This article is about the Proxi admin app at app.proxi.co.
A trick-or-treat map is one of the most-loved things a community can publish — and because the community fills it in for you, it's also one of the easiest to run. Here's the full build, plus how to level it up into a decorated-house contest or downtown candy crawl.
1. Create the Map and Set the Mood
Create a new map from the Maps page and name it — "Maple Grove Trick-or-Treat Map." Then in the editor, open Display → Map style and pick Spooky (yes, there's a Halloween map style — Holiday and Winter are there for December too). In Branding, set an orange-and-black color pair and drop in your organization's logo.
2. Set Up Your Categories
Click Fields, expand Category, and use Paste list to add your set in one go: "Trick-or-Treat Homes, Trunk-or-Treat, Haunted Houses, Business Treat Stops, Decorated Houses."
Click each one, then Edit marker — the Icon search has plenty of seasonal options, or upload your own pumpkin via Custom image.
Add two more fields families genuinely use (click Add a field for each):
A checkbox called "Teal Pumpkin (allergy-friendly treats)" — for houses offering non-food treats.
A checkbox called "Full-size candy bars" — if you want the neighborhood buzzing, this is the filter that does it.
In Filters → Field filters, turn on Category (fan it out) plus both checkboxes, so families can find teal-pumpkin houses at a tap.
3. Seed It, Then Let the Community Fill It In
Add the anchors yourself first — the trunk-or-treat lot, the haunted house, downtown treat stops — by double-clicking their spots on the map. A map with 15 places already on it gets far more submissions than an empty one.
Then open the floodgates. On your collection page, click Public submissions:
Switch submissions on, and keep Require approval before publishing on — every house waits for your OK before appearing.
Click Edit Form and make it warm and short. Public title: "Add your house to the Trick-or-Treat Map!" Description: "Handing out candy this year? Put yourself on the map — it takes about a minute." Keep the fields to address, category, and your two checkboxes; every extra question costs you submissions.
Click Share for the public form link and an embed code for your website. Post the link in neighborhood Facebook groups, the school newsletter, and Nextdoor — those three do most of the work.
As submissions roll in, the Review button on your collection wears a badge. Open it, glance at each entry, and click Approve — the house appears on the map immediately. (See Collecting Places From Your Community.)
4. Add Times for Event-Style Entries
Some entries aren't all-night candy stops — the trunk-or-treat runs 5–7pm, the haunted house is weekends only. Add a field for that: Fields → Add a field, name it "When," choose the Date & time type, and fill it in on those places (use Repeats for the weekends-only haunted house). Then in Filters, turn on Show date filter with Hide past events by default — on the night itself, families see what's still happening. (See Adding Dates and Hours to Places.)
5. Share It Everywhere
In the editor's Sharing section, set a festive Preview image — that's the picture that shows every time the map link gets passed around a Facebook group, and it's the difference between a link people scroll past and one they tap.
Embed the map on your website, and grab the QR code for flyers at schools, libraries, and coffee shops. (See Sharing and Embedding Your Map.)
Publishing before the houses are all in is fine — the map grows live as you approve submissions, which itself gives people a reason to keep checking back.
6. Level Up: Make It a Game
Want more than a map? Create an experience from the same collection — go to Passports (or Scavenger Hunts) in the sidebar, click New, and choose Use existing collection in the wizard so it stays synced with the map:
Decorated-house contest — a passport with Photo Check-in turned on in Check-in Methods. Families snap each decorated house they visit; set Photo Instructions ("Get the whole display in frame!") and let the photo feed become your community gallery. Leave photos on manual approve the first year.
Downtown candy crawl scavenger hunt — clue-by-clue hunting where each shop gets a Clue and optional Hint. Kids collect candy, parents discover businesses they've never been inside.
In Awards & Badges, add "Visited 10 Houses" (Success Criteria: Places, threshold 10) with a Completion Message pointing to a small prize — a coffee shop gift card goes a long way.
Register yourself as a tester and walk a block before launch (see Testing Your Challenge or Scavenger Hunt Before Launch), set the Schedule to your event window, and flip it Live.
Beyond the Map: Running a Great Halloween Event
Tips from organizations that run these every year:
For downtown trick-or-treating, go early and short. A tight 2-hour window (say 3:30–5:30) gets kids out before dark and gives businesses concentrated foot traffic. Mark participating stores visibly — the common convention is a bright pumpkin sign in the window — and your map is the published version of that list.
Take the teal pumpkin seriously. FARE's Teal Pumpkin Project has free printable signs, non-food treat ideas (glow sticks, stickers, small toys), and a national registry allergy families actually search. Keep non-food treats in a separate bowl from candy, and encourage your teal households to register with FARE too.
Plan for traffic. Child pedestrian injuries are more likely on Halloween than any other night of the year. Coordinate crossing points or close the street, and hand out glow sticks — cheap, beloved, and doubles as visibility gear.
Trunk-or-treat logistics: hold it the Friday or Saturday before Halloween, have decorated cars registered ahead and parked an hour early so nothing moves once kids are walking, and estimate two candy pieces per child per trunk — then double it.
Decorated-house contests that work: nominations due about 10 days before Halloween, community voting for about a week, gift cards to local businesses as prizes (keeps the money downtown), and two simple rules up front — family-friendly only, decorated by the resident. Your map of entries is both the ballot and the driving tour.
Promote 3–4 weeks out: a Facebook event with participating businesses added as co-hosts (so it shows on their pages too), posters in storefronts, and the school newsletter. A public map is itself a promotion asset — people share it.