Whether you call your October 31st event Trunk-Or-Treat, Hallelujah Night, Harvest Party, Fall Festival, or simply Halloween, it's a fun community event for people to visit your church property, meet people at your church, and have a safe evening with their kids.

What is Trunk-or-Treat?

Line up cars in your church parking lot with their trunks open facing inward. Instead of going door-to-door on Halloween, kids visit each car trunk which is decorated with a specific theme to collect candy.

Easy Trunk or Treat Ideas could include:

• Yellow brick road
• Space themed trunk
• Biblical theme
• Noah's ark trunk with inflatable animals
• Sports equipment
• "Children of the world" trunk theme
• Movie Themes

Have you church members sign up to decorate their trunk as a family. You'll provide all of the candy they'll hand out to guests, and have a contest for the best themes in various categories.

Consider 3 aspects of Trunk-Or-Treat sign ideas for your church:

1. Let your community know they're welcome to come to your event
2. Let them know they've found the right place when they've arrived
3. Help them find their way around your event from where to park, your registration table, restrooms, indoor activities, and food.

Remember that since the goal of this event is not just for your church families:

The goal is to get to meet families in your community, the hope is that there will be plenty of people visiting who have never been to your church before, so helping them find their way around is key to a successful event.

Trunk-Or-Treat Sign Idea 1: Promote your event

Have an outdoor sign promoting your event, so people driving by can see. If that's not an option.

Maybe your church is in a downtown area where you can't post signs, or you have a portable church and you can't post permanently on the lawn of the movie theatre or high school. If that's the case, hang an indoor sign inside your window that can be seen from the street, or have a portable option that can be hung up while you're using the building and taken with you when you tear down.

An outdoor vinyl sign is perfect for this application, since you can put a fair amount of necessary information (Time, event title, website for more info) but an outdoor vinyl sign is also weather resistant and easy to hang on a fence, hung over the edge of a building, or on a pair of 4x4s driven into the ground.

Let our team know how you'll be using the sign, and if you need grommets, we'll include them already mounted into the perimeter of the sign at no extra charge.

Trunk-Or-Treat Sign Idea 2: 'You've Found Us' Signs

Since this is probably an evening event and you'll be welcoming some people who haven't been to your church before, you'll want to have some clear indications that they've found the right place.

Consider these Trunk-or-Treat signs of increased importance if:

• Your church is at the front of the property, but the parking lot is at the back
• The main entrance area to the event is something other than the front door
• You have multiple buildings on your property or multiple entrances to your parking lot
• You're renting a facility for this event

Here are some trunk or treat sign ideas to let people know they've found the right place:

Handheld Signs: Post people at each entrace way holding signs, dressed in costumes, and waving or pointing directions. 

Handheld banners are simply a tool to attract attention (not provide information) so choosing handheld signs that are fall colors to say "Welcome" or "We're glad you're here" can serve multiple purposes for weekend services or youth events and make your budget stretch further.

Flag Banners: Whether you're poking the flag base into a soft surface like grass or landscaping, or you're using a solid base for concrete or gravel surfaces, a flag banner moves naturally in even the slightest breeze to create movement and attract attention.

Like handheld signs, flag banners are not meant to convey a lot of information. Sticking with less than 3 words like "Welcome" or "Glad You're Here" or even just your church logo means that these flag banners can be used for fall events and weekends before and after Trunk-Or-Treat and can be stored to be reused next year.

Light Up Your Parking Lot: Not a sign idea, but be sure that your property is well lit.

If you haven't turned on the lit church sign or parking lot lights, you might not notice early in the event, but as the sun goes down, it will become less obvious to people arriving that they've found the right place.

If possible, put out some EXTRA lights to light up your building, light up your feather flags, light up your registration table, turn on all of the internal lights (even if this is an outdoor event) and clearly mark the entrance to your driveway.

Trunk-Or-Treat Sign Idea 3: 'Wayfinding' Signs

Wayfinding means helping people find their way while they're at your event:

• Can someone find their way to your restrooms without accidentally ending up at a dead-end in a hall?
• Are there multiply classrooms where there are activities that people need to navigate their way around?
• Is it clear how people can find the parking lot when it's time to leave?
• Is there a main entrance that you'd like people to use to get in an out of your building at the event?
• Do you need to let people know that certain doors aren't available, but provide directions to other doors?

Depending on your specific event and your building, a combination of indoor and outdoor Trunk-or-Treat signs might be helpful.

A rollup banner that blocks an unused hallway, but has arrows to the restrooms, exits, and indoor event locations is more helpful than a sign that says "This hallway is closed."

A sidewalk sign (A-frame sign) that has your logo and an arrow pointing towards the main entrance is a great way to let people know that a specific entrance isn't being used, and can be a multi-purpose tool for other events at your church.

If you have an abundance of volunteers, then they can stand with the wayfinding signage to answer questions and help people find their way around your building. Print up matching t-shirts so that guests recognize those volunteers.

Make your Trunk-Or-Treat event this year a success:

Shop our fall banner designs now.