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Football season is in full swing with college and national football teams facing off week-to-week. With football season comes tailgating, both before going to a friends for watch parties and before attending actual football games. Throwing a tailgating party from your dorm could be the perfect alternative to being outside before those rainy-day games or if you have to travel to another university to attend a college game. 

Decor

No tailgate is complete without themed decorations to pep up your team spirit. A lot of decorations that come in a pack can be found on Amazon or Party City. 

Amazon offers an entire set of decorations, including a football field themed table cloth, plates, cups, napkins and even a tailgate themed banner. This option could be great for delivery straight to your dorm, so you can fully decorate with no hassle of picking up decorations from the store. 

Another option would be to decorate your dorm with NFL themed merchandise or your college team’s merchandise. Party City has tons of options to purchase a themed NFL pack of cups, plates, napkins and more. 

For those who have a crafty side, you could handmake your decorations following this TikTok DIY by Julie Sousa. Sousa creates a goal post out of foam (that lights up!) and electrical tape to create plays on her walls. 

Food & Drink

The next most important part to throwing a tailgate party in your dorm is having a wide variety of food. If you don’t have a full kitchen, frozen football appetizers you can make in your microwave could be perfect. Microwave food, like these Totino’s pizza rolls, might be a crowd favorite appetizer. 

Along with the microwave pizza rolls, you could pick up a bag of chips and some queso or salsa to serve with no prep in your dorm room. 

If you do have a kitchen, or even just a small oven, you could make a classic football appetizer — Buffalo Chicken Dip. This recipe has just a few ingredients, some of which you can source from the dining hall. 

A tailgate party is never complete without drinks to compliment the food you serve. Aside from your regular sodas and lemonades, you could always pick up a couple of Olipop sodas or a quart of apple cider to really fall into the season. 

If you’re feeling adventurous or have some extra time to prep, you could make this strawberry flavored game day mocktail found on Alison Kuch’s TikTok

Entertainment

Lastly, and maybe the most fun part of the tailgate, is the entertainment. While getting ready for the big game, playing a few games before heading to the stadium would be a great way to get in the competitive spirit. 

Tailgating parties, outdoor, usually have a set of cornholes set up. But, if you’re in your dorm, and short on space, there is a football themed tabletop cornhole game you can purchase online at Home Depot. This could be set up on a kitchen table or even the desk in your room. 

Another game, perfect for a small area, is paper football. The object of the game is to set up two “field goals” on either side of the table and then flick the paper football across the table into the field goal. You can purchase a pack of multiple paper footballs and field goals, game day themed, on Amazon

And if you’re feeling creative, you could always decorate Jenga blocks with paint or team symbols and play a football-themed Jenga tournament. Jenga would fit either on the floor or on a small table or desk. Personalizing the Jenga blocks gives you the opportunity to root for your college team or favorite NFL team, staying on brand with your tailgate themed party.

The tailgating party in your dorm can be just as lively, decorated, and on theme as a tailgate outside the stadium. 

Samantha is a contributor for the National Writers program for Spoon University. She enjoys writing about food culture, restaurant reviews and her all-time favorite “How-To” articles. Outside of Spoon University, she is a student at Boston University. She is a junior studying English with a minor in journalism. At Boston University, she spends time writing for the school's newspaper, The Daily Free Press. At the Daily Free Press, she is a senior contributor in the lifestyle section and focuses on writing fashion reviews, rating restaurants, and covering recent trends. She recently joined the Pre-Law Review at Boston University and hopes to contribute law-related articles to the publication this year. In her free time, she enjoys attending hot yoga classes, going to the gym with her friends, and finding the best gluten-free spots in Boston.