Football Fun for Families

Super Bowl Sunday is a great day to invite families over for some football fun. Here are four quick tips geared toward entertaining the “younger set” on Super Bowl Sunday.

***And watch us on theToday Show Wednesday, February 2 between 10-11am with Kathie Lee and Hoda where we'll share tips for throwing the "Ultimate Super Bowl Bash on a Budget"

1.      Kick-off your party early - Super Bowl is on a Sunday night and the actual viewing event doesn’t begin until approximately 6pm ET. Considering the bedtime of the pre-school/elementary school crowd, plan your party to kick-off at 4pm. This way there’s plenty of time to have fun and no one feels bad leaving “early”.

2.    Offer pre-Super Bowl games. Set up some football inspired activities for pre-Super Bowl fun and get the kids in the spirit for the big game (you’ll find you have a few “big kids” who muscle their way into the games too.)

• FIKI Football

• Football Guys

• Finger Football

• Madden NFL 11

3. Create a menu of quick finger food for the kids; chances are they won’t like the typical Super Bowl fare. Also, the kids will be “on the run” at this party and the chance of you getting them to sit down to a meal is slim to none. So create a children’s buffet bar filled with beverages and finger foods they’ll be attracted to: mini juice boxes and junior water bottles (have a marker handy so you can write their names/initials on it), string cheese, tot size yogurts, mini pizzas and sandwiches, pigs in a blanket, mini sliders, veggies. Trust me, the last thing these kids are thinking about is eating – they just want to run around and have fun, so make it easy on them (and you) to fill their bellies.

4.    Create a buffet filled with fresh football fare for the adults.  Highlight half time with a Super Sundae Bar for all - fill with ice cream, football shaped brownies, sundae toppings and let all create their own concoctions. Check out these inspirations  For buffet recipes and ideas on building a Super Sundae Bar check out our feature on throwing your own Super Bowl bash on a budget.