Pull up your Super Bowl party to do list on Any.do. If it has anything on it that will take you more than two hours and $30 to make, swipe to delete. The Super Bowl is not about meticulous decorating and days of planning plus expenses. It’s about having fun, and no one can have fun if the host is stressed out about cooking appetizers and making sure the handmade streamers are hanging just right.
Chill out, import our 4 step to do list into your Any.do app, and sail your way into one of the best Super Bowl parties you’ve ever thrown.
Plan A DIY Menu
Pop Quiz: You can…
a) cook a hundred buffalo wings from scratch in small batches and never leave your kitchen
b) order your game day cuisine from a local pizza joint and wait two hours for it to arrive
c) be a genius and make a DIY bar
The correct answer is ‘c’. Everyone else, please exit to the left.
A DIY bar, or “make your own” buffet comes in all forms. Have a ‘Make Your Own Nacho Bar‘, ‘Make Your Own Popcorn Bar‘, ‘Make Your Own Hot Dog Bar‘, or our favorite ‘DIY Sundae Bar‘ (also good for the kids).
Deconstructing your menu creates a bigger spread and that fierce “let us feast!” vibe while keeping prep and cooking to a minimum.
- Choose your DIY menu (see this Pinterest board as a good starting place for inspiration)
- Calculate how much food you’ll need based on your party size. Use this detailed and complicated method, or simply follow our rule of 1 pound of food per person.
- Make a food shopping list for step #2
Buy It All Online
You’ll have one of two reactions to this step in the to do list. Either you’ll totally get it because you haven’t stepped foot inside the zoo that is your local food warehouse in months and the Amazon Fresh guy knows your apartment code by heart, or scoff at the idea because you’re a regular Ron Swanson and there’s a Food N’ Stuff equidistant between your house and your office.
Trust us – ordering your deodorant and printer paper online is great, but having your groceries delivered to your door is one of modern life’s most supreme conveniences, especially around Super Bowl season. Ease your to do list and try Amazon Fresh or a local delivery service like Pink Dot in LA, Instacart in San Francisco, or almost any decent bodega in NYC. Your shopping list:
- DIY bar ingredients (above)
- Chips and dip
- Cookies, cupcakes, brownies and/ or candy
- Ice. Lots of ice. For drinks and for coolers.
- Beer (plus coolers/ tubs if you don’t already have them)
- Soda
- Paper plates and bowls
- Plastic cups
- Plastic cutlery and paper napkins
- Bottle openers (even if you have one, might be worth buying a couple extras)
Double Duty Decorations
You’re going to be shopping online and a smart algorithm will serve up super cute, super overpriced Super Bowl decorations because it knows that red solo cups and 5 pounds bags of tortilla chips in your cart can only mean one thing – but you will not give in. You will be smart and find ways to make your own decorations that serve double duty (like football-themed food), and repurpose things you already have around the house using this to do list.
- Chalkboard gameplay table covers and placemats – black construction paper and chalk
- Football brownies – store-bought or homemade brownies, a cookie cutter, and white frosting
- Alternatively, football chocolate covered strawberries – strawberries, chocolate, and white chocolate
- Fruit salad helmet – watermelon and fruit
- Beer mug centerpiece – (do it our way, with a branded team mug or cup, and skip the fake ice and colored water)
- Easy paper football popcorn holders – brown construction paper, white chalk or paint pen
- Football babies – because, you know, Pinterest
An Easy (But Fun) Party Game
Tie it all together with one good game that everyone can take part in. Make it easy to follow along because if you’ve been the party host hacker extraordinaire that you were born to be, then your guests will be deep into drinks and carbo-laden goodies by half time. This is perhaps the easiest, yet most important part of your to do list.
- Super Bowl Bingo – Print them out or make your own, fun for kids or a grown up drinking game
- Commercial Rating Cards – printable cards attached to popsicle sticks
- Super Bowl Trivia – turn this fact sheet into a fun trivia game for the group
That was easy, right?
Four simple steps, all easily importable to your Any.do to-do list so you can make sure everything is taken care of. Have a happy Super Bowl Sunday while silently laughing at all the people who did it the hard way. You are part of the productivity elite, and you shall party like one.
