Imagine this, the leaves crunch under your feet as you sprint across lawns, knocking on door after door. You’re rocking the ensemble of your favorite character that year, just to yell out, “trick or treat,” and reach into the candy bucket hoping for your favorite. Well for some of us, we don’t have to imagine we can remember this annual core memory vividly.
This childhood tradition is on life support, and being threatened with extinction by trunk-or-treating.
Originally starting in the 90’s, it was, “considered by some locales to be a safer and more feasible alternative to “trick-or-treating” on Halloween,” as stated in a 1994 article on the topic, written by Cathy Allred for Church News. Church News is, “An official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” as said on their Instagram.
However, the “alternative” didn’t stay a niche idea for long.
By the 2000’s, “Trunk or treat continued to gain traction and spread,” said Sam Hindman in his article written for Mental Floss, explaining trunk-or-treat’s progression. “From churches to malls to schools, and eventually made its way to parking lots throughout suburbia.”
Fast-forward to most people’s least favorite year, 2020, the trend grew in popularity tenfold.
COVID-19 turned trunk-or-treating into a nationwide way to keep Halloween alive while bound by social-distance rules and curfew. Parking lots seemed like the only safe option.
It was brilliant then, a creative workaround that let kids dress up and collect candy without risking a global plague. However, what was a once temporary fix has become a permanent habit.
Whole neighborhoods eerily sat dark on October 31, all the action trapped into school parking lots.
Trunk-or-treating may keep the candy coming, but it’s robbing us of something far sweeter. Halloween isn’t just about candy, it’s about connection.
It’s the rite of passage, for one night, for kids to feel like the world belongs to them. Halloween was never supposed to be tidy or convenient. It was supposed to be a little chaotic.
Defenders of trunk-or-treat usually cite safety or accessibility and of course, keeping kids safe is important. However, these arguments have existed for decades, and somehow generations of children survived Halloween armed with nothing more than reflective tape and bad flashlight batteries.
The truth is, the “safety” line has become the polite rebrand of convenience, and there’s nothing wrong with choosing convenience. Everybody understands, parenting is already hard, and sugar-charged children aren’t exactly restful travel companions. However, Halloween on cruise control is not the solution.
By shielding our kids from mild discomfort, we’ve also shielded them from adventure and childlike excitement. That’s not just nostalgia talking, unstructured outdoor play and community traditions help kids build independence, confidence, and a sense of belonging.
In a 2017 article for Porto Biomedical Journal Gabriela Bento said, “During outdoor play children should have the opportunity to experience moments of failure and success, learning by trial and error.”
What used to be a one-night door-to-door has become a well-lit truck bed to SUV third row seating candy-exchange program. Must it continue to progress until Halloween is a forgotten ruin, memorialized only in movies and TV?
The importance of this issue stems further than just the here and now.
The fears surrounding the erasure of tradition lie in the continual bleakness of the future of childhood for generations to come. A generation that will one day include my children.
I ask the parents who fuel this new reality, how is it fair to future generations?
Is your comfort and convenience still favorable at the cost of childhood? Not just for your kids, but also for every generation after that must now be raised in the reality you created.
You got the comfort of convenience, your kids got the “safety” and the candy sure, but the kids of the future have lost their childhood.