By Joe Drozda
Really, do people actually tailgate for Christmas? Well, they may if they attend a bowl game that takes them away from home during the Christmas season. If they’re visiting a warm weather climate, why wouldn’t they make their Christmas dinner a tailgate party? An upscale market, like The Fresh Market or Honey Baked Ham, will fix everything needed for a great meal. Then they can have dinner, in the sun, right beside their rental car in a setting that friends, back home, will envy. Maybe they can even tailgate at the bowl site so they can take a photo with the stadium in the background. That photo will be a tailgater’s treasured memory, one that will have to be framed and brought out next season and displayed at the opening game.
Here’s a list of things to consider:
- Make this a real party by inviting some other fans of your team also staying at your hotel to join you and pitch-in.
- Call around, a couple of days early to find a market that can virtually prepare you a meal for pick-up. Find a place to buy some nice disposable plates and flatware and even plastic stem ware. Otherwise, figure a way to borrow these things from your hotel.
- Keep your cooler (soft sided that you brought or a disposable cooler purchased at your market) full of hotel ice in plastic bags so that you keep foods below 40 degrees.
- Ask the hotel kitchen staff to warm your food or use your rental car engine like an oven to heat up the foods that need to be hot. Wrap things thoroughly in aluminum foil and no one will suspect that you heated them in a 200 horse power oven.
- Figure out seating and serving surfaces ahead of time. You can always borrow a couple of chairs and maybe even a folding table from your hotel. Look in a banquet hall or in a service hallway. They have loads of them. Bring a blanket from your hotel room or from home to use as a hood or table covering.
