Mormons Like Trunk-or-Treating

I do not know if anybody but Mormons even know what trunk-or-treating is. It is not a doctrinal thing, just cultural. So no, the Book of Mormon does not say anything like, “Other treats I have who are not of this bowl.” It’s not like that.

What is trunk-or-treating? Simply put, it is trick-or-treating in a parking lot—but instead of moving house to house, you move from parking stall to parking stall. Not all Mormons trunk-or-treat, but most Mormons who belong to a congregation of any size in the United States would have at least had the opportunity to attend a trunk-or-treat.

My best guess is that the trunk-or-treat came about because some Mormon did not want his or her child(ren) to go trick-or-treating some year that Halloween fell on a Sunday but felt guilty when it came down to depriving his or her child(ren) of the experience.

Trunk-or-treating in many congregations now occurs every year, irrespective of whether or not Halloween falls on a Sunday. Some congregations insist on having trunk-or-treating on Halloween provided that it does not fall on Sunday. Simply put, this really misses the point. Kids do not like trunk-or-treating more than trick-or-treating. They just like trunk-or-treating more than staying home and playing Uno or whatever else they would have done.

If you get a chance to go trunk-or-treating, what should you expect? As you approach the trunk-or-treat in the church parking lot, you will see a bunch of kids dressed in pretty regular Halloween costumes—with perhaps a tad more Brooke White costumes than you might see outside of American mainstream.

The spectacle of the event is the decked out minivans and SUVs. Not all people go to the effort. Yet, a fair number do. You may ask, are not all the Goldfish and Nilla Wafers smashed into the minivan’s carpet scary enough? You would think that the tab for gassing up that Range Rover would pretty much make those crepe paper bats pretty much an afterthought. But, no. Some will decorate their cars, some adults will dress up. There is no need for dry ice; the emissions from all the running vehicles pretty much will take care of anyone that feels it necessary to have fake fog. It doesn’t really matter much whether people dress up, whether they decorate, or whether the kids themselves will be asphyxiated walking from car to car so long as people have candy. And, Mormons do have candy and generally Costco size bags of it to boot.

Before the trunk-or-treat, expect Mormons to have refreshments. This will most likely consist of doughnuts and maybe hot chocolate or hot apple cider. You might be thinking, “Doughnuts and hot chocolate before gorging on candy? Really?” The explanation for this is pretty simple: Mormons are always looking for loopholes in the Word of Wisdom. Any holiday of respectable size pretty much gives Mormons a free pass to ignore that whole “moderation in all things” mantra.

Anyways, for all of those going trick-or-treating and/or trunk-or-treating, have a spooky one.