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Halloween is not until Thursday on the calendar, but many churches are celebrating the event this weekend with Trunk-or-Treat events. 

Wandering the neighborhood collecting candy is the crux of the classic American Halloween celebration. We all know about the trick-or-treating tradition, but an alternative Halloween activity has been gaining popularity, and it’s called “trunk-or-treat.” Rather than going house to house in costume, this milder event has children simply taking sweets from decorated car trunks in a parking lot. 

If you went door-to-door as a kid (and you probably did), you might remember the effort it took to procure a full pillowcase of candy. How many houses did you have to hit up to achieve Halloween satisfaction? At trunk-or-treat, it’s a quick jaunt between rows of cars to come up with copious amounts of candy. No effort necessary on the kids’ behalf. 

The trunk-or-treat origin story is actually a Christian one. The event began in the late 1990s when churches wanted to provide a safer, less “evil” alternative to traditional Halloween activities like trick-or-treating, 

Churches aren’t the only ones hosting trunk-or-treat now, and it’s not just because of spooky Halloween imagery and religious beliefs. Clubs, schools and other organizations are offering car-based candy collection as a safer alternative to trick-or-treating, and in crime-ridden areas, trunk-or-treat can be a real boon to the community. It’s awful that street crime can prevent kids from visiting their neighbors. Trunk-or-treat is a great way to let them celebrate in a safer space. 

Regardless of whether you celebrate it this weekend or on October 31, Halloween is when youngsters don their spookiest apparel, grab a bag or bucket to hold their loot and – armed with the age-old Halloween greeting, “Trick-or-treat!” take to the streets in search of candy.

Originating in a Celtic festival called Samhain in which the ancients would wear costumes to ward off ghosts, Halloween as we know it now only exists after centuries of evolution. It wasn’t always about who could coerce the most sweets out of their hard-working neighbors or who could spend the most amount of money buying mass-produced costumes.

But it is not like that now.

Halloween candies are projected to rake in around $4.1 billion in 2024, nearly doubling the spending from a decade ago, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. That amounts to around $30.89 spent on Halloween candy per household, S&P said.

Every year, these billions of dollars buy about 600 million pounds of the sweet stuff, enough for every single American to bring home just under two pounds with their evening out on the town.

Costumes and decorations add another huge amount of money to the holiday.

Halloween is quickly joining Christmas as one of the most expensive American holidays, promoting a toxically capitalist environment that threatens to swallow the core idea behind any holiday: a celebration with friends and family.

Whether you trunk-or-treat or trick-or-treat and whether you do it this weekend or Halloween evening, on this spirited evening we decorate our yards or doors, fill a bowl with candy and just have fun with each other. Whether greeting kids and complimenting costume choices as we toss treats into bags or escorting little ones from door-to-door, Halloween is a special night to mingle and rally around the children in the neighborhood in their quest for candy and magic.

Regardless of how you celebrate the holiday and when you celebrate it, have a good time doing it, and wishes for a big bucket or pillowcase of goodies.