Big Game Football Party Ideas

My family doesn’t watch much football, but there’s one game every year that we can’t miss. Plus, it’s a great excuse to have friends over for delicious food and fun. I’ve got printables, DIY decorations, and two incredible recipes that will make this the best big game football party ever.

Additionally, this post was sponsored by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser in 2016. All opinions are mine alone.

Football party prep

I always try to DIY my own festive decorations without making it too complicated. When I visited my local Walmart to pick up the food, I found everything else I needed too. Be sure to visit the kitchen section, party section, and the wedding aisle after you pick up your recipe ingredients.

I covered the dining table with a green football field table cloth and picked up some football napkins. The red and yellow flags were nearby on a big game endcap display.

Over on the wedding aisle, I found these black and white referee-striped straws. Who would’ve thought, wedding decorations for a football party?

I wanted to be neutral on the dishes and my white square plates are a favorite staple for entertaining. They look so clean on that green tablecloth!

I was particularly excited to find the chip-and-dip, which is holding our nacho toppings. I’ve been looking for one of those for a while.

Football party decor

These football party decorations are easy to DIY.

On the party aisle, I grabbed some bamboo dowels, black balloons, and black gift streamers. The balloons and streamers are just taped to the top of the dowels to resemble pompoms.

For the pennant-style flags, I cut some green paper into 1×5-inch strips. I folded each one in half and cut a V out of the end of a few. I wrote on them with a white paint pen and taped them to more dowels. That part was a bit tricky.

First, I wrapped a piece of tape around the top of the dowel with the sticky side out. After I folded the mini paper flags around the dowel, I added a second piece of tape (rolled to be sticky side out too) and stuck it to hold the ends together.

For filling my vases, I put clear glass marbles in the bottom of each vase so that the balloons, pompoms, and pennants could stand up at different heights.

Printable big game commercial bingo

For my bingo game, I wanted my guests to have something fun to do on commercial breaks. These bingo cards are silly and include common (or highly-anticipated) commercial ideas.

There are four different card designs that print on two pages. Just cut them in half and print as many pages as you need.

For the setup, I really took advantage of the wedding aisle. I found a nice plastic jar for the Skittles® and added a scoop.

Each person gets a little brown favor bag (with football laces drawn on with a white paint pen) to fill with Skittles®. Our prize for the bingo winner was just bragging rights, but you could easily pick up some party favors, like miniature footballs or referee whistles.

Football party recipes

Pepsi™ pulled pork nachos

You can’t have a football party without good food, so Pepsi™ pulled pork nachos were the centerpiece on the table. The best part is that you don’t really need a recipe to make them. Here’s what I did:

Pepsi™ pulled pork

Trim the big fat from a 3-ish pound pork shoulder and season with about 1 tablespoon each of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Put it in a slow cooker and add 2 cans of Pepsi™ and half a large {40 ounce} bottle of barbecue sauce and cook on low for about 6 hours.

Note: This also works on chicken, but it won’t need to cook as long.

Nacho cheese

For the cheese sauce, combine a pound of Monterey jack cheese with a cup of heavy cream. Heat them in a slow cooker on high until melted, stirring often. Hold warm.

Nacho fixings

I heated some canned black beans in another slow cooker. The cold items fit nicely on a chip-n-dip tray: red onions, sliced jalapenos, TOSTITOS® Medium Chunky Salsa, diced avocado, and sour cream. I also grabbed two party-size bags of TOSTITOS® tortilla chips.

Because I’m a stickler for labeling food, I created a simple printable. (It’s included with the download below!)

It says “Nacho Bar Game Plan” and has lines to write in whatever you’re serving at your party.

Homemade SNICKERS® ice cream

The real treat here is this homemade SNICKERS® ice cream. I mean, I love SNICKERS® bars. And ice cream. I could eat this all winter long though.

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup granulated sugar, divided
• a pinch of salt
• 1 vanilla bean
• 5 egg yolks
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup peanuts
• 1 cup chopped SNICKERS® Minis

Instructions

In a saucepan on the stove, heat milk, cream, HALF of the sugar, salt, and the vanilla bean (scrape out the inside, but throw the empty pod in too) over low heat.

Combine the yolks and the other half of the sugar in a bowl or stand mixer and beat until pale and thick.

When the milk mixture is just starting to bubble, slowly whisk a small amount into the eggs. Add a little more and whisk again. Then, add the egg-milk mixture back to the rest of the milk in the pot.

Heat on low, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick enough to not run right off of the back of your spoon. This should take just a few minutes.

Turn off the heat and pour the mixture through a strainer and toss the bean pod.

Let it sit and cool off until it can go in the refrigerator. Chill the ice cream mixture for at least an hour. Overnight is fine too. Meanwhile, chop the SNICKERS® Minis into quarters.

Turn the ice cream in a mixer according to your mixer’s instructions. Mine doesn’t use ice. Start turning the ice cream.

When it starts getting thick, slowly add the peanuts and SNICKERS® pieces. Serve soft immediately or freeze for 1+ hours.

Get the printable

Download the printables I mentioned in this post as a PDF. This includes the Big Game Commercial BINGO cards and the Nacho Bar sign. Print on 8.5×11-inch paper or card stock. All printables are for personal use only.

What’s next? Try these other fun and creative ideas on One Mama’s Daily Drama:

• 10 Secrets to Hosting a Party on a Budget
• Printable Tafl Viking Chess Game
• Printable Superhero Dominoes Game