The Super Bowl, Oscars and Grammys: three great excuses for a party

Who said Saturday night was the best time to party? Three of the nation's highest-profile events, the Super Bowl, the Grammy awards and the Oscars, are all scheduled to take place on Sunday nights in February, and each one provides a great excuse to throw a fabulous themed party.

You can watch all three at home with friends, serve great food and drinks and play games to guess the winners. Invite your guests to come dressed in anything from their favorite team jersey to a ball gown worthy of the red carpet, and put together some easy decorations or centerpieces, and you've got all the ingredients for a fun evening.

Here are some tips for each event.

Super Bowl XLI,

3 p.m. Feb. 4

Decorations: With the big game in South Florida, why not bring a little piece of the tropics to your fiesta, no matter where you live? Skip Panse, of the Florida-based event planning company ME Productions, suggests palm-frond centerpieces on tables and exotic floral arrangements around the living room to set the mood. The hosts, Panse says, could dress in black-and-white striped referee shirts, while encouraging guests to wear jerseys of their favorite team. Put yard markers in the lawn to re-create the field.

Refreshments: Here's where you can get creative and bring a taste of Miami straight to your living room, even in the heart of winter. Try serving finger foods with a Cuban or island influence, like plantain chips (available in the ethnic food aisle of most major grocery stores), nachos, sliced mangos, cheese empanadas and crab-stuffed avocados. For drinks, offer the region's signature cocktails: the Cuba libre (rum, coke and lime), the mojito (club soda, rum and mint leaves), the Hemingway (rum, grapefruit juice and lime) and sangria. Be sure to have some beer, plus pretzels, wings and chips for the football purists.

Activities: Make up cards on which guests can fill in predictions for each of the following categories: first passing touchdown, first rushing touchdown, first field goal, first penalty, first interception, first fumble, halftime score, final score and winning team. Pass out goofy prizes to players who get each question correct as it's completed, and award a champion prize — maybe a cap or football — to the person who guesses the most categories correctly.

The 49th Annual Grammy Awards,

5 p.m. Feb. 11

Decorations: This is the least common of the three parties, and planning it will take some imagination on the host's part. "The important thing is to create an environment where there is a feeling of energy in the room," said ME Productions President Hal Etkin. A good way to start is to pick a genre of music to organize the party around. A disco party, for example, could have a beaded curtain hung over the entry, a disco ball and lava lamps and, of course, '70s costumes for the partiers.

Refreshments: Sprinkle a buffet table with smiley-face confetti and provide tie-dye napkins and paper plates. Retro processed foods like macaroni and cheese (from the box, of course) and Pop-tarts work well with this theme. Great '70s drinks include the tequila sunrise (tequila, orange juice and grenadine) and the Harvey Wallbanger (vodka, Galliano and orange juice).

Activities: Try setting up a game of Grammy charades with guests acting out the names of songs, bands or artists nominated for awards. The team that identifies the acts in the least amount of time wins. You could hand out iTunes gift certificates or music-store gift cards to the winners.

The 79th Annual Academy Awards,

5 p.m. Feb. 25

Decorations: Oscar parties are where hosts really get to show off their ability to throw a classy, or mock-classy, shindig. A roll of red wrapping paper spread down the hallway serves as a red carpet for guests, dressed as their favorite movie stars, to step onto as they enter. The host should be ready with a camera to photograph guests as they arrive. Set a table with candles and a dark tablecloth for a more formal atmosphere.

Refreshments: Serve food based on Oscar-winning movies. You could offer Tang for "Apollo 13" or lamb for "Brokeback Mountain." Foods representing this year's nominees also would be fun. Think tea sandwiches for "The Queen." Or offer small versions of steak Oscar (a slice of steak with a touch of crab, Bernaise sauce and asparagus) on crostinis. An "Oscar punch" of ginger ale, raspberry sherbet and Champagne is sure to be a crowd-pleaser.

Activities: Oscar Bingo is a staple available for downloading from any number of Web sites. Make (or print out) a bingo card where each square represents a humorous incident that could happen at the Academy Awards, like "walks the wrong way off stage." Use red markers to cross off each event as it happens. The first player to complete a row in any direction wins. A small bag of movie related-goodies or little plastic trophies could be awarded.

Etiquette tips

Here are a few suggestions for those sticky situations that can trip up even the most gracious host.

1. What do you do if the show runs late? Adam Bluestein, author of "A Handbook for Hosts: A Practical Guide to Party Planning and Gracious Entertaining," said, "These events always go much later than anyone expects, so if you're hosting this type of party, you know what you're getting into."

It's not polite to ask people to leave early, he said, but you can get them headed out the door when the show ends by serving coffee before it's over and starting a subtle cleanup.

2. What if guests leave before their game cards are scored? Hold on to the cards, score them with the rest and distribute prizes the next time you see winners.

3. What if some guests want to watch the show seriously and some chat through the whole thing? If there's space for it, set up two viewing rooms. Talkers could also be steered toward the food table or bar.

Seattle Times staff contributed to this report