Text your friends, toss the bevs in the cooler, whip up your famous pesto pasta salad, and scout out the perfect patch of grass. Summer is peak picnic season, people — you already know that. What you may not know is how to put together a picnic spread that really rocks. Sure, you want frosty drinks, tasty finger foods, and as much picnic swag as possible, but you’ll also have to schlepp all that stuff to the perfect grassy knoll.
The trick to any successful picnic is to pack smart and pack tight, trust us on this one. Need a little help piecing it all together? Just follow these five steps and, with a little help from Walmart, you’ll host an outdoor feast that will be the envy of everyone in the park.
1. Pack finger-friendly foods
When it comes to your menu, stuff with built-in handles — like drumsticks, steak sammies, and corn on the cob — is always a smart choice. Also think about foods that are easy to pack into containers or, even better, snacks that come in their own containers, like crackers and potato chips. If you don’t have the bandwidth to do the food shopping before the weekend rolls around, a Walmart+ membership will deliver all the fixin’s right to your doorstep for free, plus you’ll land some pretty sweet deals including a members-only discount on gas.
2. Get a peach of a picnic basket
Schlepping your eats across the park in plastic bags is a picnic faux pas. Make your grand entrance with a more environmentally-friendly picnic basket, like this woven one, and pretend you’re frolicking through the Swiss Alps. This very official picnic basket checks all the boxes: it has that country-chic vibe, it keeps your food containers upright to avoid stinky leaks, and it comes with plates, bowls, tumblers, and utensils. You can really load up the plates with food — the sturdy plates won’t sog out and collapse like paper or plastic — and it’s all reusable, which means less trash in the park and that’s always a good thing.
3. Shell out for a good cooler
A cheap Styro cooler might have been a good option when you were in college, but if you want to picnic like a grown-up, a more planet-friendly one is definitely in order. This insulated cooler bag with summery stripes and soft, squishy edges will do the trick. It can hold up to 18 cans of your favorite bevvies or five bottles of wine, and the shoulder strap makes it a breeze to tote from the car to your chosen grass patch. As for the libations, a chilled bottle of rosé hits the spot on a hot summer’s day, but canned wine is lighter to carry. Homemade lemonade with sprigs of mint or basil from your herb garden is always a picnic hit, or mix a batch of cocktails beforehand and bring them along in mason jars.
4. Find your grassy happy place
Half the fun of a picnic is spreading out the blanket and lazing around all day, right? Look for a spot that’s scenic, or at least has good people-watching, and offers plenty of shade so that your group doesn’t get a nasty sunburn. You also want a picnic-specific blanket that really sets the scene — a ragged old bedsheet simply won’t cut it. Get this bright and peppy plaid blanket and it’s a party. This gem is big enough for four of your buds to stretch their legs on and it’s lined so everyone’s shorts won’t get wet if there was a summer shower the night before.
5. Say no to sticky fingers and yes to lawn games
Nobody wants to trek to a store once your picnic is in full swing, so make sure you bring essentials like wet naps for cleaning sticky fingers, bug spray and sunscreen, and plastic garbage bags for easy cleanup. A couple of board games and a Bluetooth speaker are also super packable and will keep the good vibes pumping after your pasta is devoured and you’re all just lazing around on the grass, a.k.a. living your best life and soaking up every drop of summer.
