Creative Halloween Costumes
One year we had some friends with the last name Baire and they had the greatest family costumes for Halloween- the baby was dressed in the most snuggly, adorable bear costume and the hubby and wife had teddy bears tied to their heads like hats. They were the best 3 Bears ever and it was hilarious. I knew right then that we had future Halloween plans.
So every year we hash around trying to come up with a creative costume theme that is acceptable to all involved. This is getting trickier every year as we get more and more people with opinions.
When they were all little they were very easily swayed to be what I came up with, but as they've gotten older I've found that the key is to choose a wide theme that gives options for everyone to feel like they get a choice.
Here are the family costume themes we've done since we started back in 2011. I apologize in advance for the horrible/lack of photos. I'm one that loves the creating and am not so great at the documenting.
Yeah. Obviously.
But hopefully these will give you some inspiration.
Also, I know I spend a stupid amount of time making crud, but it's super fun for me. If that seems horrid to you, then know you have my full support to Amazon Prime your Halloween blues away.
Because I'm really sure you care what I think.
Oh, and also know that any links are not sponsored.
Halloween Theme 2011:
ZOO
This was an appropriate theme, one that seems even more accurate today.
This one is also one of the easiest themes we've done.
The kids just wore store bought animal costumes we borrowed and we wore tan tshirts with jeans. I ironed on "Zoo Keepers" across the back and "Family Zoo" on the front top corner. I also printed out/laminated a small Zoo Keeper sign I pinned to the front of some tan sun hats we owned.
Halloween Theme 2012:
SUPERHEROS
I made most of this out of felt- the masks, the cuffs, the stars I sewed on the shirts. The baby even had a tiny mask that was adorable. The belts were just wide ribbon I velcroed in the back, sliding on a felt buckle. The masks were attached to elastic and the cuffs were velcroed too. The trickiest part were the capes and those aren't really all that hard.
Oh my gosh, he's so tiny and sweet!
I sewed everything onto the baby's onesie, velcroing the cape to the shoulders as to not cause a choking hazard.
The robber costumes were easy after I made the masks. All I had to do was cut off the fingers from my Dollar Tree gloves. We found our hats there too.
For the record, I STINK at sewing. For real it wasn't all that long ago that I was mocked for calling the thread 'string'. So what I'm saying is that if I managed to pull this off, just about anyone could. I'm not saying it was quick, because for sure it wasn't, but it wasn't hard.
Halloween Theme 2013:
FOOTBALL
No joke, this one took some major time. I painted everything on those dang shirts, both the jerseys and the ref shirts. They all started as white tshirts. I couldn't find ref shirts anywhere, hence the usage of an entire roll of masking tape. I bought the boys too small sweats with elastic around the bottom of the leg and had them wear too big socks pulled straight up. I pinned rolled socks under the shoulder of the shirt for shoulder pads.
I just got the baby a brown onesie and sewed white cut out felt to look like the lacing. And I might have had to buy those leg warmers from BabyLegs because, well, look at them.
I was pretty proud of this one! Good thing, because this was the beginning of the end of me running the show.
Halloween Theme 2014:
SPOOKY
This is the year my oldest decided HE was choosing the theme. His bat costume was just a Batman mask he really wanted to wear that we paired with black thermals. I sewed on some black boning on the felt I made his wings out of to give them some form and then just sewed them to the arms and side of the shirt.
My ghost was just black construction paper taped on my baby belly.
The scarecrow was pretty easy; I just quick stitched on a couple patches with scrap fabric and stuffed them with some hay. Plaid shirt and overalls all the way!
The crows were from the Dollar Tree that I just attached to the plain black tshirt and hat with their metal wires.
The skeleton was a snap: hello skeleton pjs! I did make a skeleton mask out of black and white felt that I stuffed and attached elastic. Check it out down below in 2017- the 5 yr old is wearing it.
Halloween Theme 2015:
SPACE
Man, this was such a bummer. These costumes were so awesome and such horrible pics!
Matt wore a tshirt with a pic of Pluto and the saying, "You heard about Pluto? That's messed up."
I just wore black and pinned gold metallic stars on me. Boom. Easiest constellation costume.
For the astronaut I used multiple rolls of white duck tape and taped up a jacket and snow pants I got at the thrift store then attached astronaut badges on it with clear packing tape. It was truly one of my finest masterpieces and I got ZERO pictures of it. Freaking thing took so long. I skipped doing a helmet at all after looking into options, mostly because I was pretty done with the costume at that point.
The Robot was cut out of an Amazon box and spray painted with knobs and dials I made. Sorry, but he was adorable and loved that thing so much.
The alien was a fun one. I bought bright green fleece and, using a hat we had as a pattern, made one with an antenna and ears. Then I free made 3 fingered mittens out of the same fleece.
The Sun was just a yellow onesie with an amazing yellow tulle skirt I found at a thrift store. I was going to make one out of tulle strips with a ribbon tie but that find was a no brainer. Then I made a fleece hat out of yellow and orange. I just adapted a dinosaur hat, making the spikes a little bigger and turning the hat sideways. She also wore really cute ruffly leg warmers.
Halloween Theme 2016:
STAR WARS
Darth Vadar's outfit was a brilliant reuse of both the mask and the tux shirt from earlier events.
Princess Leia's dress was made out of some cheap, stretchy fabric I got at Joanns. I traced a dress in her size, making the sleeves super wide. I found an awesome adult belt for her at a thrift store and just cut it. And of course had to put her baby hair into the sweetest little buns ever.
For my pregnant Yoda I just made felt ears and attached them to a headband then just wore tan. My outfit was an afterthought (as they usually are) that I was pretty proud of.
For the Storm Trooper, I'd like to thank Costco for an easy, no work costume.
My Mom made Luke's robe for his bday gift. I made his belt out of a faux leather and it took forever. You can't really see it in the pic, but we wrapped his lower legs down to his tan shoes with an ace bandage.
Han's belt was WAY easier. I just cut a big, wide adult belt for his and sewed a couple pouches and duck taped them on it on the back. I bought some black stretchy leathery looking faux leather I made for boot tops and had him put them on top of his black church shoes. His vest is just a black tshirt I bought at a thrift store and cut up. The grey blur in his hand is a Dollar Tree cap gun I spray painted all grey.
Halloween Theme 2017:
HOLIDAYS
Ok, this was my favorite idea of all of them and it just came to me like a week before Halloween as I desperately walked through the house, looking for inspiration. I walked into the garage and saw the holiday storage tubs and boom. Problem solved.
Christmas came out of our Xmas stuff. Easy. These are the battery lights.
The Black Friday sign was cardstock glued to foam board. I used chalkboard markers to write it, although you could definitely just print it. And I got to wear black again, so that was awesome.
I ordered that turkey thing from Amazon and prayed it would fit over my 5 1/2 month old's sweet chubby body as it was for newborns. It was a bit snug but totally worked. I got a brown onesie to put under it and leg warmers it to keep her warm.
The Leprechaun costume was mostly from the thrift store. The green striped socks were actually leg warmers. That amazing jacket was a thrift store kid's white chef coat I dyed. The color didn't quite turn out right but it worked. The bow tie was in our St. Patrick's Day stash and was from the Dollar Tree originally.
We ordered the Independent's Day costume very happily off Amazon.
Mr. Halloween's mask and pjs were a reuse from 2014. Hooray.
On our way out the door we realized that maybe our theme wouldn't be obvious so we quickly whipped out some Hello, My Name is stickers and that seemed to do the trick.
And as I look over the costumes I am happy to report that 3 out of the 7 years here I was wearing all black. With 5 kids in 10 years I was always pregnant or enjoying my post pregnancy body, so I say that's probably the thing I'm the most proud of.
Happy Halloween everyone!
