Super Bowl tickets are a bagillion dollars. It’s a fact. What does that mean for all of us folks stuck here enduring 75 degree weather far, far away from the midwest’s third or forth most exciting city during all the action? It means we have to throw a kickass Super Bowl Party filled with good friends, delicious food and enough beer to drown any sports related sorrows. It’s called homegating and it’s better than tailgating for many reasons, the main one being you don’t have to pack up all your sh*t, set it all up and then drunkenly put it all away in the midst of  either tears or exaggerated dance moves (depending on the outcome of the game). If you need some tips on how to plan an epic homegating experience, read on.

The Menu is the most important thing. Hands down. Keegan Gerhard of The Food Network Challenge had a right adorable idea of theme-ing your food based on the teams participating. New England Patriots? Clam Chowder, Whalburgers (the name of the Whalburg’s hamburger place in Boston, just serve sliders and call them that), baked beans, crab cakes and Boston Cream Pie . New York Giants? Long Island Ice Tea, Street Dogs (you can set up a condiment station to look like a street cart), pretzels, pizza and cheese cake…New York style. More traditional (boring) ideas can be found here. 

The Booze could be tied for the most important thing depending on your crowd. Make sure there are several different kinds of beer, a stocked bar and one signature drink that you can serve your guests all night like a Long Island Ice Tea or a Dark n’ Stormy to get them in the party mood. If you want to go a little classier than a red cup (you can afford to do so considering asphalt is not a main component of your home) here are some modern beer glass packs you can buy to jazz up your presentation.

The Entertainment is more of an afterthought really. The game itself should be enough to keep your friends amused for five hours, but short attention spans can sometimes get in the way. If this is the case, you can have a few activities to keep things interesting. Betting on the game is lame, but having a commercial ballot contest is super fun! Have everyone vote for their favorite and then draw a name to announce a winner. This idea, along with many others, comes from “The Party Goddess” Marley Majcher and you can check out more tips here.

Happy homegating.

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