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I learned about trunk-or-treat while living in South Carolina. I didn't live in the highest quality town at the time. Apparently, one Halloween over a decade ago, a small boy and his dad went up to a house in our town while trick-or-treating. The guy inside was strung out on meth, though, and thought he was being raided by the cops when the child rang his doorbell. So he responded by emptying a full clip of an AR-15 through the door, killing the little boy and his dad.

Ever since then, local families always did a trunk-or-treat instead. The local school would open up their parking lot for trick-or-treaters. Adults would line up their cars in the lot, with their trunks open and, typically, the inside of their trunks were covered in Halloween decorations. And they would just hand out candy from a stash in their trunks. Kept everyone safe, made traveling on Halloween secure in a well-lit environment, and you could collect tons of candy with just a quick circle around the parking lot.

It wasn't the traditional way to go trick-or-treating, but it was better than cancelling Halloween altogether because of a few crazies in the town.

For various reasons, not everyone can do traditional trick-or-treating. The idea behind a trunk-or-treat is to provide a more accessible approximation of the experience. It's also another opportunity for Halloween fun for everyone. The way it works is that volunteers, frequently business and other organizations, but also individuals, set up in a parking lot with decorated vehicles and hand out goodies to the kids who show up in their costumes. There are also typically games and other kid activities. And that's all there is to it.

It's where you take your kids to teach them to take candy from a stranger's trunk.