Super Bowl Din Din Details~

The drink of the day on this year’s Super Bowl Menu for Seattle is not ubiquitous to the city, I am sure. It IS, however, the right color. The Emerald Sparkler is a mocktail, and it so pretty! The New England drink is the Super Bowl Sipper, a very pretty red, white and blue drink that would work equally as well for the 4th of July.

As usual, neither of the teams in the Super Bowl this year is a particular favorite of ours. We live in a little triangle between Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo, and we’re still smarting from the Bills’ loss. In homage, I’m including a ridiculously easy Buffalo Chicken Chowder to the Super Bowl menu, and pretending that it works for New England, even though there isn’t a dam clam in sight.

We’re going with a hot dog bar this year. Seattle is known for seafood and coffee, and New England is also known for seafood. Could we do a tremendously upscale seafood bar? Well, we could. But no one would eat it. And it would cost a mint. And it doesn’t go with football, IMHO. So we’re using New England Style Buns. Although we’ll put out some standard ones, too, in homage to the Patriots, the “Seattle Dog” is a hot dog topped with cream cheese and grilled onion. Which sounds just different enough to be delish. Or horrible. I think I’ll make up half a dog with that.

I’ll put the Buffalo Chicken Chowder in our big crockpot and the hot dogs in the little one so they’ll both be perfectly heated whenever anyone is ready to eat. Dessert this year makes me giggle: Butterfinger (I mean, I just had to!) Bun(d)t cake. Is that perfect or what?

Years and Years of menus…

I update this post every year, so the menus for prior years just get bumped down the list. If this year’s menu doesn’t hit the spot, keep scrolling!

Hot Dogs go with any menu we’ve got ~

If we don’t feel like using the crockpot, we use our stove top grill/griddle pan to prep the HOT DOGS on the stove – and leave the hot dogs right on there to serve. Just leave the heat set to “warm” and turn the dogs occasionally. We’re channeling gas station dogs at that point.

I love leaving the drink of the day in a big plastic party pitcher or this fun Beverage Dispenser . That way everyone can take care of themselves.

Is it even a game without betting?

In order to keep everyone involved, we always set up a super simple “Pool” that everyone bets on. When the boys were little, and any money they had came from us, we used to bet a quarter for a chance. Last year it was up to $5 per slot, and everyone was really involved.

Take a sheet of paper and draw 4 even horizontal lines and one vertical line down the middle. Prep 8 chances – one for each team for each quarter, and fold them up so no one can see what’s on them. Put them together in a hat. Everyone gets to pick a chance when they pay the entry fee. Write down who has each team for each quarter on the sheet of paper and keep track of that while the game goes on. Whoever has the most points in a single quarter wins the pool. Easy Peasy.

If you have more than 8 people, double up on the chances.

If you have fewer than 8 people, let the heavy hitters buy another chance, or leave that quarter empty.