Everything You Wanted to Know About Trunk-or-Treat

Everyone's heard about trick-or-treat, but trunk-or-treat may have just shown up on your radar. This new-ish Halloween tradition has become a favorite for many families—especially those with young kids. Here's what you need to know about trunk-or-treat, whether you're looking to host one, or just want to win big with your own cool trunk.

What Is Trunk-or-Treat?

Consider this a cool twist on old-fashioned trick-or-treating. A group of cars with elaborately decorated trunks gathers in a parking lot, and kids go from car to car for treats, games, and other Halloween fun.

How Did Trunk-or-Treat Start?

The origins of trunk-or-treat appear to be church groups in the 1990s, who planned these festivals to provide an alternative to trick-or-treating on Halloween. Gradually, it caught on with other groups, who often planned these events for other days in the lead-up to Halloween.

How Do You Coordinate a Trunk-or-Treat?

Most trunk-or-treat events are run through an organization, whether it's a school parent organization, a church group, a scout troop, or even as a fundraiser for a local charity. If you're put in charge of coordinating a trunk-or-treat, here's what to do:

Choose a venue and date

A big parking lot is all you need to host a trunk-or-treat—it helps if the lot has a fence or other surrounding around it, to allow kids to run more freely without worrying that they’ll leave the party. 

While some trunk-or-treats are planned for Oct. 31 as a trick-or-treat alternative, many organizations plan theirs for other weekend evenings in October. You may also want to plan on a rain date, in case the weather doesn't cooperate with your trunk-or-treat plans.

Bonus: Your kids will get more than one wearing of their costume, and more than one time to enjoy some Halloween candy, if they trick-or-treat in addition to trunk-or-treating. 

Decide the rules of the celebration

Is your trunk-or-treat a free get-together for your community, or are you selling tickets to fundraise for your organization? Will you supply the treats for the trunk-or-treat, or should participating cars provide their own candy? How many cars can comfortably fit in the lot (with plenty of room for people to mix and mingle)? And are you offering prizes for folks who have the coolest and spookiest car designs?

Figure out these details before you start promoting your event.

Get the word out

You’ll want to let people know about the trunk-or-treat well in advance, to allow people who are interested in participating as a “trunk” to design their car, to ensure you get maximum participation.

Line up some volunteers

Sign up people to help set up, run the ticket/check-in desk, man treat tables or hand out water or drinks, judge the cars (if there's a contest), and of course, clean up. (Even if you put out trash cans, there will be plenty of discarded and dropped candy and candy wrappers—and also likely a few costume pieces left behind too.)

How to Create a Cool Trunk-or-Treat Design for Your Car or Truck

While you can enjoy the Halloween fun by just showing up to the trunk-or-treat and letting your kids enjoy the decorated cars (and all that candy), it can be even more fun to figure out a cool design (and perhaps win a prize). Here's how to plan an epic trunk-or-treat design.

Let your costumes decide your trunk-or-treat theme

If your crew is dressing as Barbies and Kens, a pink-themed car is probably more on point than a spooky haunted house. Think of a theme that works for your family—whether that's a scary trunk-or-treat design for your zombie crew, or a castle-themed trunk for a crew of Disney princesses.

Consider your audience

Most trunk-or-treats serve the elementary-aged crowd, so you don't want to get too scary with your designs. Less is more with the gore, in other words.

And often, the most popular trunk-or-treat designs feature humor and cartoony Halloween ideas that'll be fun for all ages.

Add something interactive

The best trunk-or-treat displays feature a fun game or other interactive element, such as a carnival-style game (throwing beanbags into a monster’s mouth), an easy craft, or even a basic Halloween thrill like the “touch-and-feel” Halloween creepy items (i.e. peeled grapes as eyeballs). 

Make it multisensory

To really up your game, play music that suits your theme (use a bluetooth speaker so you don't have to drain your car battery), create a tactile experience by having them reach through creepy faux cobwebs for their treat, or even waft a scent through your car (think apple-cinnamon for a fall bounty-themed car).

Keep your crafting skills (and budget) in mind

You’ll find lots of cool (and often very elaborate) ideas for trunk-or-treats on the internet. But if your woodworking skills are limited, you may not want to build wings to turn your car into a spaceship. 

Reuse and recycle

Find ways to get creative with cardboard boxes or tubes, old sheets, or household items. Borrow some of your home Halloween decorations for the evening, instead of buying new. And you may want to consider holding on to your trunk-or-treat pieces from one year to the next—you may be able to repurpose faux gold coins from a pirate's bounty into galleons for a goblin bank-themed Harry Potter trunk.

5 Easy Trunk or Treat Ideas That'll Wow Them

You don't have to spend hours crafting a memorable trunk-or-treat trunk. Try some of these ideas to create a trunk design with minimal time, effort, or skill.

Mummy Trunk

A few rolls of white crepe paper (or even toilet paper!), a pair of paper plates, and black construction paper are all you need for this sweet and spooky trunk or treat design.

Shark Trunk

Use poster board or foam core to create the shark's pointy teeth (and the swim at your own risk sign). A bunch of blue balloons create the ocean water that hides the rest of your great white.

Frog Trunk

Green sheets or tablecloths, or even green crepe paper can be wrapped around the car to form the face and body, while paper plates and construction paper make the eyes. Use an old red scarf or red crepe paper for the tongue. (The balloons for this are clearly optional.)

Monster Trunk

Raid your party supplies and your costume drawer for this costume. Feather boas and balloons form the monster's face; use cardboard for the horns, teeth, and eyes; party fans make the eyelids around the eyes.

Willy Wonka Trunk

Warm up your printer for this one. Colorful balloons and paper lanterns look like candy. You can print out "golden tickets" and candy labels or shapes to add to the theme.