To tailgate in cold weather, dress in layers you can add and shed, keep hot food at 140°F or above in an insulated carrier, bring hot drinks from home in insulated bottles, and set up with your vehicle blocking the wind. Then check your stadium's rules before you pack a heater, because many Northern lots ban them.
Dress in layers
A tailgate is mostly standing still, and that's when you get cold. Dress for the standing, not the walk in.
- Three layers. Something close to the skin that isn't cotton (wool or synthetic), a warm middle layer like fleece or a puffy, and a shell that stops wind and wet snow.
- Feet first. Frozen pavement pulls heat out through your soles. Wear insulated boots and bring a spare pair of dry socks in the car.
- Hat and gloves. Thin gloves for grilling, warm mittens for everything else.
- Something for the stands. Iowa's guide suggests a blanket for the seats. Check your stadium's bag rules before you bring one through the gate.
- Peel a layer before you sweat. Damp clothes get cold fast once you stop moving. If someone in your crew can't warm up, get them into a warm car or inside.
Our guides flag it for a reason: Lambeau Field calls for boots that handle frozen pavement, and at U.S. Bank Stadium the game is indoors but the lots and the walk aren't.
Keep the food hot
In the cold, the risk is food cooling off in the wind.
- Hot food stays at 140°F or above. Check it with a thermometer, not a guess.
- Reheat leftovers to 165°F. Anything cooked at home and reheated in the lot goes to 165°F before it's served.
- Two hours, then it goes. Food that has dropped below 140°F gets eaten or tossed within 2 hours (1 hour if it's over 90°F, which isn't November's problem).
- Cook at home, hold in the lot. Pack pans hot from the oven into an insulated carrier, and keep the lids on. Every lid lift lets heat out.
We cover the whole method in how to keep food hot at a tailgate. If you'd rather skip the flame, the Revo Dubler HEAT ($198.89) is a cooler with two microwave heat packs: pans go in hot, and Revo says covered food stays servable warm up to 5 hours, with no fuel.
Winter tailgate food that holds
Pick food that's built to sit in a hot pan: chili, stew, baked pasta, anything wrapped in foil.
- Big-batch chili, made the day before for a crowd and reheated in the lot.
- Cincinnati chili, made the day before and reheated in the lot.
- Brunswick stew, a one-pot stew that holds hot on low coals with the lid on.
- Cougar Gold mac and cheese, baked at home and kept hot on propane.
- Make-ahead breakfast burritos, rolled ahead and heated in foil on the grill.
Hot drinks
Make them at home. Coffee, cocoa and cider all travel well in an insulated bottle or a big pump pot. Fill the container with hot water for a few minutes first, dump it, then pour in the drink so the walls don't steal the heat. Pour into insulated mugs with lids.
Our recipes for a crowd: hot apple cider and hot chocolate, both made at home and carried hot in a preheated thermos.
Keep drinks from freezing
A cooler works both ways. On a hard-freeze day it keeps cans and water from freezing as easily as it keeps them cold in September.
- Keep the lid shut and the cooler off the frozen pavement, on a mat or the tailgate.
- Skip the ice, or use much less of it, on a below-freezing day.
- Pack cans. Glass and freezing temperatures don't mix, and many lots ban glass anyway.
The setup: wind, sun and timing
- Block the wind. Park so your vehicle is between your setup and the wind. If your lot allows a canopy, add a sidewall on the windward side and weight every leg.
- Find the sun. Set up on the sunny side of the car. A few degrees of sun makes a real difference when you're standing still.
- Watch the wind rules. At Purdue, tents not rated for it come down in sustained winds of 16 mph or more. At Notre Dame, tents come down at 31 mph sustained or gusts over 45.
- Time it. You don't need the full window on a frigid day. Arrive with the food already cooked, eat, and pack up. Know when your lot ends: at Empower Field, every tailgate wraps 60 minutes before kickoff.
What stadiums allow
Safety first: never run a propane heater inside a tent, a vehicle or any enclosed space. Heaters and generators make carbon monoxide, and it builds up where air can't move. Keep them in the open, and keep generator exhaust pointed away from people.
- Heaters are often banned. Soldier Field bans heaters of any kind, plus fire pits and open flames. Boston College prohibits propane heaters and other temporary heat sources. Penn State bans open-flame heaters and fire pits, and Notre Dame bans propane heaters.
- Some lots allow them, with limits. Iowa State allows propane heaters when weather allows, with one 20 lb cylinder per device and no spares. Iowa has the same one-cylinder rule for every grill or heater. At Nebraska, open flames are banned and plug-in electric heaters are the allowed alternative.
- Never under the tent. State Farm Stadium spells it out: no grill or heater under a tent. Treat that as the rule everywhere.
- Generators have rules too. Wisconsin wants them fully vented, away from tailgaters, with no refueling on site. Michigan wants them 25 feet from any structure in its lots, with a fire extinguisher. Boise State says don't idle your car for power. Alabama bans them on the Quad.
- No fire pits. A fire pit is the first thing people want in the cold, and it's the first thing lots ban. Green Bay, Iowa, Penn State and Chicago all rule out wood fires or fire pits.
- Tents aren't a given. Soldier Field bans tents and canopies of any size, and Acrisure Stadium's Alco lots don't allow tents. Plan on layers and rain gear in their place.
Questions
How do you stay warm while tailgating?
Dress in three layers with a wind-blocking shell, wear insulated boots, and bring a hat, gloves and dry socks. Set up with your vehicle blocking the wind, stand in the sun, and keep hot food and drinks coming.
Can you bring a propane heater to a tailgate?
It depends on the stadium. Soldier Field, Boston College, Penn State and Notre Dame ban them; Iowa State allows them with one 20 lb cylinder. Wherever they're allowed, never run one inside a tent, vehicle or enclosed space.
How do you keep tailgate food hot in cold weather?
Cook at home, pack pans hot into an insulated carrier, keep the lids on, and check that food stays at 140°F or above. Reheat to 165°F, and eat or toss anything that has cooled for 2 hours.
What's the best winter tailgate food?
Food that holds in a hot pan: chili, stew, baked mac and cheese, foil-wrapped burritos and anything you can reheat on the grill. Make it the day before, so the lot is just for heating and serving.
Find your stadium's rules
Heaters, generators, tents and fire: every stadium guide covers what's allowed, checked against the stadium's own pages and dated. Find your stadium, or compare the rules at every stadium we cover.