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As you’ve probably guessed by now, we’re big sports fans, and we’re especially into NCAA sports. I grew up in a family of Oregon Ducks, became a UCLA Bruin myself, then married into a multi-generational Texas Longhorns family, so we have lots of teams that we love to follow. During the big college basketball tournament in March, we love cheering on our schools and hosting a basketball watch party. Today I’m sharing some really fun and easy ways to score for your basketball parties, whether you’re planning a basketball themed birthday party, an end-of-season party for a youth basketball team, or a March Madness or Final Four watch party. You’ll want to pin these ideas, as I’m sharing DIY basketball party decorations, basketball themed snacks (including basketball dessert ideas and basketball themed drinks), party favors, and more. Like everything we share on Fab Everyday, all the DIYs and food ideas are beginner-friendly and quick and easy to put together so you can spend more time enjoying the game yourself!
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DIY basketball party decorations
Our DIY basketball party decorations included a food table with a backdrop and some fun details. I opted for a color scheme of orange, black, and white, along with black and white striped patterns for this basketball watch party to represent the colors of a basketball and the referee uniform. This simple color and pattern scheme is really easy to work with when shopping for supplies, and makes for really creative decorations. If you’re looking for March Madness decorations or basketball birthday party decorations, it works equally well. For a college basketball watch party, you can also include logos and colors from your school’s team in the mix.
Basketball Party Backdrop
I made an orange backdrop using an orange plastic tablecloth. I added black tissue paper tassels down the side of backdrop (you can either make them yourself with the instructions in this post, or get pre-cut tassels that you just twist and finish yourself). You can also string black streamers across the top and down the sides to fill in any blank spaces.
I made this two-color “Slam Dunk” banner on my Cricut (click here for the Slam Dunk Banner design in Cricut Design Space), and strung it over the orange backdrop.
Basketball Watch Party Table Decor
On the food table, I used another orange tablecloth (from the same multi-pack used for the backdrop) over the table, and folded a black and white striped tablecloth to lay across the middle of the table as a runner. Across the front of the table, I strung a smaller simple black triangle pennant flag banner, which I also cut with my Cricut. You can get the design in the same Slam Dunk Banner design in Cricut Design Space.
For serving the food, we used orange dessert-sized plates (since the party food is mostly snack sized, or in individual servings, as you’ll see below). I put black plastic utensils and folded black and white striped beverage napkins in small orange pails that I had leftover from Sawyer’s tiger-themed birthday party decorated like basketballs using a dry erase marker.
I used a black dry erase marker (with the help of a cardboard stencil) to draw the pattern of a basketball onto the pails. If you want to save a step, you can also buy basketball pails that come already decorated like this, but the dry erase marker worked really well and saves some money.
Finally, I found this “We’re #1” foam finger in black and white that looked great on the table and coordinated with the party color scheme.
Basketball watch party or birthday party food ideas
Just like football parties, there are so many creative possibilities for basketball themed snacks! Anything that is either round or orange (or can be colored orange with candy melts or buffalo sauce) can be decorated to resemble basketballs and work great with this party color scheme. Here are the basketball themed drinks, basketball snack ideas, and basketball themed desserts that we served.
Basketball Themed Drinks
Serve drinks in orange paper cups or plastic cups with a DIY basketball pattern drawn on and black and white striped straws.
To draw the pattern on the cups, we used a black Sharpie marker. We made stencils for the horizontal line using a cup cut in half, and a cardboard cutout for the curved lines.
Orange Gatorade is perfect for a basketball party, especially when you remove the label and replace it with a strip of black and white striped wrapping paper (attached with double-sided tape). Since they look like they’re dressed as little refs, I tied a black whistle from this bulk package around the tops of the bottles.
Basketball Themed Snacks
Popcorn is always a great party snack! For a basketball party food idea, serve cheddar cheese popcorn in mini orange bags with black stripes drawn on to resemble a basketball.
Like with the cups, we found it easy to make a simple stencil out of cardboard for the curved lines and a ruler for the vertical and horizontal lines.
Cheese puff balls are perfect for the theme. We served them in small dessert cups with a crisscross pattern drawn onto them with a silver sharpie to look like a basketball net.
While you could use a ruler or straight edge to make the net stripes perfect, the cups are small enough that I personally found it quicker and easier to just draw them by hand.
This Basketball Buffalo Chicken Dip is festively presented by serving it in a round pie dish and adding chopped black olives arranged on top to look like a basketball. It’s a super easy recipe (just four ingredients) and so yummy! Here’s how to make it.
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
This delicious, three-ingredient Buffalo Chicken Dip is perfect for a game watching party for any sport, but works especially well for a basketball themed party. To accentuate the basketball theme, serve it in a round pie dish and add chopped black olives arranged on top to look like a basketball.
Ingredients
- 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce
- Optional: Chopped black olives
Instructions
- Add chicken, cream cheese, and Frank's Red Hot Sauce to a mixing bowl. Stir until the ingredients are well combined.
- Transfer to a serving dish and serve alongside tortilla strips, crackers, and/or celery sticks for dipping.
- Optional: Arrange chopped black olives on top to resemble a basketball if serving this for a basketball party.
Mini cheeseballs can be made using your favorite cheese ball recipe (this Bacon-Ranch Cheese Ball is one of my favorites) or a store-bought cheese ball broken up and rolled into smaller balls. You can roll them in chopped nuts, bacon bits, chopped chives, or finely shredded cheddar cheese for some flavor variety. I added these Basketball Food Picks that I made with my Cricut (click here for the Basketball Food Picks design in the Cricut Design Space) and attached a toothpick using a hot glue gun. These food picks would also work great as a basketball cupcake topper!
Given the color and bite-size nature of my Pimento Cheese Pinwheels recipe, they are also great basketball themed snacks.
I served them next to the cheese balls on a black serving tray. Here’s the easy recipe.
Pimento Cheese Pinwheels
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Pimento cheese pinwheels are a Texas favorite! These easy ham and pimento cheese roll ups are a great after-school snack or kid-friendly lunch.
Ingredients
- Bread
- Pimento cheese
- Sliced ham
Instructions
- Start by cutting the crust off of a few pieces of bread.
- Use a rolling pin to flatten the bread into thin squares.
- Spread pimento cheese on top of the slices of bread.
- Fold a piece of sliced ham in half, and add to one half of the bread on top of the cheese.
- Start rolling ham side first so the pimento cheese half will seal it all together.
- Slice into rings.
Basketball Dessert Ideas
I love a good easy cupcake decoration, so I had to make basketball cupcakes! They were really easy to make. I frosted them with orange frosting then dipped the tops into orange sugar sprinkles before using black cake decorating icing to pipe a basketball decoration on top.
Since Oreos are round, they make perfect little basketball themed desserts. I dipped them into orange candy melts, then let dry before piping on a basketball pattern with black candy melts. If piping melted candy is too intimidating, you can also use candy melt writing pens to draw the pattern by hand (note: you have to use these specific pens for candy melts, as other edible pens that are made for writing on fondant may not work on candy melts).
Finally, I set up a mini candy buffet bar using Reese’s Pieces (I separated just the orange and brown pieces), orange gumballs, and orange rock candy in apothecary jars.
March Madness party favors
A great party favor for your Final Four watch party are these mini basketball stress balls. You can lay them around the table as decor, or pass them out to help your party guests manage their stress or toss around playfully while watching the game.
I hope these ideas helped inspire you for your own basketball watch party or basketball themed birthday party! If you use any of these ideas, I’d love to see them, so feel free to tag me on social media @fabeveryday to show me how it turned out!
More sports party inspiration like this basketball watch party:
- Super Easy Football Party Food Ideas
- Super Easy Football Party Decorations
- DIY Baseball Team Gifts
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