Trunk or treat flyers
This flyer is doing two jobs at once, and the version that only invites families is the reason there are eleven cars.
A trunk or treat needs decorated car boots, and the cars come from volunteers who have to be recruited weeks before the families are invited. Most flyers only address the families. The event then arrives with a full car park of visitors and eleven decorated trunks, which is a thin evening for everyone.
The practical answer is either two flyers or one flyer with two clear halves. The volunteer ask needs a deadline and a sign-up route of its own, and it needs to go out four to six weeks ahead, well before the family invitation. If you only make one design, the volunteer line has to be a real block on the page rather than a sentence at the bottom.
For the family half, the questions are always the same and they are logistical. What time does it start and, crucially, when does it end, because parents with small children plan around bedtime. Is it free. Is it indoors if it rains. Are costumes expected. Whether there is a rain plan is the single most-asked question about any outdoor autumn event, and putting the answer on the flyer saves the organiser fifty messages.
$125
Flat, for one flyer designed for your event. Print-ready PDF tested in black and white, an email version, and square and story sizes. One round of revisions, back in four days.
Where this flyer actually lands
Church foyer and school bag first for volunteer recruitment, then local parent groups on social a few weeks later for the family invitation. The family half spreads almost entirely as a shared image, so it has to hold up as a square at thumbnail size.
What changes for this one
Two visual blocks with a clear division: come along, and bring a car. Autumn palettes without the horror-film register, since most trunk or treats exist specifically as the gentle alternative to Halloween. End time set as prominently as start time.
What it has to carry
- Start and end times, with the end time equally prominent
- Whether it is free, and whether registration is needed
- The volunteer ask, with its own deadline and sign-up route
- The rain plan, or the phrase "rain or shine"
- Whether costumes are expected, and any guidance about what is welcome
The mistakes worth avoiding
- Inviting families and forgetting to recruit the cars, which is how the event ends up thin.
- Sending the volunteer ask at the same time as the family invitation instead of weeks earlier.
- Leaning on frightening imagery for an event that exists as the mild alternative to Halloween.
- Leaving the end time off, so parents with toddlers cannot judge whether to come.
- No rain plan on the page, generating a week of messages the day before.
Questions people ask
Should we make two flyers or one?
Two, if the budget allows, because the volunteer ask goes out weeks earlier than the family invitation. If it is one, give the volunteer half its own block and its own deadline.
How far ahead should these go out?
Volunteer recruitment six weeks out. Family invitation two to three weeks out, which is when local parents are deciding what to do with the last weekend in October.
Can you match our fall festival design?
Yes. Churches often run both, and having them share a palette and type makes the season feel planned rather than assembled.
What sizes do we get?
Print-ready letter size, a half sheet for handouts, and square and story versions for sharing, all re-laid out rather than cropped.
1,000
US searches a month for trunk or treat flyers, measured rather than guessed.
- fall festival flyer — 590/mo
- halloween party invitation — 3,600/mo
Event flyer design
For schools, churches, studios and anyone running a calendar.
From $125