Ready to Trunk or Treat?

Kids across the U.S. are going car-to-car this Halloween.

October 18, 2021

In 2019, Georgia Scoggin had a scary Halloween. And it wasn’t the fun kind of scary. The 10-year-old from Illinois was out trick-or-treating when she got lost.

“It took me about five minutes to find my friends,” Georgia says. “It wasn’t that long, but it seemed like forever.”

So this year, Georgia plans to take part in a different way of trick-or-treating. It’s called trunk or treating.

What Is Trunk or Treating?

No one is sure how this event started, but it took off about 15 years ago. Families park their cars close to each other. They decorate their open trunks using themes like Star Wars, Harry Potter, or Minecraft. People make their cars look like spaceships, Hogwarts, or whatever they can imagine!

Then instead of going house-to-house, trick-or-treaters go trunk-to-trunk.

A Happier Halloween

In Los Angeles, California, a group called Big Sunday holds a trunk or treat event each year. Kids come from all over the city. The cars stay parked, so the event is safe. Everyone spends time with old friends—and makes new ones.

“Kids have a blast, but parents have just as much fun,” says David Levinson, who runs Big Sunday.

Georgia can think of other reasons to have a trunk or treat event. “You never get lost,” she says. “And you get more candy!”