Trunk-or-treat contest judging: score sheet, awards and a visitor vote
A trunk-or-treat is judged while many people walk past at their own pace, a lot of them children in costume. Judges cannot ask every family to wait, and a show of hands at the end favors the cars near the entrance. This page has a 100-point sheet for decorated cars, safety checks, awards, and a way to let visitors vote on their phones with numbered cars and a sign at the entrance. The scorecard collects no names.
Skip the paper sheet: make a phone scorecard in about a minute.
Score sheet for decorated cars
Five criteria, 100 points. The weights are my suggestion. Creativity leads with 25, and one row rewards families who make the treat station part of the show. Scare level has a row of its own because the same car can suit a church lot and miss at a preschool lot, so it is scored against the sign at the entrance. One VFW event in New Jersey keeps its criteria short, with five points of guidance: Halloween theme, kid-friendly content, effort and creativity, interactive elements as a bonus, and safety.
| Criterion | Max | Low scores | High scores | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Theme and story | 20 | A car with candy on the hood and no common idea. | One idea a child can name: a pirate ship, a bakery, a haunted school bus. | |
| Creativity and originality | 25 | The standard pumpkin-and-cobweb setup. | A twist or a material nobody else brought, such as recycled boxes or old costumes. | |
| Use of the car | 20 | Decorations stop at the trunk lid. | The car is part of the idea: the hatch is a mouth, the roof is a sail. | |
| Treat station and interaction | 20 | A bowl on the bumper and nobody to greet visitors. | A game, a question or a role the family plays, with a treat table small hands can reach. | |
| Right for the crowd | 15 | Too scary for toddlers, or flat for older kids. | Scare level matches the sign at the entrance, with a light-up gag or a calm spot for the youngest. | |
| Total | 100 | Car number: ______ Judge: ______ | ||
Print one sheet per judge.
Pass/fail checks before the doors open
These are yes or no questions for whoever walks the lot an hour before the event. A car that fails gets fixed first, so safety never turns into a points argument. My suggested list:
- No open flame. Battery candles and LED string lights only.
- Fog machines, strobes and loud effects stay off, or run on a timer that the organizers know about.
- Engines are off and keys are out of the ignition while children are around.
- Treats are wrapped and sealed. Nothing homemade is handed out, and a non-food option such as stickers sits in a separate bowl.
- Lanes between cars stay wide enough for a stroller or a wheelchair.
- No decoration hangs where a child can pull it onto themselves.
Categories and awards
With more than a dozen cars, several prizes send more families home with something. One small-town event named Best Story, Best Disguise, Silliest/Cutest, and Vintage and Time Travel and announced its picks at a set time near the end of the evening. A set that fits car decorating (my suggestion):
- Best overall
- The highest total on the judges' 100-point sheet.
- Most creative
- The car with the top creativity row. The total breaks a tie.
- Best use of the car
- A hatchback that is a whale, a sedan that is a school bus.
- Best treat station
- The most inviting place to collect a treat, games included.
- Cutest and spookiest
- Two mood prizes, so small children and teenagers each have a favorite.
- Crowd favorite
- The highest average on the visitors' phone vote.
One award per car keeps a single family from taking every ribbon.
Judges score on paper, visitors on their phones
Two groups see the same cars in different ways. Two or three judges score on paper with the sheet above, and visitors tap a rating on their own phones as they stroll. The judges' totals decide Best overall. The phone vote decides Crowd favorite, the same kind of pick the New Jersey event leaves to its guests: its Best Trunk goes to the most votes. Keep the two lists apart, so a popular car does not skip the criteria and a polished car does not lose the room.
Numbered cars and a sign with a link
Visitors do not walk in order and do not stay long. Plan for that:
- Put a big number on every windshield or trunk lid before the doors open. The host keeps the list of families.
- Create the scorecard with one entry per car, written as the number plus the theme, such as "#4 Under the Sea". Leave family and child names out of the entry list.
- Post a sign at each entrance with the QR code and the link. The contest page makes a table card you can print.
- Tell people to rate the cars they visited. Skipped cars stay unrated and rank last, without a zero.
- Close voting 15 minutes before the awards, read the ranking and announce the winners with family names then.
Kids and the phone vote
The scorecard asks for no name, no email and no account. A ballot is a set of 1 to 5 ratings with nothing that identifies who tapped them, and the contest is deleted after 30 days. Nothing about a child is entered anywhere. I would still say on the sign who votes: grown-ups and teens use the phone, and younger children point at a favorite while a parent taps. The app has no sign-in, so it cannot stop one phone from voting twice. For a fun title that is fine. For a prize with real stakes, let the judges' sheet decide and call the phone vote the crowd's pick.
Ties
The phone vote ranks by average rating. When two cars have the same average, the one that more people rated goes first, because its average rests on more opinions. Cars with the same average and the same number of ratings share the place. On paper, I would settle a tie with one row: the judges re-score the two cars on creativity only. More on tie-breaks. Write the rule on the judges' clipboard before the first car is scored.
How the phone vote works
Type the entries in the order of their numbers. Guests open one link, see Entry 1, Entry 2 and so on, and rate each from 1 to 5. The ranking appears with the names when you close voting. A paper sheet suits a judging panel, and the link suits a people's choice vote.
Your guests open one link and tap 1 to 5 for each entry. You print a table card with the QR code. Free, no account for you or your guests, deleted after 30 days.
Start a trunk-or-treat scorecard. The title is filled in; add the cars by number and theme, then post the QR sign.
Create a scorecard See a sample contest