Trick-or-Treat Signs | Ideas & Tools to Create Your Own

It’s spooky season! And for anyone who celebrates Halloween, it’s time to start planning for the arrival of this year’s trick-or-treaters. Signs are an informative and decorative tool to let little candy seekers know what to expect, whether you’re open for business, out trick-or-treating yourself, or not celebrating this year.

All of the signs in this article were created using QuillBot’s free AI image generator. If you want to create a fully customized sign, you can use it to bring your idea to life!

Trick-or-treat sign ideas

There are a few reasons you might need a trick-or-treat sign on Halloween night. See below for some ideas and what to write on each.

Tell trick-or-treaters you’re expecting them!

Leaving your porch light on and putting up decorations signal to trick-or-treaters that you’re open for business. But if you want to make it even clearer, a sign can be a great way to welcome trick-or-treaters. The following messages will do the trick!

• Trick-or-treaters welcome
• No tricks, just treats!
• Looking for a Halloween scare? Ring the bell… if you dare!
• Trick or treat!

A “trick-or-treaters welcome” sign

Take one piece of candy signs

Sometimes it can be helpful to let eager trick-or-treaters know that candy is to be shared, especially if you’ve left it out for them to help themselves! There are lots of ways to politely remind them to only take one or two pieces.

• Please take one
• Take one… or two if you dare!
• Trick or treat, take one sweet!
• Please be kind and just take one, so everyone can enjoy the fun
• Please take only one or two, so others can enjoy Halloween too
• Help yourself to just one treat, or next time you’ll have to smell my feet!

A “please take one” sign

Let everyone know you don’t have candy

Sometimes it’s hard to anticipate how many trick-or-treaters you’ll see on Halloween. If you’re worried about running out, it’s a good idea to have an “out of candy” sign ready to avoid disappointed trick-or-treaters showing up at your door. One of the following messages will do the job.

• Out of candy
• No trick, we’re out of treats!
• Boo! No more candy.
• Eeek! We’re out of treats.

An “out of candy” sign

Share that you’ll be back soon

You might have your own trick-or-treating to get done on Halloween! If you have to step out for a bit, leave a sign to let trick-or-treaters know that you’ll be back, or to let them know they can help themselves.

• We’re out trick-or-treating, just like you. Help yourself to one or two!
• Gone trick-or-treating! We’ll be back soon.
• We’ve gone out to trick-or-treat. Help yourself to just one treat.
• Since we’ve gone to trick-or-treat, help yourself to something sweet

A “be back soon” sign

Signs for if you don’t celebrate Halloween

Halloween isn’t for everyone. If you won’t be celebrating this year, you can put up a sign to let trick-or-treaters know (and avoid unnecessary knocking on your door). Try one of the following polite messages.

• In this home, we don’t celebrate Halloween. Please don’t knock or ring the doorbell. Thank you!
• Sorry, we don’t celebrate Halloween. Have a fun and safe evening!
• No trick-or-treaters, please!
• No candy here, sorry!

No trick-or-treaters sign

Create your own printable sign

All of the example signs here were created using QuillBot’s free AI image generator. You can create your own in just a few seconds. Just describe what exactly you’re looking for (the more detail, the better!), or see our article on writing AI image prompts.

Frequently asked questions about trick-or-treat signs

Do you capitalize Halloween?

You should capitalize the first letter of Halloween when you use this word in sentences or Halloween sayings. Because holidays like Halloween are proper nouns, they should always be capitalized.

Which costume are you wearing on Halloween?

In 2025, Halloween will be on a Friday.

We should buy extra Halloween candy in case we get a lot of trick or treaters.

QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker can help you avoid capitalization errors with “Halloween” and other holidays.

What does Halloween mean?

Halloween means “the night before All Saints’ Day.” Halloween is a holiday on October 31 that involves dressing up in costumes and trick-or-treating (knocking on doors to ask for candy).

Halloween costumes and Halloween sayings have traditionally been associated with death (e.g., ghosts and skeletons) because the holiday is celebrated the night before All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day–Christian holy days that honor saints and those who have passed. All Saints’ Day used to be called “All Hallows’ Day.”

The word “Halloween” is a contraction for the old English words “hallows” (saints) and “even” (evening). In some parts of the world, “Hallowe’en” has an apostrophe.

QuillBot’s free Paraphrasing Tool can help you polish your Halloween messages.

What does trick or treat mean?

Trick or treat means “give me a treat, or I will play a trick on you.” It’s a traditional Halloween saying that children use when they knock on doors in costumes to ask for candy on Halloween night.

You can also use “trick or treat” as a verb (e.g., “We’re trick or treating with our cousins this year”).

“Trick or treater” is the noun for the children who trick or treat on Halloween.

The Halloween saying “trick or treat” originates from Irish and Scottish All Hallows’ Eve traditions from the Middle Ages, when young people dressed up in costumes and performed a trick (e.g., a joke or a song) for each household in exchange for a treat.

The Halloween saying “trick or treat” came about in the early 1900s in the United States after pranks and mischief had become common Halloween activities. By this time, children no longer exchanged antics for treats but rather offered each household the choice of giving treats or getting pranked.

QuillBot’s free Paraphrasing Tool can help you use Halloween sayings like “trick or treat” correctly.