Planning a Successful Trunk or Treat!

October is personally one of my very favorite months, and I love when fall activities & events start popping up on my calendar. Trunk or Treat is the perfect outdoor Halloween themed event for your church to host for families at your church and in your community! The concept is simple – people decorate their cars (mainly trunks), park them in your church parking lot, and children walk from trunk to trunk and ‘trick or treat’! This event can be as simple as that, or you can jazz it up with various other games and activities… let’s get to planning!

1. Pick a date & time: There is no ‘right’ answer when you are picking a date & time for your Trunk or Treat! (Some things to consider: if you are wanting to host TOT at night, is there adequate lighting in the parking lot? Are there any other events in your community that you should work around – like a college football game, etc?) Here are a few ideas for when to have your Trunk or Treat!
   • Does your church have mid-week programming? You could pause programming one week and have TOT instead so that it is already a night when people would be at your church.
   • You could have TOT on actual Halloween as an alternative to traditional trick-or-treating.
   • TOT is also great for a weekend – maybe the weekend leading up to or following Halloween.
   • Note: When you are pre-planning, make sure you think through the parking situation. You will need adequate space for the decorated cars in your event, as well as parking for people attending the event. (no thru-traffic should be allowed during the event in the decorated car zone)
     
     
2. Recruit volunteers: Your main volunteer need for Trunk or Treat is going to be people to ‘host’ trunks – these are the people who will decorate their cars, arrive early to the event, stay for the whole time, and pass out candy. I have created a great Car Sign Up Form that you can customize yourself using Canva! Here are some great ways to recruit volunteers:
   • Have a display table & sign up sheets set up outside your KidMin or the atrium/lobby. Make sure to include photos of trunk decoration examples!
   • Ask each adult small group/Sunday school class to host a trunk together as a group.
   • Ask ministry leaders to host a trunk with their group – ex. youth group, young adults, choir, worship team, etc.
     
     
3. Decide on other activities/games: Because the actual Trunk or Treat is the main event, you can add as many or as little other activities as you want. (Tip: Try to think of activities that do not need to be led by a volunteer since you want as many people hosting trunks as possible) Here are some great activities to add to your TOT!
   • Photo Booth – Create a photo booth area complete with hay bales & decorations for families to use to get the perfect photo in their costumes!
   • Pumpkin Bowling – I found some bowling pins in our church basement, so I set up a bowling station outside with small pumpkins instead of a bowling ball, and hay bales to act as a barrier! (Tip: Draw chalk circles on the ground where the pins go so people can easily re-set the game themselves)
   • Face Painting – Ask a few talented people to host a face painting booth. All you need is a table, chairs, face paint, brushes, baby wipes, water, and a page of design examples.
   • Bounce House – Rent a bounce house to add some extra fun to your TOT! You will definitely want a few volunteers to run the bounce house and make sure that everyone stays safe.
   • Food – Serve an easy lunch/dinner – ex. grilled hot dogs, individual bags of chips, and hot chocolate/hot cider. You could offer this for free, or it could make a great fundraising opportunity for a ministry at your church (example: a group going on a mission trip).
   • Others – Halloween coloring station, bean bag toss, corn hole, ring toss, other carnival games.
     
     
4. Advertise your event: Create some graphics for your Trunk or Treat and get to advertising! TIP: Ask your congregation to donate candy in case your trunks run out during the event! Make sure you specify no nuts or peanut butter.
   • Place information in your church bulletin, newsletter, Sunday morning announcements, and on your church website.
   • Have a vinyl sign/banner made for outside of your church – Make sure to include the event name, date, time, and your church website for more information. (Tip: Next year, see if you can get a smaller piece of vinyl printed to velcro over the past date/time so that you can reuse the main banner each year)
   • Create event cards to set out by your display table & hand them out at the end of kids programming.
   • Share event information & fun count down posts on your church’s (and/or kidmin’s) Instagram. I have created Instagram Posts specifically for Trunk or Treat that can be customized using Canva!
   • Make an event on Facebook through your church’s Facebook page.
     
     
   • Here are some phrases you can use when advertising Trunk or Treat!
     • Trunk or Treat is a safe, free, and family friendly event for the whole community held here at _________.
     • Kids (and adults) can wear costumes and truck-or-treat walking from car to car in the church parking lot!
     • Family friendly – please avoid scary or inappropriate costumes and decorations.
     • Candy donations are welcome! No peanut butter or nuts, please!
       
       
5. Connect with your community: Hopefully you have done the work of getting the word out about your Trunk or Treat! Make sure you make the most of the opportunity to connect with your community at the event and after. Here are some ideas:
   • Have a staff member host a Christmas themed trunk handing out candy canes & information about your Christmas events & Christmas Eve services.
   • Set up a raffle table (or something similar, like a “Guess the number of _____ in the jar”) and create sign up slips for people to enter to win a prize. Make sure the paper slip asks for their name, email, and phone number. Now you can reach out to the winner, and thank everyone for coming to Trunk or Treat – make sure to direct them to your church’s events page for more!
     
     
6. Final details: Now that you have done all of the prep work, here are a few things to do right before or on the day of!
   • Send a reminder to your trunk volunteers (and others) reminding them of when they need to get there. Be very specific about the time window, and let them know that if they arrive late they will not be able to host a trunk due to safety reasons. (Pick a time window the ends at least 15 minutes before the event begins)
     • You need to block off the area where the trunks are set up so that there is no thru traffic (preferably with many traffic cones). People attending the event cannot drive through where the trunks are – this is extremely important for safety.
   • Make sure you have signage up for your activity stations, and that attendee parking is clearly marked. If you are selling food for fundraising, make sure there is signage of items, prices, and what the money is going towards.

Hope this helps your planning and that you have a wonderful Trunk or Treat! If you have any questions, leave a comment or reach out!