Last year I talked about my evolving view of the Halloween holiday with “Should Christians celebrate Halloween”. My daughter is now a teenager and still enjoys it, but this year, she is sacrificing trick or treating to go to a party. The teenage years, I am not prepared! My son is almost 4 now and is starting to ‘get it’. All he cares about is the candy. Candy, candy, candy!
This time of year, churches start having their Halloween alternatives, whether that takes the form of a ‘Fall Festival’ or, like my church does, a ‘Trunk or Treat’. In many ways, these events are similar to the sometimes controversial Easter Egg hunts in the spring.
A bunch of volenteers from our church decorate the trunk of their car or the bed of their truck. We park them in a big circle and the kids go around to each car or truck and get candy. It is a little like trick or treating but it avoids the dark streets and walking up to what may be a complete stranger’s house, though I will grant you some of my fellow churchgoers are stranger than others. One family dressed up and decorated their car like the crew from Phineas and Ferb. Another trunk set up a beach scene (wishful thinking, I guess).
Our church has done Trunk or Treat for many years now. We had over 500 kids come through Sunday evening and they enjoyed lots of candy, fun games, a jump castle, face painting, hot dogs, cotton candy and more. The volunteers were absolutely amazing and most of the adults came dressed in some sort of costume. Your author dressed up as a football coach, while the kids were Madeline Hatter from Everafter High and Leo from the Little Einstiens. Part of the goal behind a Trunk or Treat is to give people an opportunity to come to our church building without the pressure of a service going on. They can come get some candy, eat some food, maybe have a little fun and go home. We had little business cards available with our service times on them, but that was about as much as we used this as a marketing opportunity.
Trunk or Treat lets people from outside our subculture interact with us in a different environment. Maybe, just maybe, some of the people from the community felt something warm and welcoming at Trunk or Treat. Maybe they will come back on a Sunday and see what we are all about. It’s a huge barrier for someone to come to a church building. Trunk or Treat or an Easter Egg hunt can provide a low stress introduction to the people, place and culture of our church.
Photo credit: “Trunk-or-Treat Trunk 4″ by Tojosan, license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
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