LOS ANGELES, Jan. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Evite (www.evite.com), the leader in digital invitations and social planning since 1998, today revealed its monthly Party Trend Report which features insight on holiday party trends and tips. This report highlights decor trends and unique food ideas for the biggest game day of the year, happening on February 2(nd). Though not technically a holiday, The Big Game is the country's most popular sports-related celebration, and is one of Evite's most popular festivities with over 1M invitations sent out in the U.S.--over 70K of which have been distributed in New York and New Jersey, the game's host committee.

"Football is one of America's biggest sporting events and every year, fans and spectators across the country gear up for The Big Game in February," said Marilyn Oliveira, editorial director at Evite. "This year, while some traditional football decor and food remain popular, there are a variety of fresh, new ideas that hosts can expand upon to ensure their football party is fabulous and memorable for years to come."

FOOTBALL PARTIES
What's trending: Keep it simple, while elevating the basics.
Top decor: Sports-viewing parties are primarily about the food so people shouldn't feel as if they need to invest enormously in decor and certainly shouldn't let it hinder them from throwing a party. A quick way to easily infuse color - and create some healthy competition - is to ask your guests to wear their team colors. Hosts can also set up a photo booth with sports-related props to serve as both festive decor and a fun social activity.
Food ideas: Self-serve is an underlying trend this year. Not only does this style tend to appease guests, but it leaves less clean-up for hosts, too. Individual grab and go foods are a good rule of thumb - for example, food stations with Evite Gatherings' spicy mango habanero wings let guests serve themselves and fix everything to their liking. Instead of big communal bowls of snacks that can be unsanitary and messy, a station of individual dippers like striped bagged pretzels and popcorn, and one-hand desserts like gluten-free chocolate chunk peanut butter cookies are good alternatives.
Cocktail suggestions: Since this year's game will be played at New York and New Jersey's stadium, try serving up a couple of craft beers that represent the area, like Brooklyn Brewery beers and HopFish IPA. Hosts can also serve cocktails and beer that share the competing teams' names or hometowns.

To help hosts visualize what's in and what's out this football season, the party experts at Evite have put together a checklist of the latest trends (and their outdated counterparts) so hosts can throw unique, and memorable celebrations. 



    WHAT'S IN                WHAT'S OUT

    Individual snack
     portions                Communal chip and dip bowls

    Food stations            "Stadiums" made out of food

    Grab-and-go desserts     Items decorated like a football

    Macho decorations        Frilly flags or favors

    Cooking with booze       Traditional seasonings and flavors

    Digital 'football'
     invitations             Word of mouth invites

For football-themed and other party invitations you can send online or by mail, please visit www.evite.com. For more party planning tips, decor ideas and recipes, please visit www.evitegatherings.com.

About Evite
With over 32 million registered users, Evite (www.evite.com) is the leading digital invitation and social event planning brand. Evite's free, easy-to-use invitation designs kick off more than 7 million parties and gatherings every year. With 28,000 invitations sent every hour, and party-planning tools that handle hundreds of millions of RSVPs annually, Evite is responsible for more celebrations than any other online brand. Launched in 1998, Evite is headquartered in Los Angeles and is a wholly-owned operating business of Liberty Interactive Corporation (NASDAQ: LINTA, LINTB).

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SOURCE Evite