Trunk-or-Treating 101
Nope, that isn’t a typoit’s Trunk-or-Treating! Popular in church communities, areas where door-to-door Trick-or-Treating isn’t safe, and rural neighborhoods, Trunk-or-Treating is Trick-or-Treating with a twist; instead of going door-to-door, little tricksters go from decorated car to decorated car, and candy is handed outfrom the trunks of people’s cars! Planning a Trunk-or-Treat for your community might seem a little daunting, but luckily for you, we’ve put together a few steps to take in order to put together an activity that everyone is sure to love!
1. Plan a Budget
Within that budget, decide what you want to serve for food and drinks, what games you want to include, how you will decorate, whether or not you want to include entertainers, and whether or not you will have prizes to give out for the best-decorated cars. Find volunteers to help with fun Halloween games for the kids, book some spooky bounce houses, and get attendees to contribute to a potluck! Whatever you do, make sure you stay within your budget.
2. Find a Venue
Find a venue that will work best for your Trunk-or-Treat! Generally you want a large parking lot with lots of good lighting.
3. Set guidelines for car entries
The main thing to remember with this is that you want to be mindful of your attendees. Is this a church group or another community where there will be a lot of kids? Will the kids be small children? Make sure participants know to keep their car decorations kid-friendly. If needed, assemble and distribute a list of guidelines for what kinds of Trunk-or-Treat decorations are and are not appropriate for your event.
4. Plan Games, Booths, or Book Entertainers
This is the fun part: now you get to decide what games and events will be held at the Trunk-or-Treat! Set up a spooky bowling alley or a bean bag toss game. Organize a cake walk. Get someone in your community to show off their artistic talents and do face paintingthe possibilities are endless! You can also hire entertainers to perform. Again, keep the age range of your attendees in mind when planning activities and hiring entertainers.
5. Have fun!
Even if it’s just an event leading up to Halloween, your Trunk-or-Treat is sure to be a blast for everyone involved, and might be a fun new way for kids to experience Halloween this year! This is a great way to get to know people in your community, so get to work and have fun!
Below are some fun examples of Trunk-or-Treating car decorations:
Candy Land
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Pac Man
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Hay and Scarecrow
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Charlie Brown
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Angry Birds
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Batman
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