It was a “Thriller ” day for Southeast Texans Saturday evening when several churches around the community showered children with sugary treats, games and decorations, striving to put members in a whimsical Halloween world.

Normally, young trick-or-treaters journey through the neighbors, scouting out houses that look candy worthy, but members of East Mount Olive Baptist Church of Port Arthur, 800 Thomas Blvd., gathered their sweet treasure in the parking lot.

“I was sleepy and just decided to come here and I had so much fun,” James Banks, a Woodrow Wilson Middle School student, said. “We had ‘trunk-or-treat’ where we went to the trunks of the cars and found candy, stuffed animals and prizes.”

Sponsored by the Ruth Circle, a group that organizes all the holiday events for the church every year, “Hallelujah trunk-or-treat” was the church’s way of celebrating Halloween in a cordial and timely manner.

“It’s just fun for young children and it’s a way of having fun and still teaching them about God,” Sebrina Clark, president of Ruth Circle, said. “We chose the afternoon so they still have time to spend with family.”

With several games stationed in every room, luring members in with orange streamers and speckles of Halloween graffiti, members of First United Methodist Church of Port Neches, 1826 Nall St., had a lot of ground to cover to rack up all the activities planned for the day.

“I come to pop the balloons,” Andrew Angioni, an eighth grade Port Neches Middle School student, said. “Not to mention, I like to help out and I have friends and family here.”

Dressed in a “vote for Pedro” Napoleon Dynamite costume, Angioni was among hundreds of others in the Port Neches community who not only came for the games but to finish off the last of the “pumpkin patch.”

“We sold about 1,800 pumpkins today,” the Rev. Peter Cammarano said. “That is absolutely amazing.”

The church harvested a batch of ripe, round huge pumpkins which Cammarano said a lot of people enjoyed taking home to keep.

The game that had people pouring out into the hallway was the cakewalk. Ferries, transformers, mad scientists, and others walked laps around pumpkins striving to win a homemade pumpkin face cake.

In prior years, Cammarano said the church normally used one theme when celebrating Halloween, but this time to attract more people, members of First United Methodist Church decided to mesh all the activities from the past into one festival.

“This is our first time hosting Fall Festival, but this time since we linked trunk-or-treat and fall fest together more people came,” Cammarano said.

Still instilling the word of God to the community, Cammarano said sometimes having fun is part of the religious experience too.

“I believe church should be a fun place where families and friends can get together,” Cammarano said. “Too many people think religion is about judging, but for us it’s about Grace.”

Meeting mom’s approval, several parents were pleased with this year’s Fall Festival.

“I really appreciate organizations and churches that do this because nowadays it’s dangerous to take your children out into the neighborhood so this is a good, clean way for the kids to have fun,” Miranda Comeaux, a new Port Neches resident, said.

rbrown@panews.com