Halloween is one of my favorite celebrations. As a child, I loved gathering with all of my friends and going trick or treating. Singing at every door – waiting to see if it would open. If it did, did we get good candy, handful or even money? It was a thrill.
Edited to add: Given growing concerns over internet safety, pictures with examples have been removed. I hope this post still helps you find inspiration.
In my case, candy was given directly to us kids while money was collected by the adults. The adults counted and sorted the money equally at the end of the night while we kids played hide and seek. The best $10 I ever got were on Halloween. I just felt so lucky!
My absolute favorite part of Halloween was coming up with my own costumes and being a unique “monster”.
With time trick or treating changed to costume parties and then to nothing at all. I also learned the world was more scary than I thought as a child and slowly trick or treaters faded. It was no longer 50-100 children knocking on the door but 2-5 kids. I noticed it wasn’t just my town but many others as well.
I enjoy Halloween as a celebration of all magical things that don’t really exist. I celebrate creativity and love the transformation a costume can make. My oldest, Eli, is not particularly a fan of Halloween but has recently taken up Five Nights at Freddys and it awoke a love for the occult. My second, Emi, has enjoyed Halloween since age 2. She has always loved skeletons, witches and ghosts; as long as they are cute – a girl after my own heart.
We are the type to enjoy Hocus Pocus, Halloweentown and Harry Potter all year long. I have a Hocus Pocus collection on display year round and we don’t mind wearing skelly pjs on Valentines Day. All this to say, we love Halloween. Just the cute bit.
I am not one to enjoy horror films or gore therefore the costumes I will share are more inspired by movies, characters or common ideas.
I focus mostly on costumes that celebrate what you already own because this makes it easy for those planning last minute and those on a tight budget. You are more than welcome to one up our ideas if your budget allows.
Individual Costumes:
Witch:
For a witch, you simply need one of these:
- witch hat – learn how to make your own here
- broom – usually made of straw
- spell book
- wand
- cloak – Tutorial coming soon – I made 3 in 1 day and I’m no expert haha
Two or more of these elements is great but a single one can convey your idea. A witch is simply a person that can cast spells. Think of a spell as a language; some may need a dictionary or spell book while others wont. A witch hat may or may not be a trend style choice like butterfly clips in the 90s and a broom is simply a method of transportation like a bike or car, not everyone owns one but most do.
Black is the most iconic color for witches to wear but don’t feel limited to do so. Wearing a dress and cloak is also very common.
A wand can be as simple as a stick from the ground. It should be mostly straight and smooth on all sides. This is easily accomplished by lightly sanding any stubs.
Princess:
A princess or prince can be as easy as a formal or sparkly outfit with a crown. You can get crowns made out of felt, metal or plastic. Chances are there is already one in your house. Don’t over complicate this one, its all in the walk and wave.
Pokemon Trainer + Poke Fan:
My husband and girls are fans of Pokemon. I never watched the show until they came along but always enjoyed the card game. As a poke fan now, it only seemed fitting to attempt a trainer costume.
In our case, we own Pokemon converse so we naturally added those into the costume. The girls wanted to match so they wore matching tops and jumpers. You can use whatever you like as in the world of Pokemon there’s no trainer uniform.
If you are a Pokemon fan and also own a switch, you may already own a poke ball. If you do, add it as part of your costume. If you don’t, you are better off buying a ball plush or making your own with a floral foam ball. You could even paint over a stress ball.
We added some Pokemon plushies and cards to complete the scene.
Go walk on some wild grass and have fun! Hope you encounter Pokemon other than Ratata.
Explorer:
Explorers was based on an African safari. We already owned the JP vehicle so this was easier to pull off than otherwise. If you have any type of ride on at home, you can spray paint the parts in cream and black to mimic the safari vehicles. Even black stroller look great with a little explorer.
Let’s talk about outfits. These were particularly easy in 2022 as big box retailers and small shops carried these styles of hats, dresses, shorts and tops.
Eli wore linen shorts, a red top and a green vest. Her boots completed the look.
Emi wore a dress and hat with sneakers.
Eppie wore a romper and a bow. We did have a hat for her but she took it off instantly.
You can wear almost anything linen in khaki and white and you will certainly look the part. Utility shorts and rompers could be the key search to find these online.
The best part of this costume is that it can be used at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, to the zoo and birthdays just as for Halloween.
Skeleton:
To create a skeleton grab some skeleton pjs and an eyeshadow palette. The key is to paint the face and hands black with eyeshadow and then detail the “bones” with white eyeshadow. You can paint the hair white with hair spray as well. You can see what items we got here. These skeleton pjs as extremely fun as they are glow in the dark; also useful for trick or treating. Additionally they are so comfortable that they can be used year long without any problems.
Group Costumes:
Of course we have to start with my all time favorite: Hocus Pocus
As a group of four, we dressed up as The Sanderson Sisters + Binx. I so excited that I finally had two more girls to help me bring this to life. We decided baby, Emi, would be Mary as it would be easiest to wear her black/purple hair than Sarah’s blonde or Winifred’s red.
It was a rather cold evening – around 40 degrees Fahrenheit therefore we had to layer quite a bit and the cloaks were no problem at all. I made ours out of velvet and lined them with fleece. For those worried about heat, I suggest a lace or tulle cloak instead of velvet or knit.
Mary wears a completely red outfit including a cloak. She has purplish hair that almost looks black. In our case, we used a top knot on the baby since she could not wear a wig and had no hair to mimic the iconic swirl.
I suggest grabbing a red dress and making your own cloak depending on the temperature. You can make this cloak quickly with no sewing skills. If you know how to sew, these will last longer but definitively not required.
Sarah wears a red dress and purple cloak in the original movie while the outfit in the sequel is entirely purple. She has blond long hair that is neither straight nor curly. It is just messy. So grab a wig and toss it around a but until it looks a tad messy. Sarah always wears a big smile and has a bubbly personality so make sure to smile wide.
Winnie wears green with purple detailing but her trademark is the big puffy red hair and puckered lips. Grab any green dress and a green cloak for her outfit. Complete her look with a Winifred wig.
Binx is a beloved character in the movie and much easier to DIY than Billy Butcherson and much more recognizable than Max. For Binx you will need black pants, black top and cat ears. Any black cat ears will do. If you have a tail, even better! Grab a black eye liner and paint the tip of your nose, then draw some whiskers on your cheeks.
Next up: Inside Out Emotions
Inside Out is a great movie about emotions and shows how each person has the same emotions, Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger but they behave differently depending on your life experiences. While we did these individually for pictures, it is much easier IRL as a group.
The emotions are generally shown in the same color scheme but having their own style depending their person so feel free to make these your own as we did.
Riley’s Joy is yellow with blue hair and a green outfit but we see other Joys defer in hair and outfit color, yellow being her signature. You may include floral prints or solids as well.
Riley’s Sadness is completely blue and wears a white sweater dress and round glasses. Others defer in clothing color with white being the most common. Although styles change, glasses are trademark along with her sad demeanor. Wearing blue and white is a good idea. Avoid wearing prints if possible.
Riley’s Disgust is completely green aside from her purple neck scarf and lip color. Others feature purple outfits. The neck scarf although super cute, is not required at all. A mostly green outfit with purple details should be perfect for Disgust.
Riley’s Anger wears formal clothing including a tie. His clothing varies colors in other peoples brain but keeps the style. A white button down and tie should be sufficient to portray this character but what makes Anger special from a corporate employee is his red skin and fire “hair” so include red as much as possible to avoid painting your whole body red.
Riley’s Fear is thin and purple. He wears a houndstooth sweater vest and red bow tie. In order to portray fear we sticked to purple as much as possible, adding details in black and white. This is where you can break out the prints in order to replace the houndstooth. We used plaid and stripes in lieu of houndstooth.
This costume is super cool because you can show your own style and easily wear what you own since there is no one way to dress.
Cinderella:
Our Cinderella costume revolved around Eli’s princess dress.
Cinderella
The dress is from Disney store but you can easily pull this as a group costume by using any light blue gown, blonde wig and a crown. She is highly recognizable especially if you wear “glass” slippers.
We reused the wig from Hocus Pocus and styled it short in order to resemble Cindy. Added a blue headband and heels to complete her princess look. The rest of the party dressed as mice with what we had.
Jaq / Jack Jack
If you look closely at Eli’s “cardigan” you can tell its really a tee shirt. It was the only orange long sleeve I could find in the house so, I cut a slit straight down the middle so it looked like a cardigan.
Her red dress is actually a tee shirt as well. It looks oversized as it is from Eli’s closet. I added leggings to hide her diaper. Don’t forget to pin a tail one that mouse with some black ribbon. You can aso add beanie ears to make the look complete. (See instructions below)
Gus
G wore jeans and a long sleeve waffle shirt that matched Gus mustard short sleeve tee. He also wore a red beanie with mouse ears and a tail. I made the beanie for the Jaq costume but Emi kept removing it so G wore it. This is why it is red instead of green.
To make the beanie ears – grab some hot glue and felt in a skin tone. Draw the ear shape on the felt and cut it out. Glue the ears to the beanie, matching the location of your ears to the mouse ears. Wait for the glue to dry and cool before wearing.
The tail was a black ribbon that I tied to the jean belt loop. You can hide this bit with the shirt or a belt.
Mary Mouse
I will be honest and say that this was not what I had in mind as Mary Mouse but it was the best I could find last minute. All in all, with everyone else, we pulled it off and got many compliments.
Mary Mouse or any other of the lady mice, wear dresses with aprons and matching hats. Most of the mice have monochrome outfits but not all so I decided to try the style concept and ditch the idea of matching the colors.
For the skirt you can layer two skirts together or wear a skirt with an apron. My skirt luckily was double layered like this without modifications. I wore a black top that matched the bottom layer of my skirt in order to match the elements as much as possible.
I also wore a black velvet crochet beret. For better or worse the beret was soft and didn’t hold the shape much. You have to really look to see it. I suggest making one out of felt as it will hold the triangular shape and its good enough for a night. It is also cheap and can’t be created by creasing and glueing.
I also wore a long thin ribbon tail that was pinned to my skirt to mimic the mouse tail.
Last detail for all mice is a big brown nose and whiskers. These elements were easy to accomplish with eyeliner. Just shade in the nose and then draw lines on the cheeks as whiskers.
Witch Coven:
You already know how to dress up as a witch, now grab your friends and make a coven!
Just goes to show that you don’t need a perfect costume to have fun and enjoy the night. Give yourself some credit, grab what you own and create. You can do this! If you do decide to try any of our costumes and ideas, please tag us on social so we can see. I can’t wait to see how you express your own creativity.
