DoodleGrove Trunk or Treat Activities for Kids: Decorate Your Trunk and Run an Activity Table
Trunk or treat activities for kids turn a parking lot full of cars into the easiest Halloween party you will throw all year. You park, you open your trunk, kids walk from car to car, and every trunk becomes a little scene to look at. This guide shows you how to build your whole trunk from free coloring pages: a backdrop to color and tape up, a no-mess activity your visitors can finish in about a minute, and printable treats you can hand out instead of candy or right beside it.
Every coloring page linked here is free to print with no sign-up, in both US Letter and A4, so you can run off a stack the night before. Each page links straight to the printable, and you can print as many copies as your line of trick-or-treaters needs. If you want the paper to come out crisp and dark enough to read from across the lot, our printing guide walks through the settings.
What you need for a trunk or treat table
A good trunk needs very little. Most of this is already in a craft drawer, and the pages do the decorating for you.
- A printer and a stack of plain paper (and a few sheets of cardstock if you want sturdier signs)
- Crayons, markers or colored pencils for the pages you color ahead and for the activity table
- Painter’s tape, washi tape or small clips to hang pages inside the trunk without marking the car
- A folding table or a storage tub turned upside down, plus a cloth or a dark trash bag to cover it
- Scissors, and a basket or a box of small sandwich bags for the treats you hand out
- A clip light or battery tea lights if your event runs after dark
Give yourself an evening to tape the trunk together, and color the backdrop pages across the week before so the kids can help. A full trunk is faster to build than it looks once the pages are printed.
Color a backdrop for the inside of your trunk
The flat back wall of an open trunk or hatchback is your canvas. Color a handful of large pages, tape them edge to edge across that wall, and you have a backdrop that reads from a distance. Pick one theme and stick to it so your trunk has a clear look instead of a jumble. Here are three themes that each lean on one of our coloring collections.
Pumpkin patch trunk
Build a warm orange wall of pumpkins. Start with Pumpkin Patch Faces as the centerpiece, then flank it with Big Jack-o’-Lantern by the Fence and Basket of Happy Pumpkins. For younger helpers who want something quick to finish, Classic Jack-o’-Lantern and Happy Halloween Jack-o’-Lantern are both Easy and fill a corner fast.
Smiling ghost trunk
Ghosts are the kindest way to say Halloween to a nervous three-year-old. Make Ghost Friends Hugging the big piece, then scatter Nine Little Ghosts across the top edge like a border. Add Happy Boo Season for a sign-like page, Ghost with Balloons near the table, and Ghost with a Candy Bucket right by where you hand out treats.
Bat cave trunk
For a cooler, moonlit look, color the backdrop in blues and purples. Bats Across the Full Moon and Bat Flying Past the Moon give you two big moons to anchor the wall. Fill the gaps with Bat Under the Stars, the Easy Simple Smiling Bat, and Bat Hanging from a Branch tucked up in a corner like it is roosting.
Set up a no mess activity at your table
A trunk-or-treat line moves, so your activity has to be something a child can start and stop in under a minute. The trick is to let them color just one thing and move on, not sit down to a whole page. Clip a few sheets to the table, set out a cup of fat crayons, and let each visitor add color to one shape before they go.
- Tape two or three copies of Halloween Icons for Little Kids flat on the table. Each child colors one icon, then the next child colors another, so the page fills up over the night.
- Keep a stack of single-character pages like Candy Corn Buddy and Friendly Frankenstein for kids who want to take their own page to color in the car later.
- Set out Happy Halloween Sticker Page or Halloween Things to Color as a bonus sheet for older siblings waiting on the little ones.
If your trunk-or-treat has room for a real game instead of a quick coloring stop, pick one from our Halloween party games for kids, which has toss games and matching games that use these same pages.
Non candy treats you can hand out
More families now ask for a non-candy option, whether for allergies, for toddlers who cannot have hard candy, or just to cut down on sugar. A printed coloring sheet is cheap, lasts longer than candy, and keeps a child busy on the ride home. Fold a few of these into quarters, slip each into a sandwich bag, and keep them in a basket next to the candy bowl so a parent can grab whichever one their child can have. If you label the basket with a quick note that says non-candy treats, families managing allergies will spot it right away and thank you for it.
- Hand out single pages like Ghost in a Pumpkin or Jack-o’-Lantern Cupcake, which are small, friendly and quick to finish.
- Print Trick or Treat Pumpkin Bucket or Trick or Treat Candy Page on cardstock, color one, and prop it at the front of your table as a sign that tells cars what your trunk is about.
- Turn a page into a wearable with our Halloween paper masks to color, which kids can color at your table and wear on to the next trunk.
How many pages to print by theme
When you have picked a theme, print this many pages and you will have enough to cover the trunk wall, stock the table, and still have treats to hand out. Round up if your event is a big one, and remember you can reuse the colored backdrop pages year after year if you store them flat.
| Trunk theme | Backdrop pages to color | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Pumpkin patch | Pumpkin Patch Faces, Big Jack-o’-Lantern by the Fence, Basket of Happy Pumpkins | All ages |
| Friendly ghosts | Ghost Friends Hugging, Nine Little Ghosts, Happy Boo Season | Younger kids |
| Bat cave | Bats Across the Full Moon, Bat Flying Past the Moon, Bat Under the Stars | Older kids and adults |
Trunk or treat FAQ
How do I keep coloring pages from blowing off the trunk in the wind?
Tape the whole edge of each page down with painter’s tape, not just the corners, and face the open trunk away from the wind if you can. For signs on the table, tape the page to a piece of cardstock or a cereal box panel so it stands up to a breeze. A small binder clip at the bottom edge stops pages from flapping.
What can I hand out instead of candy at a trunk or treat?
A folded coloring page in a sandwich bag is the easiest non-candy treat, since you can print a whole basket for a few dollars. Stickers, small crayons, pencils and bubbles also work, and a printed page pairs well with a single crayon taped to it.
How many activity sheets should I print?
Count on most children stopping only briefly, so you need fewer full sheets than you think. For a mid-sized event, print two or three shared table pages, about ten single-character pages for kids who want their own, and thirty or more quarter-folded treats. It is better to run a few short than to carry a ream home.
Can one parent run the trunk and the activity table alone?
Yes, if you keep the activity to a single colored-in step and set the treats where kids can reach them. Color the backdrop ahead of time, pre-bag the handouts, and you are left with just the candy bowl and the crayon cup to watch during the event.
More coloring pages to stock your trunk
- Pumpkin Coloring Pages: jack-o’-lanterns, patches and pumpkin buckets in every level (around 20 pages)
- Ghost Coloring Pages: friendly, smiling ghosts from single characters to busy scenes (17 pages)
- Bat Coloring Pages: simple bats, moonlit skies and cozy cave scenes (around 20 pages)
- Halloween Coloring Pages: icons, characters and whole scenes to mix and match (around 20 pages)
Hung designs T-shirt artwork for a living and prints coloring pages for his own kids at home. Every page on DoodleGrove is prepared for print the same way he prepares work for his clients.