Hot dogs may be the easiest thing to make for dinner, but easy doesn’t have to mean boring when you have a fridge stocked with condiments and a desire to make dinner special for your family. Creating a hot dog bar makes dinner fun for kids and adults.
 Will you be eating indoors or out? In the concrete-floored basement or white-carpeted living room? Can you set up a table for your hot dog bar or will you use the kitchen counter? Answers to these questions will help make sure your hot dog bar fits the space and help you determine if you’ll need to be extra-watchful about drips and stains. 
 

• If you think it’s going to get messy, consider putting a tarp or shower curtain down under the table. That will keep you from having to mop or clean the carpet after all the fun is over.
• Thinking of having your hot dog bar in the kitchen? Make sure your kids won’t have to walk down stairs with their hot dog creations. If your entertainment room is in the basement it might be best to set the hot dog stand up down there temporarily. Stairs can spell a messy disaster if someone trips and drops their food.
• If you have the hot dog bar in a different room than the room everyone will eat in, make sure to have plenty of trash cans or trash bags at hand.

A hot dog bar can be as imaginative as you are. Kids often enjoy things that might not be considered everyday hot dog toppings, and you can use this to your advantage when setting up your hot dog bar.
 

• Mayonnaise
• Mustard
• Ketchup
• Sweet or pickle relish
• Barbecue sauce
• Hot sauce (or Tabasco)
• Sprinkles
• Frosting
• Ranch or other type of salad dressing
• Sour cream
• Macaroni and cheese
• Pickles
• Olives
• Onions
• Potato chips (crushed or whole)
• Peanut butter
• Bananas
• Chili
• Bacon bits
• Cheese

While some of those might sound gross to you, check and see how your kids feel about them. Not sure if they’ll eat it? Try taking a poll or stock your hot dog bar with only a small amount to start, so there will be less waste if they don’t love it.
 

Even ketchup and mustard can be interesting if you serve them in a different way. Just serving something that normally comes from a bottle in a bowl with a spoon can make it seem like something new.
 

• If you have little girls and they have a plastic tea set, you can serve bananas or sprinkles from those cute little tea cups.
• Toy dumptrucks can be a great bun-holder! Just make sure you clean the nooks and crannys of the dumptruck really well before serving anything out of it.
• The kids' picnic set probably has serving dishes as well as some fake fruit or veggies that can be used on the table as decoration.
• Little ones love to serve themselves. Give them a squirt bottle with ketchup and mustard and they'll be thrilled. Make sure to supervise them so you don't have a squirt-fight on your hands before they even get a chance to sit down and eat.
   

• Have fancy dishes? Serve some of the “adult” toppings (like hot sauce) in them so the table looks pretty but little hands won’t be tempted to grab and break nice things.
• Put condiments in 2- or even 3-cup measuring cups. Cut out and decorate a piece of paper with a team logo or colors, or even just red and white squares to look like a tablecloth. Wrap it around the measuring cup and use tape to keep it in place.
• Have some extra shot glasses you've collected over the years? Use them as individual serving sizes. This way when someone chooses condiments they don't have to put them on the hot dog at the table. They can take the shot glasses they want and dress up the hot dog after they sit down.
• Margarita glasses, martini glasses or other fun-shaped glasses can be used for olives, onions or anything else that will fill them halfway or more. (If they aren’t at least filled that much there is a greater chance of them tipping over and breaking.)
   

Here are some more tips on how to make your hot dog bar even more fun:
 

• Instead of using hot dog buns, use hamburger buns cut to look like footballs.
• Create fun hot dog curls. While your water is on to boil, cut a hot dog lengthwise (straight down the long way) then put the halves of the hot dogs flat-side down and slice them lengthwise again. You'll have four long, thin pieces of hot dog. Place these in boiling water and watch them puff and curl up. They're easy for little hands to hold and dip into ketchup without a lot of mess.
• Try using condiments in the colors of your favorite team. Ketchup and mustard are a simple solution if your team’s colors are red and gold. But what if their colors are purple and white? Add a little red and blue food color mayonnaise and you have the perfect match.
• Don’t use mayo? You can use food coloring in the ranch dip to make it your team colors, too.