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Holidays / Humor

Trunk or Treat FAIL

Trunk or Treat FAIL

Last year I took my kids to a Trunk-or-Treat at a nearby high school. The event had been advertised for almost a month and promised treats, fun and games. I naturally assumed it would be a good fit for my two-year-old. A nice introduction to understanding the rewards for having to wear itchy ladybug antennae.

For those of you unfamiliar with Trunk-or-Treating, it’s exactly what it sounds like: Going from car to car to get candy. Where your biggest disappointment is how many accidental lug nuts end up in your child’s goodie bag. It’s supposed to be a one-stop-shop for Halloween carnival and trick-or-treating.

This Trunk-or-Treat had none of those things, unless you consider rain, cold and no indoor backup plan part of fun and games.

It, for a lack of a better term, sucked.

So, to those high school kids in charge of next year’s event, here’s a quick little study to let you know your trunk-or-treat is a failure:

1. There are only six cars in the parking lot built for 3500.

2. Your only signs and decorations are mostly deflated balloons.

3. Your balloons are orange, black and: “It’s a girl.”

4. None of the trunks are open.

5. It’s 45 degrees, raining and the event is still outside.

6. The only game you offer your attendees is guessing to see if you really have a backup plan.
*Winner gets to go home with sad kids.

7. The person in charge of organizing the event never did.

8. A group of high school kids dressed as high school kids walk by with all the candy.

9. You aren’t sure which lot is for the Trunk or Treat, and which lot is the janitors who are working.

10. The spider webs on the red PT Cruiser look suspiciously like shredded, rain-soaked toilet paper from last week’s homecoming game.

11. You have more candy in your purse than all the “event” cars have in their trunks.

12. Your toddler asks if they can go home and take a nap. 

This year, I think we’ll just stick to traditional trick-or-treating. Sure, we might get a few apples, popcorn balls or toothbrushes—my husband once handed out ketchup and mayo packets, to be fair he was in college and probably not sober.

Still, there’s a certain nostalgia about trick-or-treating the old fashioned way that belongs to childhood. Sure, trunk-or-treating might be a more modern alternative, maybe some argue it’s much safer. But, going house to house gives you the thrill of making it past the creepy, scarecrow man waiting on the front lawn. Where the biggest disappointment is running out of time before you can reach every house in the neighborhood.

We’ll leave the trunks to the lovers of one stop candy shopping. As for me and my family, we’ll make sure the rain-soaked toilet paper wrapped around your shrubbery is good old fashioned fun and not just a leftover from last week’s homecoming game.

Christina lives in Denver with her husband, two daughters and two cats who still haven’t perfected the art of litter-boxing. You can follow her third pregnancy journey over at Pregnancy & Newborn’s Knocked Up Blog or find her rambling on The Mediocre Housewife.

Christina Antus
Author: Christina Antus

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4 Comments

  1. Ohhh, too funny. Our experiences truck-or-treating have been hit or miss! Every year, our church does a fun Halloween party and truck-or-treat. The carnival is always a hit and the trunk-or-treat is hit-and-miss. The key is to have a lot of cars. One year, there were only a handful of them so my kids went in circles until all the candy was gone. I felt badly those few cars were bombarded!

  2. Ya, it’s too bad those high schoolers didn’t plan the weather better! Wth!

  3. It sounds like the one you went to was not all that well organized. Our church does a really great one. I suppose weather is a problem no matter if you are trunk-or-treating or trick-or-treating (my kids have gone several times in snow! (we do live in Colorado!).

  4. No, it wasn’t organized well at all. When we arrived there wasn’t even anyone around. As for the second comment, I think it’s always good to have a back-up plan in case of bad weather. Those high schoolers could have easily had a plan to move it into the cafeteria or gym, or cancel it altogether. Colorado is notorious for erratic weather so, it seems to me alternate plans would almost be a given.

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