What to know about trunk-or-treating, a trick-or-treating alternative

A car is open at a trunk-or-treat in 2014. The events allow children to collect candy from trunks of cars gathered in parking lots. (Scott Maentz/Flickr Creative Commons)

Scott Maentz / Scott Maentz

This Halloween, some trick-or-treaters, instead of trekking through neighborhoods, will opt for a more stationary form of candy collecting: trunk-or-treating.

Trunk-or-treating is an alternative to trick-or-treating, in which parents and guardians gather their vehicles in one spot, typically a parking lot, open their trunks and give out candy as children walk from car to car.

Some candy-givers decorate their trunks with scenes and themes, such as pumpkin patches, spiderwebs and monsters.