Make Life Lovely

Your DIY Guide to a Lovelier Life

  • Home
  • About
    • My Story
    • Contact
    • PR/Press
    • Terms
  • DIY / Crafts
    • Crafts
    • Gifts
    • For the Home
    • Kids
    • Memories
    • Paper
    • Parties
    • Printable
  • Holidays
    • Valentine’s Day
    • St. Patrick’s Day
    • Easter
    • Mother’s Day
    • Father’s Day
    • Fourth of July
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Christmas
    • New Year’s Eve
  • Food
    • Bread
    • Dessert
    • Drink
    • Main Dish
    • Side Dish
    • Soup
  • Fashion
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • Clothes
  • Travel

Fabulous Football Party + Tailgating Ideas

September 7, 2015 By Laura 4 Comments

3550shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

Thank you Coca-Cola and Sam’s Club for sponsoring our fun football party.  All ideas and opinions are always 100% my own.  #ShareYourSpirit #CollectiveBias

For my family, fall is all about crisp colorful leaves, trips to the pumpkin patch, sweater weather, and college football!  My husband and I are pretty passionate about watching each and every one of my alma mater’s football games, and I just put together a really fun football party for the first game of the season this past weekend that I’m so excited to share with you!

Football Party Food Ideas

I went all out for this party with lots of delicious food, ice cold Cokes, and football-themed decorations that added to the whole feel of the party food table.  Today I’m going to share with you a barbecue beef sandwich recipe that was a hit at the party, an easy tutorial for creating your own serving platters, and some great resources with you for some awesome football party printables.  Let’s get started!

Football and Tailgating Party

I covered up the table with some artificial turf that I already had to mimic the look of a football field.

How to throw a football party

One the center of the table I placed a wood shelving cubby that I found and fell in love with.  It was the perfect way to add height and variety to the table, and all the little nooks were perfect for adding treats inside!

Football party decorations ideas

Two football player statues went up at the very top, along with a football and a cute printable football garland (all links to printables are at the bottom of the post).  I also added a small football pennant banner to parts of my wood cubbies to add more color and tie it into the football theme.

My black chalkboard came in handy as a backdrop to go behind the wood shelf.  My husband had fun drawing up a football play with chalk on the board.

I shopped at Sam’s Club to spoil my guests with all kinds of yummy football food.  Sam’s Club also has an easy Order Online and Pick Up in store feature where you can go to Sam’s Club online and order anything you need for your football or tailgating party, and then go pick it all up instantly in the store.  So cool, and a total timesaver!

Football Tailgating Party

Tailgating party food ideas

My football party food consisted of Coke marinated barbecue beef sandwiches (recipe further in the post), boneless buffalo chicken pieces, chicken and cheese taquitos, mozzarella sticks, nachos, football brownie bites, Cherry Coke cupcakes, popcorn, and soft pretzels.

Food for the football party

I served the food at different heights on the table, on cake stands, on a red picnic basket, and on the wood shelves.  I printed some cute free football printables that I found online (sources at end of post), and made them into adorable food flags.

Football Party Fun

The nachos were served in cute printable snack baskets that were easy to put together.  Each basket was filled with chips and a small cup filled with nacho cheese.

Football Party Food Ideas

Striped black and white Halloween buckets were turned into referee buckets that fit the football theme perfectly!

Football brownie bites

To make the football brownie bites, I bought some some pre-made brownie bites from Sam’s Club, and then used white frosting to create the stitches to look like footballs.  So easy!

Coca-Cola from Sam's Club

I bought a 28 pack of Coca-Cola to quench everyone’s thirst, and placed the cans in a large galvanized party bucket filled with ice.  I wanted to make sure that no one would go thirsty, and with the 28 pack I knew that I would have more than enough soda for everyone!

Coke at Sam's Club

I found the 28 pack at Sam’s Club on a special football display at the front of the store.

I used a can of Coke to make the awesome barbecue beef sandwiches that I served.  They were really delicious, and the recipe made a lot so, too!  The best part, besides that taste, is that the meat was made in the slow cooker, so it took very little hands-on time.  Here’s the easy recipe…

Football Party Ideas

Slow Cooker Coke-Marinated Barbecue Beef Sandwiches

  • 3-6 lbs. beef roast
  • 1 12-oz can Coca-Cola
  • 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 bottles barbecue sauce

Coke marinated barbecue beef

Place the roast in the slow cooker.  Pour the Coke and Worcestershire Sauce over the roast, then season with salt and pepper.

Coca-Cola barbecue beef sandwiches

Depending on the size of your roast, you can cook your roast on low in the slow cooker for anywhere between 7-10 hours.  When the meat is done, carefully remove it from the slow cooker.

Coke marinated beef

Use a fork and knife to shred the beef, then add some barbecue sauce to the beef and stir completely.  (I used two full bottles of barbecue sauce and mixed it in with the beef.)

You could serve immediately, or let the flavors become stronger in the fridge like I did.  They were definitely worth the wait!

I also made Cherry Coke cupcakes using the Coke too.  I came up with a unique and creative way of displaying the cherry coke cupcakes that was really easy to pull together and that I’ve never seen done before- I turned a Coke bottle and a Coke can into cupcake stands!

Football party decorations

DIY Coke Cupcake Stand

  • White salad plate
  • Coke bottle or can (either one will work)
  • e6000 adhesive (a very strong glue)
  • Q-tip

DIY soda bottle cake stand

* e6000 is a very strong glue with a strong odor, so be sure to use this glue either outside or in a well-ventilated area.

DIY Coke bottle cupcake stand

If using a Coke bottle, squeeze a medium-sized amount of the adhesive onto the bottle lid.  Place the white plate upside down, and press down the bottle lid to the center of the upside down plate.

Press down firmly for about a minute, then place in a safe place upside down while the adhesive dries.  I waited about 24 hours to touch mine again, and it was perfect then!

DIY cupcake stand

If using a Coke can, squeeze some e6000 onto the entire rim of the can.

DIY Soda bottle serving plate

Press the can top upside down onto the center of a white salad plate, press down for about a minute, and then move to a safe place where it won’t be touched until completely dry the next day.

DIY Coke Bottle Cake Stand

Later the next day your cupcake stand should be dry, so you can place on it cookies, cupcakes, etc.  That Coke base is stuck on there really well and isn’t going anywhere!

Football and Tailgating Party

I hope you enjoyed all these football party and tailgating ideas, and that it inspires you to put together a fun food table for your next big football game!

If you liked this post, I’d love for you to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. Thanks for following!

What’s your favorite food to eat while watching football?

signature

Free Football Party Printables: 

Yard line banner from Hostess with the Mostess

Football pennant banner from Here Comes the Sun

Snack baskets from Hostess with the Mostess

Finger flags from Three Little Monkeys Studio

Food flags from  Three Little Monkeys Studio
Here’s more football parties, recipes, and crafts you’ll love-

Football party table decorations and food ideas

Football Party Table

DIY-football-drink-tub.-Make-one-of-these-easy-football-drink-tubs-for-your-next-football-game-viewing-party

 DIY Football Drink Tub

Free printable Super Bowl bingo game, perfect for a football party!

Free Printable Super Bowl Bingo Game

Super bowl sweets party

Super Bowl Sweets Party

Healthy football party with amazing watermelon helmet! Perfect food for a Super Bowl party.

Healthy Football Party

Free printable football water bottle labels

Free Printable Football Water Bottle Labels

Caprese appetizers recipe, the perfect football food and party appetizer!

Caprese Appetizer Recipe

Bacon Chili Cheese Dog Recipe

Bacon Chili Cheese Dog Recipe

Free printable Super Bowl football labels

Free Super Bowl Printables

Slow cooker queso dip, perfect with tortilla chips!

Slow Cooker Queso Dip

Jalapeno artichoke recipe

Jalapeno Artichoke Dip Recipe

signature

3550shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

About Laura

Hi! I'm Laura, owner and creator of Make Life Lovely, a creative blog filled with creative craft tutorials, DIY projects, party tips, holiday ideas, home decor, and so much more! Make Life Lovely is dedicated to making everyday life more lovely, and I hope to inspire you and show you how!

Let's Be Friends!



Comments

  1. Ali Williams says

    September 9, 2015 at 9:34 am

    Tweeted and pinned! This is adorable and the food looks delicious. Great job!

    Reply
    • Laura says

      September 9, 2015 at 9:57 pm

      Thanks Ali, I appreciate it! We all ate so much food and had a great time.

      Reply
  2. Nikki @ Tikkido says

    September 9, 2015 at 11:20 am

    The wood cubby is the perfect touch! You created wonderful height on the table in all sorts of clever ways!

    Reply
    • Laura says

      September 9, 2015 at 9:55 pm

      Thanks so much Nikki! I had so much fun with this party!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *



[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2021 · Genesis Framework · Design by Key Lime Digital Designs · Log in

Privacy Policy