Interactive Trunks!!
I have been to many trunk or treats and I have also led them for many years (want some of my pointers, tips, and other ideas? check out an old blogpost that I've been updating over the last decade!). I can tell you what makes a FUN one and what makes a LAME one. I can also tell you what keeps the kids there and what doesn't. It all boils down to two things - and they aren't that hard! I ask ALL my decorators to do this and almost all of them comply - and it makes all the difference in the world. The last trunk or treat we did (pre covid), I had someone come up to me and say - of ALL the trunk or treats in our city, yours is always the best. That's awesome to hear, but I didn't do anything but ask my decorators to do ONE thing. And that is -
Make your trunks INTERACTIVE!!
Why? I'll tell you. One, your beautiful, awesome, amazing trunks are going to be completely lost on the kids unless you MAKE them stick around and actually look at it :) Cause they have one thing on their mind - candy. They don't care WHAT your trunk looks like :) They just want CANDY! lol. #truth However, if they have to play a game to earn or win the candy? Then you have them! Not only that, the longer they hang around at each trunk, the longer they are at your church or venue - which is what you want! And two, it's just overall a lot more fun. Kids like to DO, not just LOOK. So whatever you can think of for them to do at your trunk, they'll love it! I decided to advertise my church's trunk or treat one year by participating in another one. There were around 15 trunks there. I was the only one who had a game at their trunk. Guess which trunk the kids flocked to and lined up for? Yep. It doesn't have to be amazing or unique - just give the kiddos something to do. Your trunk will mean much more to them, I promise :)
One other suggestion that you may scoff at, but I promise you the parents AND the kids appreciate it. Give out prizes - not just candy! Included below are some trunks that got creative and gave out something OTHER than candy. And let me tell you - there were NO complaints!
So, here are 25 28 really fun, incredible ways to ENGAGE the kids at your trunks! Almost all of these are trunks that someone in one of my churches has done - or I have done. Good luck and have fun! :)
1. Duck hunt - this one is not the one we had at our church, but I didn't get a pic of ours. Basically, it was a blow up pool like this one with tons of little rubber duckies floating around. The guy had also put a little motor in the pool so that they moved around :) He went all out. You don't have to do that though - just write a number underneath each duckie (1, 2 and maybe one 3) and throw them in the pool! Tell the kids to pull one out and whatever number it says is how many pieces of candy/prizes they get. Personally, I would also write "duck" under a few and let some of them win an actual rubber ducky! (this is a great example of non-candy prizes!)
2. Pumpkin patch - unfortunately I don't have a pic of our pumpkin patch either, but it was really neat! The theme was Charlie brown and the pumpkin patch - like the pic below. But the interactive part was a large piece of styrofoam painted green and there were pumpkins sticking out on popsicle sticks :) The kids pulled a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch and got that many pieces of candy!
Along the same lines, you could do other kinds of "pulls" - like a Lollipop pull. If the stem of the lollipop is colored, they get to pick out an extra prize!
3. Toy story sandbox - This was so creative! The whole family dressed up as the Toy Story characters and they brought in a little sandbox. They threw little prizes/treasures in the sand that the kids had to search for :) Once they found a treasure, they also got a piece of candy! We got rained out a few years and had to move inside...so our "trunks" were in the gym. It still worked though!
4. Lego trunk - This was amazing. He decorated his whole stand with lego paper and legos and had cups filled with different colored water. Very attractive to the kids! They threw in ping pong balls until they got one - and whatever color they landed in determined their prize!
5. Go fish - We used our gaga ball pit indoors and made a huge "lake". We filled it with fish that had paperclips on them. With simple homemade sticks with magnets, they "fished" one out of the lake and whatever it said is what they got! This could easily be done at a trunk outside as well. We just had the space and were indoors, so it worked for us :)
6. Dr. seuss ring toss - Dr. Seuss trunks are very popular - and rightfully so! I made ours into a "One cup, Two cup, Red Cup, Blue cup" play on words. Whichever cup they landed in was the prize that they got! Some cups also entitled you to win a Truffala tree!
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| my truffala trees are off to the side :) The little girl is getting ready to throw a ball into one of the cups. There is a backboard to the game so pretty much every ball went in somewhere. |
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| make your own truffala tree pencils to give out :) |
7. Library trunk - this is simple and just like it sounds. make your trunk into a library. I collected books throughout the year - donations, library book sales, etc. I put them out every year in a library trunk and the kids could pick a book to take home. Some walked right by and didn't care...but most LOVED stopping and picking out whatever book they wanted!
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| This is a pic from the year we were inside, but we also did it outside. |
8. Super mario throw - a few of our youth thought this one up! They were mario and luigi, they made coins, mushroom men, and fireballs to throw :) Knock them over and get your candy!
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| I loved the added touch that the candy was in the green tubes! |
9. Escape room trunk - this was a VERY simple yet fun activity for the kids. it did get a little backed up as each child got 30 seconds to look inside the house. But, with everything else going on, we simply told the kids to go walk around to a few more trunks and come back :) I found a little house prop that we had in storage (a cardboard box would work just as well). I got a blacklight pen and some blacklight paint and painted 15 pumpkins inside. I told them they had 30 seconds to go in the house with their blacklights and tell me how many pumpkins they saw - before they could come out and get their candy! They loved it!
10. Hockey - our pastor and his wife came up with this idea! They dressed as hockey players and set up a ramp on their pick up truck. Hit the ball up the ramp, into the goal, and score some candy!
You could do this with other sports as well! Basketball wouldn't be hard to set up, and someone actually made a small field goal!
11. Fun photo op - this could be all kinds of things. One year, we had someone bring a camera that could print out photos immediately and they gave them out! This photo is of one of our local dentists who came out and promoted his practice :) He is known as the "cowboy" dentist so the trunk fit his theme. The cool thing about these photo ops, is that you can add a hashtag which helps promote your activity!
12. Charlotte's web - spider toss - this was something we came up with at the last second. It's very easy - spider webs from the dollar tree, a blow up spider toss game from the dollar tree, and our stuffed pig. Charlotte's web! Simple, but the kids enjoyed throwing the rings on the spider :)
13. Origami/craft table - every year, I also set up 1-2 tables in between a few trunks that had some very simple, DIY crafts on them. No one was needed to "man" the table - it was just a fun 'stop' along the way and the kids enjoyed some arts and crafts.
14. I spy - Throw a lot of stuff in your trunk (keep a list of what's in there so you can call out items for them to find!), and play I Spy! I also otok pics of stuff in the trunk so the non-readers could find stuff by matching pictures :)
15. Darts - this is self explanatory. I don't have a pic, but you can get magnet darts and put any kind of theme with it!
16. Carnival spinning wheel - spinning wheels are always fun :) Put all kinds of prizes/candy on your wheel and let them spin away!
17. Favorite Sports team - If you're in a town where sports is a big deal, this would be fun! Especially if you and a friend set up rival trunks :) Have some tattoos and quick face painting stuff available to make your trunk or treaters look sporty! One year, we had a family set up their camper with the game playing - as a "sports" trunk. Very creative!
18. Bottle flipping - this is not as big of a trend now as it used to be, but kids STILL love to do it! Set up a board and lay down pumpkins or whatever you want all over it - whatever your theme is. If the kids land the bottle on one of your targets, they win! This could be IN your trunk, or outside on the ground in front of your trunk.
19. Cornhole - This is self explanatory and could be used for pretty much any theme.
20. Hopscotch - this was a simple yet fun idea! It also worked outside or inside :) Draw a hopscotch board up to your trunk and they have to hop up to the candy.
21. Twister - one of our retired teachers thought of this idea! She had the game Twister as her theme and laid out candy on the board. She spun a few times and they played a few rounds, then she yelled out "right hand" or "left foot", etc.! Whatever candy your hand/foot was touching was what you got! Cakewalk - in the same manner as above, you could get baked good donations, prizes, etc. and do a "prizewalk" instead of a cakewalk.
22. This family was so cute :) The made their own bean bag throw game with 101 Dalmations! You could do this with pretty much any theme as well.
23. Nerf guns - I didn't get a pic of the trunk, but someone had set up targets in their trunk and the kids tried to shoot the targets with nerf guns.
24. Beanie Babies and dinosaurs - This isn't really interactive, but it goes along with the whole idea of giving out stuff besides candy. We had a Beanie baby seller in our church and for about three years, she set up these really cool trunks with 100s of Beanie babies. And, she let each of the kids choose one to take home with them! They LOVED it!
Use stuff you have at home and be creative! One family had this really cool dinosaur at home. When you touched its mouth, it chewed. So, they set up a Jurassic Park trunk, had a bucket of leaves to "feed" the dinosaur, and the kids (the littles especially), loved stopping by over and over to "feed" him!
25. The "touch table". This family had a fun idea to lay a cover over their trunk and cut holes in it where kids would stick their hands into the holes and "feel something". Unfortunately, they had to set it up inside - but it still worked! The kids' faces when they reached in were priceless :) And the last hole, of course, had candy :)
26. Found 3 more ideas this year so I'm including them :) One - Cat litter box! 😂 That is hilarious! Go hunt for a "surprise" ;)
28. Adding this to sports ideas! Kick a field goal to get your candy/prize :) I would use balloons so you aren't chasing balls all night lol.
So there ya go! Tons of ways to make your trunks interactive! If you need some guidelines and instructions to hand out to your decorators, feel free to download mine for free on my teachers pay teachers page. Or, you could at least use it as a starting point.
Also - if you aren't a registered TEAL pumpkin site, please look into being one. There are so many kids out there with allergies or strict diets and they can't have candy. Register, and then ask all your decorators to bring a bucket of prizes that can be given to those children. Make sure and advertise to your community that you are TEAL pumpkin site! There are tons of ideas out there for non-candy items - but glowsticks (and their variations), fun pencils, stickers, play doh, bubbles, flashlights, are just a few ideas.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog! Did you know I create religious games and sell them on Etsy and Teachers pay teachers? Including Escape Rooms! Buy them separately or in a bundle and save! Check them out!
In Christ,
Laurie
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