Look for Halloween Trunk or Treat events at your local churches

Halloween beliefs and customs were introduced to North America by the earliest Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famines of the 1840s. The Irish brought with them the jack-o-lantern, sweet treats, costumes and ghost stories. Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a widespread practice in the United States until the 1930s, when the first local newspaper references to the term appeared in 1934. By the middle of the twentieth century Halloween had developed into a commercial holiday with businesses focusing their marketing activities on children. Trick-or-treating skyrocketed in popularity in the 1950s, when Halloween became a truly national event.

Over the past five years, Trunk-or-Treat events have morphed into one of the largest outreach efforts on any church calendar. Church members enthusiastically decorate their vehicles, dress up in costumes and pass out candy and gospel tracts to little glitter pumpkins and superheroes. Many churches will recognize more unchurched people on their property during their afternoon Trunk-or-Treat event than at any other time during the year.

Halloween should be a fun, safe holiday that benefits both the children and young teens who relish participation and the adults who help them find healthy, constructive ways to celebrate. Trunk-or-Treat events can be a safer alternative to trick-or-treating for children in the local community. This is done by creating an environment that limits hazards and provides adequate supervision for youth. Additionally, the event provides access to Halloween festivities for families who do not live in a typical residential neighborhood.

During Halloween week, church organizers are planning to make it an especially safe environment for children. Church planners believe it would be a pleasant experience for parents to bring their children to trick-or-treat right on the church premises (parking lot). However, it is mandatory that children be accompanied by an adult and all guidelines followed.

The Halloween themed decorated vehicles will park in the lot adjacent to the church building. There will be designated spaces for decorated vehicles to park. All vehicles in the parking lot will ensure emergency brakes are engaged. Volunteers will direct traffic to guide vehicle flow and also have a designated walking area away from the traffic for children moving around the parking lot. Volunteers will ensure participants remain within the designated boundaries of the event.

There are generally two components to a trunk-or-treating event. The first part of the event is decorating the trunk of a vehicle to personalize or match a theme. The church organizers ask participants to use Halloween themes that will be suitable for children of all ages. There will be a scheduled time prior to the event for decorated vehicles to arrive in order to prevent children from having to encounter moving vehicles.

The second part of the event is the treat, in which participants walk from vehicle-to-vehicle receiving candy and other goodies stored in car trunks rather than going door-to-door. Only inspected prepackaged treats will be allowed for distribution. Churches usually host games, a costume contest or a costume parade.

Previous church Trunk-or-Treat events have seen a surge in family participation as entire households engage in the fun and fantasy with more than one thousand participants logging in to receive the treats. Depending on the size of the church parking lot, parents and children can visit ten to twenty Halloween themed vehicles carefully spaced about the lot. All are dressed in colorful costumes anxious to spend a safe, joyful afternoon at the candy give-away getting to know their neighbors. Church Leaders recruit representatives from the church food pantry, daycare, preschool, caring outreach and senior services to hand out promotional flyers to their clients with each ministry donating one candy laden vehicle. Other promotional activities include church web site and Facebook notifications, public service announcements, signage and newspaper bulletins. Volunteer assignments can include passing out treats, overseeing children’s games, coordinating the family line-up to enter in small groups, directing traffic and managing after event clean-up.

Every church today acknowledges that so many people need the hope of Jesus during these challenging times. Leaders pray that their church will ingeniously reach out with the good news of the gospel. We can all challenge ourselves to get to know our neighbors and invite them to visit our church or another church. We can invest in relationship-building. Getting twenty and thirty-somethings to visit church is very difficult. But at Trunk-or-Treat, young families should receive a powerful introduction from the church congregation to the Gospel. The overarching purpose on Saturday afternoon is to build trusting relationships with families so that they understand God loves them and we are a caring church that glorifies Jesus Christ. Perhaps these same families will register their children in Vacation Bible School or STEM Camp next year with an open heart to God’s Word.

To ensure that families go home with more than candy, share the Good News in various ways. Hand-out small New Testament Bibles, trick-or-treat bags to include a church brochure and Christian material or hand-made bookmarks with Scripture verses to go alongside candy. This is an outstanding opportunity to approach Halloween with a positive spirit and share the Good News with your neighbors. Make it a benevolent main street level church outreach that touches many lives in each neighborhood. May God bless your church as you actively demonstrate care and compassion for the locality where you live. Please stay safe and stay on mission!