With new year’s eve rapidly approaching it seems as if everyone is looking back and reflecting on the past year. If you can’t beat ‘em then join ‘em is how the old saying goes.

2011 was the best year yet for TailgatingIdeas.com. This year we set a record for the most visitors since opening up the website in 2007 and we are on pace to break the 400,000 visitor mark with one more day to go in the year. We also added two new contributors to the TailgatingIdeas.com family, welcoming in Peter Tverdov and Jeff Herbst into the mix. Jeff just joined the website a few days ago and Peter’s contributions have been popular and controversial and generating a lot of buzz on the message boards.

We also gained some recognition and acknowledgement in the mainstream media in 2011. In July, ESPN the Magazine Featured the PolarHeat Quad Chairs and suggested people buy them from our online tailgating gear store. The article drew so much interest that we completely sold out of the chairs and can no longer offer them for sale. Speaking of magazines speaking highly of us, popular men’s magazine Maxim interviewed yours truly seeking advice on how to have a killer tailgate party. Maxim quoted my suggestion that people use tailgatewiki.com when going tailgating to gain an insider’s knowledge of tailgating parking lots. In August, TailgatingIdeas.com turned four years old and once again defied the odds that a blog dedicated to tailgating and the tailgate party lifestyle would eventually fade away. We’re still here and expect 2012 to be even bigger and better.

All in all, 2011 was our best year since starting this tailgating blog in 2007 but it would not have been possible without all of you reading this right now. With that said, we would like to say thank you for reading and visiting. If you are a regular, thank you for your loyalty and we hope we have provided you with some outstanding tailgating ideas over the past year. If you are brand new, welcome and we hope you bookmark us and return frequently. So without further delay, let’s take a look back at which posts were the most viewed and read by you the visitors.

10) Video: Penn State Tailgating Girl – The video was posted to YouTube and was available for all to see but has since been changed to private. So unfortunately if you missed it there is no more seeing it unless the person who shot and uploaded it to YouTube sends you an invite. But before the video was made private it featured a college co-ed drunk off her ass rolling around in the Penn State parking lot, stumbling around quite a bit and basically acting a fool. We’re not sure when exactly this gal started tailgating but apparently it was too early and went just a little too hard out of the gate.

9) Quick & Fun Tailgating Games – Further proof that some of the simplest tailgating blog posts can be the most informative and popular. Written by Peter Tverdov, this post outlined some of the popular tailgating games you may encounter when out tailgating. For those veteran tailgaters this blog post may have been nothing new to learn but we sometimes forget, not everyone is a tailgating expert. Some people seeking information on the basics of tailgating come across our blog and find the information contained within very insightful and helpful. This is one of those posts that we believe fell into this category and we were happy so many people found it.

8) Whiskey Tango Trailer – One of our more loyal and dedicated readers named Johnny loves to tailgate and loves to share his passion for tailgating with others. He frequently emails us updates on his tailgating adventures and this post was mapping out how he converted a pop-up tent trailer into a dedicated tailgating trailer. He breaks down the costs and even provides insight on how he did it for those of you wanting a DIY job to undertake.

7) Product Review: The Best of Times Bar – Tailgating product reviews have become an integral part of what makes this tailgating blog work so well. We have a standing policy that if someone on our writing staff can see the product, touch and put it through it paces, we will write a review of it. We don’t do cut and paste jobs of press releases so we can truly earn our readers’ trust knowing someone who knows and understands tailgating has made sure this product is as billed. The Best of Times Bar was a great product review performed by Brandon Gunning who put the portable bar through its paces. Brandon gave it a Tailgating Ideas “Tailgate Approved” stamp so apparently the positive review garnered a lot of visits making it our seventh most popular post this year.

6) Blacktop 360 Grill-Fryer – It has been a while since we have seen or even reviewed a new grill that is designed for tailgating exclusively. Back in September we got our hands on a Blacktop 360 grill/fryer before it was available in stores and it was unlike any tailgating grill or outdoor cooking device we had tested before. First of all it is round and the cook can stand anywhere within the 360 degree radius of the grill. Not only is it a grill but it has a griddle and a warming plate all along the perimeter of the unit. In the middle is a deep fryer where you can prepare onion rings, french fries, fry up some chicken wings or even warm up soup or keep nacho dip warm. A truly unique grilling machine and as verified by the number of readers this blog post saw, you all were in agreement.

5) Strawberry Margarita Jello Shots In Fresh Strawberries – From time to time we offer up recipes to take and make while tailgating. We shared this one which was simple yet very creative to make it our most popular tailgating recipe of the year. Basically it details how to make strawberry margarita jell-o shots and instead of putting them in Dixie Cups you place them in hallowed out fresh strawberries.

4) Ranking the ACC Schools – Another post written by Peter Tverdov, this one got all of ACC nation in an uproar. Coming in at No. 4, this post, as with any list that assigns a ranking to anything is bound to cause some controversy and debate. That is exactly what this post did and by ranking the ACC schools based on their tailgating prowess, some fans took to their team’s message boards and forums to either confirm the ranking or dispute it. It was a colorful two weeks straight where one message board would link to the post stating it was right on target and then a few days later a rival schools message board would link in refuting the rankings as mere garbage. It makes for a great blog post and sure got the entire ACC fan base in a tizzy.

3) What Should I Drink Flowchart – A humor piece we borrowed from Sixpoint Craft Ales which featured a flow chart to answer the age old question, “What should I drink?”. Of course the answer to any question is always beer.

2) Video: Chainsaw Bottle Opener – The video was only 11 seconds long but it surely got a lot of people watching it. It was simply a guy opening up two beer bottles only he was doing it with a running chainsaw. The beauty is that he popped the caps off the tops of the bottles and neither bottle tipped or sloshed any beer out of it. You need to watch it to believe it.

1) Video: Beer Pong Dunk Over Car – Beer pong is quite popular amongst tailgaters and so is the game ending “beer pong slam dunk”. The NBA slam dunk contest this year featured Blake Griffin jumping over a car to win the contest and videos of it popped up all over the internet. A few guys decided to film one guy replicating the Blake Griffin dunk over a car but with beer pong. The results? Our most popular post of the year. Take a look and see why.

So that’s a wrap on the most popular posts from 2011. Hopefully 2011 was a great year for you too and had you tailgating frequently all year long. Here is wishing you and yours a happy and safe 2012 and many, many hours tailgating in the coming new year.