8 Reasons to Host a Pizza Party in Your Backyard

Who doesn’t love a good backyard pizza party? Whether you order takeout, delivery, or bake your own pizza, nothing beats biting into a fresh, hot slice of pie.

When was the last time you threw a pizza party? Have you been throwing parties in your backyard without pizza?

We seem to have more pizza parties as kids, but that doesn’t have to be the case. If you need a good reason to throw a backyard pizza party, here are some of the best.

1. The smell of pizza is alluring

The smell of a pizza pie baking in the oven: it’s one of the most pleasing smells, according to research conducted by DiGiorno. In fact, according to DiGiorno’s study, smelling pizza baking in the oven makes people happier than actually eating the pizza when it’s done.

If you have an outdoor pizza oven, you’re in luck. You can bake your custom pizzas in the backyard while everyone mingles. They’ll smell it cooking and it will make everyone feel good.

If you have a handful of guests, you’ll probably end up cooking pizzas back-to-back, which means creating that enticing, alluring aroma nonstop for a while. Your guests will love it (and it will make them hungry, too).

2. You can create custom pizza pies

Have you ever wondered what happened to those pizza places that let you make your own pizza that they would bake for you? They were really popular in the 90s but seem to have faded out of existence. Now, some places let you create a custom pizza, but you have to take it home and bake it yourself. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because if you’re hosting a backyard pizza party, you want your guests to smell the pie as it’s baking in the oven.

People love the taste and smell of pizza, and you can make people enjoy your party more just by cooking pizza. That’s power. However, you’ll want to make sure you have toppings that appeal to everyone.

Depending on how many guests you have and how big your pizza oven is, you can either make a variety of different pizzas to meet different preferences and dietary needs, or you can have each person make their own individual pizza to ensure they get exactly the type of pie they want.

3. Pizza is easy to make and clean up

There’s nothing easier to make, buy, and serve than pizza. It’s even easy to clean up after it’s all gone. If you make your pizza, all you need are ingredients that mostly come pre-packaged and even pre-sliced. If you buy takeout or get pizza delivered, everything’s done for you. All you have to do is put the boxes out on the table and let people serve themselves.

When all the pizza is gone, your only cleanup will be empty, perhaps cheesy, cardboard boxes that need to be broken down and put into the trash. You won’t have to wash a bunch of serving dishes, and if you use paper plates, you won’t have to wash any dishes at all.

4. Pizza is an affordable way to feed guests

When you’re throwing a backyard party, there’s a reason many people choose pizza: it’s affordable when feeding a large number of people. Granted, there are people who can devour an entire large pizza on their own, but most people can only eat a few slices. Even those who can eat an entire pie will control themselves at a party where the pie is shared.

The cost of pizza varies drastically from around $10 to $40 depending on whether you’re getting cheap takeout or gourmet, but it seems the average is around $15 for a large pizza. Most large pizzas have 8 slices, and if each guest eats two slices, that means you only need two pizzas to feed 8 people.

If you offer other foods, like side dishes and desserts, most of your guests will be satisfied and full of just a couple slices. Just don’t make the mistake of relying only on pizza to feed your guests because that’s when you’ll get guests eating 5 slices. If your party is happening at a time when people haven’t had dinner yet, you can count on everyone being hungry. So, remember to serve other foods in addition to pizza.

5. Kids love pizza

Anytime you throw a backyard party, you have to think about the kids. If none of your guests have kids, you’re in the minority because most parties have at least one guest with children.

Since pizza parties are casual, you can expect to have a kid or two show up and that’s where pizza will become your best friend. Most kids love pizza and won’t have any problem sitting down to eat a slice with the adults. You can also use pizza to get kids to settle down if they’re getting too rough or loud. Most kids wouldn’t turn down a second or even third helping of pizza.

Younger kids are easy to please with their pizza preferences. Some are happy with plain cheese pizza, while others just want pepperoni. If you’re making custom pizzas, it will be easy to make them their own pie, and they’ll probably feel special knowing they get an entire pizza all to themselves.

6. Party guests expect pizza

Whoever said it’s wise not to have expectations obviously didn’t go to many backyard parties. Having pizza at a backyard party is somewhat of an expectation. Many people, whether consciously or unconsciously, will expect pizza at large, friendly gatherings.

Perhaps this expectation comes from past experiences where pizza was provided at previous gatherings. Or, maybe pizza is just so common it seems like it should be part of every social gathering. One thing is for sure – you don’t want to disappoint your guests, so make sure you have at least one pizza at your next backyard party.

7. Pizza makes people more social

Have you ever noticed that you want to start talking as soon as you have a slice of pizza in hand? There’s something about pizza that makes people want to be social, and it could be related to the fact that smelling pizza makes people really happy. When people are happy, they’re more inclined to be social with each other by starting conversations and mingling.

If you want people to mingle at your party, you need pizza. Not only is pizza somewhat expected, but it’s going to make people feel more inclined to chat with each other.

8. You can accommodate special diets

Special diets can be extremely difficult to accommodate when serving food at a backyard party. However, it’s easy when the main dish is pizza. For instance, you can get gluten-free pizza crust and control the toppings so that every ingredient is gluten-free.

Vegetarian pizza is easy to make by adding vegetable toppings and leaving the meat off those pies. It’s easy to make vegan pizza, too, and you don’t have to use fake cheese to make it appealing. Many vegans enjoy pizza without cheese and just put the toppings directly on the sauce.

If you don’t know for certain that your vegan guests like fake cheese, avoid it all together. Don’t assume that every vegan likes fake cheese. Most fake cheese products are heavily processed with questionable ingredients and many vegans won’t eat those products. Although, there are some options that are pretty good.

Some companies make dairy substitute products out of cashew milk, like butter and cheese. These products are not usually full of questionable ingredients, as they are made from cashew milk the same way dairy products are made from cow’s milk.

When you put out your pizzas, be sure to include an ingredient list in case some things aren’t obvious. Sometimes it’s hard to see all of the toppings just by looking, and an ingredients list will come in handy, especially for people who follow gluten-free diets.

Some people follow strict diets for medical reasons, while other people adopt the same type of diets because of their preferences. Either way, it’s important that people know every ingredient so they can make the right choice.

Throw a memorable pizza party with a delicious pie

Naturally, the pizza pie you serve at your party will be the star of the show. If you want your guests to feel happy, baking pizza is all it takes. The hard part is choosing the pizza. Do you make your own, or buy it from a local pizza parlor? Do you go simple or gourmet? Do you make individual pies, or have everyone share pre-determined topping combinations?

Ultimately, serving the best pizza in town is the best way to make sure your pizza party is memorable. People might not remember other things, like the games they played and the people they met, but they’ll always remember how the pizza smelled and tasted.