Trunk or Treat!

One of our favorite Halloween traditions is participating in the "trunk or treat" that the girls' preschool hosts every year. I had never heard of such an event until Sienna's first Halloween in school - it definitely wasn't a thing when I was a kid! Trunk or treating is pretty much a "safe" trick or treating experience for little kids, and a fun way for parents to get involved. It's also held earlier in the day/night so it's perfect for the early years when your kids are a little too young to make it out on Halloween night.

Here's how it works: parents show up with a car, and decorate the trunk. Kids go from car to car trick or treating in their costumes. Boom, that's it!

Since the trick or treaters are preschool (NB - 5) aged, I've always tried to come up with a creative and healthy(ish) option for treats to hand out. Once I settle on my theme, I decorate the trunk to go with it. What's great about making treats instead of just picking something up from the store, is that the girls get to help (once they were old enough) make them...and they LOVE arts and crafts.

So if you are looking for some treat ideas, here are mine from the last few years:

2014: Jack-o-lantern oranges

What will you need?

- Individual mandarin orange cups 

- Sharpie

How to make them

- Draw faces in sharpie on the top of each mandarin cup, ta da!

(If you are like me, google "jackolantern" or "jackolantern faces" for inspiration)

2015: Mummy crackers

What will you need?

- Snack packs of crackers

- White streamer paper

- Sharpie

- Tape

- Googly eyes (you'll want the sticky ones, or else you'll need glue of some sort)

How to make them

- Tape end of streamer to the top/bottom of a pack of crackers

- Wrap streamer around until covered, and tape

- Adhere googly eyes between layers or on top

- Draw mouth if desired

2016: Bat Pudding

What will you need?

- Chocolate pudding snack cups

- Brown/black construction paper

- Sharpie

- Tape

- (optional) Googly eyes (you'll want the sticky ones, or else you'll need glue of some sort)

How to make them

- Sketch wing out on construction paper 

- Cut wings out

- Tape wings to pudding cup

- Adhere googly eyes 

- Draw mouth if desired

- optional, include ears in your wing cut out to poke up from the top

So what are we doing this year? I'll tell you my strategy for coming up with an idea. I start off by walking through BJs (or Costco or Sams Club) and looking for some snack item I can buy in bulk for cheap. From there, I decide what I can turn that item into. Simple enough!

Our trunk or treat is this Friday, but I'll let you in on what this year's theme/treat is:

2017:  Monster Mash-ups

What will you need?

- Either fruit/veggie pouches or tubes (we found the fruit blend tubes at BJs)

- Construction paper - whatever color you want your monsters to be!

- Sharpie

- Tape

- Googly eyes (you'll want the sticky ones, or else you'll need glue of some sort) and/or sticker eyes

How to make them

- Cut construction paper into 3 even pieces (the tubes are the same height as my paper). If you use pouches, you may want to cut your paper to fit the height of them

- Wrap paper around tube and tape closed

- Tape top and bottom

- Adhere googly eyes/stickers/draw face with sharpie

Usually our trunk is a big hit with the kids because it's a fun twist on the treats! What's also nice, is that we usually end up with some leftovers, and it's nice to have something that's not candy in our house after Halloween!

What are some ideas you've used for trunk or treating?