5 Ocean County Must Haves For Your Football Party

Let's be honest, a football party without food is just a bunch of people in your house watching your television.

From assorted appetizers to buckets of wings (according to the National Chicken Council, over a billion wings will be eaten on Sunday!), if your buffet isn't on point you'll be called for a penalty!

For the perfect football party eats, in my opinion it doesn't get any better than Moe's Southwest Grill.

The staff at the Toms River location know me well, and by the time I get from the front of the store to the register they've got a full bag of tortilla chips all packed and ready for me to gorge myself on.

Put out a big ol' tray of nachos, a do it yourself fajita bar, and a vat of their queso and your friends will be tackling each other to get to the table first!

Sure, you can put some food on the table, turn the TV on, and call it "a party", but why not make it a party and deck the halls with...wait, I'm getting my holidays mixed up here.

But seriously, with Party Fair locations in both Toms River and Brick, and everyone from Walmart to CVS stocking at the very least football themed plates and napkins, adding some occasion appropriate flair to your gathering is easy!

We covered food above, but dessert definitely deserves its own entry on this list. Not only because dessert is awesome, but especially because Ocean County has so many outstanding dessert spots!

So don't fill up on buffalo chicken dip, save some room for some Uncle Dood's or OB-CO's donuts, get some cupcakes from La Scala or Jenni Cakes, and load up on sweets from Van Holten's to put the perfect finish on your football party menu!

Ok, so now you have the perfect menu, you've got your place all decorated, you've got a house full of guests...and they're all gathered around your 32" picture tube TV from 1998.

Party foul!

With state of the art big screen 4K TVs now starting at under $400, you can lug the old box out to the curb and put a sleek, feather-light screen in its place and barely make a dent in the kids' college fund!

You can hit up Rand's on Hooper Ave in Toms River for their awesome, personal, hometown service.

And of course you can swing by any number of big box retailers in Ocean County, too. From Best Buy to BJ's, Costco to Target, a new TV is only steps away.

I may have just talked myself into a purchase here...

I won't sugarcoat this - you're going to have a mess on your hands when the last out is recorded in the bottom of the 9th.

Wait, sorry, wrong sport. I've got Spring Training on my mind (pitchers & catchers less than two weeks away!).

If you're lucky, you'll just need to run over to Home Depot and rent a carpet cleaner.

If you have rather, let's call them "enthusiastic" friends, and that chili stain on your sofa is too big to cover with a throw pillow, you may spend the following weekend at Michael's Furniture in Brick.