Since the 1990s
Churches started it. Parents wanted a Halloween with less gore, fewer strangers and no crossing busy roads in the dark, so congregations parked in a circle, opened their boots and handed out candy from the back. In car-dependent suburbs it simply worked better than a street of houses far apart โ and a flat car park suits children with allergies, wheelchairs and strollers too.
- Early 1990sThe first trunk or treats appear at church fall festivals, as a gentler alternative to door-to-door.
- 1994A Baptist congregation in Alabama holds one โ the earliest specific year on record.
- Early 2000sChurches across the South add it to their calendars, then malls and schools follow.
- TodayCar parks across suburbia fill up, and decorating the trunk has become a contest of its own.