Food and drinks are a big part of any event–even a trivia event! Your friends may come for the trivia, but we all know they stay for the snacks. Use that to your advantage and blow their socks off with your culinary skills! If you’re not in the mood for cooking, that’s fine too. You can easily order food or buy some ready food in the nearest grocery store.
Either way, you’re probably here because you’re looking for snack ideas and tips. Let me give you the most important tip right now: keep it simple. Don’t worry about wowing your guests with a 5-star restaurant-quality meal. All you need is a few snacks here and there that are easy to munch on and won’t steal the spotlight away from the trivia. Plus, they’ll definitely come in handy if you’re having some libations along with your trivia night or Jeopardy! viewing!
Trivia night snack ideas
Coming up with snack ideas for your trivia party can be difficult. An easy way to start is to identify the theme of the trivia night and go with that. For instance, if your trivia night is all about Harry Potter, you’ve got your Hogwarts decorations and Harry Potter question cards ready to go, you should add snacks to the mix.
Everybody remembers famous Harry Potter snacks. You can buy or make butterbeer, chocolate frogs, wizard hat shaped cookies, and so much more. Google is your best friend! There are so many easy recipes you can find online. If all else fails, serve your guests something that goes with the theme of magic. Remember the scene where Ron had one chicken leg in each hand? That’s good enough!
If you still haven’t settled on a theme, read this article. The article outlines several popular themes for trivia nights that you can get inspired by. Remember, there is nothing wrong with keeping it basic! If your theme is simply trivia, then keep reading to find out about some easy trivia night snacks.
Easy trivia night snacks
Nobody wants to spend lots of time in the kitchen before a trivia night. Especially when you’ve got questions to prepare, rooms to decorate, and people to welcome. You can be very clear with your guests and let them know in advance that it’s not a dinner party. If your event is in the evening, time it after dinner, so that people don’t expect a 5-course meal.
Opt for snacks that are easy to make/buy and eat. You can put out some dry snacks, like pretzels, chips, nuts, cookies, and so on. You can buy all of those things in any grocery store or gas station. It requires minimal preparation and is almost always a hit. I mean, who doesn’t love Pringles!
If you’re having a fancier event, you can swap your chips and pretzels out for a charcuterie board and appetizers. A charcuterie board sounds fancy, but it’s also easy to prepare. Lay out some cheeses, grapes, nuts, crackers, and spreads. It is a nicer and slightly more expensive alternative to dry snacks, but it’s just as easy to prepare.
An appetizer can be anything you want it to be! Hummus is a popular option because you can dip anything in it. In fact, any kind of dip is good, as long as you provide tortilla chips and vegetable slices too. Other popular options are salad and fruit spears, chicken wings, canapés (or mini sandwiches), and pigs in a blanket. Most are easy to make and won’t be too messy for your guests.
If you like to bake, you can turn your trivia party into a tea party. Go all out! Make cookies, brownies, cupcakes, macarons, cinnamon rolls, and anything your heart desires. The beauty of dessert is that it’s often bite-sized and not messy. Treat your guests to some sweet snacks and crush them in trivia!
Drinks play a big role in gatherings too. The easiest thing to do is to get some soft drinks and a couple bottles of wine or beer. If you’re planning to keep playing well into the night, you can introduce hard liquor into the mix in the form of cocktails. That’s completely optional though! If you don’t like to drink alcohol, then you can put out some homemade or store-bought lemonade and ice tea.
What snacks are good to take to someone else’s trivia night?
Though hosts will often urge you to come empty-handed, it may seem rude to follow their advice. In the best-case scenario, the host will tell you exactly what to bring to their party. That’s perfect because you don’t need to coordinate with anyone and you know exactly what your job is. However, hosts will often keep you guessing! Here is what to do in that situation.
First, inquire about the theme of the trivia night. That should put you on the right track regarding your snack choice. Not only will it give you ideas, it will also ensure that whatever you bring fits right in with the theme. If the theme is movie trivia, you can bring some popcorn (because there is never enough) and candy, like in movie theatres.
Contact other people that are attending to find out what they’re bringing. It’s good to coordinate with others so you don’t end up with 5 casseroles or bowls of potato salad. Variety is important! Coordinate with your friends and make sure your dishes complement each other.
Now, let’s get to the actual food. As you already know, simple is good. It’s important that the food is easy to eat and can be snacked on. Ideally, a snack is something you can eat on its own, in one bite, without sitting down at the dinner table. Spending too much time eating can easily disrupt the course of the trivia night. Therefore, focus on finger food and appetizers. Bring chips and dips, fruit and vegetable slices, chicken wings, miniature sandwiches, and other snacks that can be eaten in a second.
Try to make sure your food is not too messy. Chicken wings is the only exception! As a rule of thumb, it’s best to opt for snacks that don’t require you to wash your hands after eating. Most people will want to focus on the game rather than on the food anyway, so keep that in mind!
Finally, if you’re still not sure what to bring, you can’t go wrong with drinks! Seriously, there is never enough alcohol at these functions, so the host will be forever grateful for the gift of wine. Even if nobody gets to drink it, it won’t go to waste; the hosts will drink it eventually or use it at their next event. It may go without saying, but this one is also *ahem*… good for virtual trivia nights too.
Bon appetit!
Food should be the last thing on your mind when it comes to hosting a trivia night. Sure, it’s nice to have something to snack on, but the actual trivia is so much more important. Unless you have a specific theme and you decorated your space to match it, there is no need to go all out of snacks.
If you want your guests to feel as if they’re in an American diner or among their favorite superheroes, you don’t need to put effort into making sure the snacks on on-theme. Have some snacks on deck, but don’t let them distract your guests from the trivia game.
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