How do you render a set of checkboxes without using drupal_get_form()? I want to use a '#type' => 'checkboxes' render array to display some checkboxes on the page. They aren't going to be part of a form that ever gets submitted, as they are purely for browser-side user interaction. So I don't need any of the extra functionality provided by drupal_get_form(). I just need a few &lt;input type="checkbox"&gt; elements.

Unfortunately, Drupal appears to simply refuse to render '#type' => 'checkboxes' render arrays unless you pass the array through drupal_get_form(). When I try, absolutely nothing except 

&lt;div class="form-item form-type-checkboxes"&gt;
 &lt;label&gt;Landmarks&lt;/label&gt;
 &lt;div class="form-checkboxes"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;


gets rendered.

Is there any way to get Drupal to render an &lt;input type="checkbox"&gt; element without using drupal_get_form()?
...I just need a few &lt;input type="checkbox"&gt; elements.


Just render it as plain html, and if you absolutely want a render array, then create your own theme function for it.

$variables['content']['checkboxes'] = array(
    '#markup' =&gt; '&lt;div class="display"&gt; Please select every sport that you play.&lt;br&gt; Soccer: &lt;input type="checkbox" name="sports" value="soccer"&gt;&lt;br&gt; Football: &lt;input type="checkbox" name="sports" value="football"&gt;&lt;br&gt; Baseball: &lt;input type="checkbox" name="sports" value="baseball"&gt;&lt;br&gt; Basketball: &lt;input type="checkbox" name="sports" value="basketball"&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;'
);