Tailgate Time: How to Make Your Tailgate Party the Best

Are you ready for some football? It’s almost time and with football comes one of the greatest traditions in America:  the Tailgate Party, or just "Tailgate" for short.

The way to make the Tailgate enjoyable is to be prepared. Here are some simple tips for making your Tailgate the best it can be.

1 – Have a theme for your Tailgate and let everyone who contributes to the Tailgate know the theme in advance. For example when we play against Wisconsin, we have cheese everything; cheese soup, cheese dip, cheese balls, etc.

2 – Make sure to dress for the weather. I’m a Michigan State fan so our Tailgate season goes from shorts weather to wearing gloves with hand warmers in them. Make sure you’re prepared for what Mother Nature will throw at you during your Tailgate.

3 – Make sure you show your team spirit. Wear your colors. The worst thing I’ve seen someone do at a game is forget the colors of the opposing team and show up wearing their colors.

4 – Plan your arrival time along with game time. We usually start pretty early. Sometimes as early as 7am for a noon game. For evening games campus won’t let us start until afternoon, but plan for a few hours at the least.

5 – Make sure you have some seats available. Not everyone will sit at the same time, but make sure that there is availability for some people to sit.

6 – Food. One of the best parts of any good Tailgate is the food. It’s great if you have several different people that contribute to your Tailgate food. Finger foods are the easiest thing to have. For early games we usually get bagels and have breakfast rolls along with the regular things like chips and dip. For late afternoon and evening games we bring a grill along and have hotdogs or hamburgers or chicken later in the day. But it is a must to have constant munchies.

7 – Drinks. Well, a Tailgate wouldn’t be a Tailgate without the beer. But not everyone is going to want beer. For early games, it’s always good to have coffee. And for a game at any time of the day it is good to have water available. We always like to have a variety of soft drinks for the younger and non-alcohol drinking members of our Tailgate, too.

8 – Set-up and take-down. We have a pretty good system worked out for putting up the tent and tables and getting things ready to go. Sometimes it’s a bit harder for take down, because somehow even if your Tailgate had 50 people at one point, by the time you get ready to take down, you only have 4. A Basic thing to remember is simply to clean up your area. There are trash cans right by our tailgate spot, but we always have trash bags.

9 – Tailgate entertainment. Tailgates are more fun if there is a variety of things for your guests to do. We always have footballs, soccer balls, baseball and bat, and then the typical Tailgate game of Cornhole (the bean bag toss game). The games make the sometimes 5-hour days a little more varied.

So with the countdown started, its time to get ready for some football!