Simple Family Halloween Costume Ideas
I absolutely love a family Halloween costume and it was one of our favorite family traditions for years! Here are a few of our favorite family Halloween costumes from the archives, along with a few ideas for your family Halloween costume this year.
My family starts planning our Halloween costumes well before October rolls around, and I assume we aren’t alone. My kids absolutely love planning their costumes, and over the years I’ve gotten really into it too. These days, my kids have very different preferences for their Halloween celebration, but there was a streak of years where we all managed to agree on a family costume. It was so fun, and they’re some of my favorite memories ever.
Today, I’m sharing every family costume we’ve done, along with a bunch of other ideas for you in case you want to try it yourself. I’ve learned the key is to think of something your family all agrees on loving, and build from there. You can start with a favorite show or movie, or a memory from the year that meant something to you.
Here are six years of family costume ideas from our family archives, plus 10 more ideas to get you started.
6 Coordinated Family Costumes We Loved
Here’s a roundup of the family costumes we’ve done over the years. They’re all really simple to put together, perfect for the family who likes to keep it low-key! I’m sharing them in the order we did them – you can see how we got better at documenting the costumes over the years. After lots of practice, my recommendation is to pick a spot in your home or front yard that gets great natural light and provides a nice, neutral backdrop. Take a moment as you’re heading out the door to trick or treat to snap a photo – you’ll cherish them forever!
Circus
Our first ever “family” costume was actually just the kids. My oldest had seen The Greatest Showman that year and it was his absolute favorite. It was a no-brainer to put the baby in an elephant costume, and they were so cute together! If we were to join in, we could have done a clown, a lion, or a trapeze artist!
Harry Potter
The next year, my oldest hd been reading Harry Potter for the first time and it was huge in our house. So, of course, he had to be Harry Potter himself. My younger son was a toddler and didn’t really have any strong opinions about his costume, so he became the cutest Hedwig the owl of all time. My husband and I put very little effort into our costumes (it was our first year dressing up as adults!), but everyone knew who we were, which is all that mattered.
This year, our costumes were:
- Harry Potter
- Hedwig
- Professor Dumbledore (just a robe and a big ol’ wig)
- Professor McGonagall (a robe, witch hat, and spectacles!)
Addams Family
The next year, the current obsession in our house was Addams family! Do you see the theme here? It’s so easy to take something that your kids have loved that year and turn it into an easy family costume. We had a ton of fun with this one and my oldest son’s costume was my FAVORITE. Also, the first time I fully made a DIY Halloween costume!
We were:
- Morticia & Gomez
- Lurch
- Cousin It (all tan outfit, plus a hat with yard hot glued in!)
Classic Monsters
At this point, we were really getting into the family costume thing and having a ton of fun planning them out. We didn’t have a huge obsession in our house that year but my youngest son really wanted to be a skeleton, so we figured we’d go with classic movie monsters! It was a really easy one to put together since it’s one of the most common Halloween costumes, and there are lots of options.
We were:
- A werewolf
- A witch
- The Grim Reaper
- A skeleton
Disney Favorites
The first year after we went to Disney World, we all agreed to put together costumes based on our favorite characters from the Fab Five. It’s still probably my favorite family costume we’ve ever done because so many sweet memories are attached to it! If Disney isn’t your thing, think about other special family memories you created and try to make a family costume based on that! This was a really easy one for us to put together since these costumes are super popular.
We went with:
- Mickey & Minnie (here’s the dress I wore!)
- Donald Duck
- Pluto
Villains
The following year, we were still very much on a Disney kick (and the kids were starting to pull away from the family costume thing and getting a lot more opinionated), so we rallied for one last hurrah and went with our favorite Disney villains. I loved this year, even if my youngest changed his mind on 90% of his (very difficult to coordinate) costume at the last second.
We were:
- Sid from Toy Story
- Maleficent
- Hook
- Hades (we were supposed to dye his hair blue!)
We haven’t done a family costume since this year – the kids have been wanting to do their own things. I’m hoping to talk them into it this year (my younger son wants to be Ghostface, so we could do classic horror movies!), but we’ll see what happens.
Easy Family Halloween Costume Ideas
If you want some other easy-to-plan ideas for your family Halloween costumes this year, I’ve got you covered! Here are 10 more family Halloween costume ideas for you.
- Pokemon + Pokemon trainers
- Mario characters
- Superheroes
- Wizard of Oz
- Different crayon colors
- Toy Story characters
- Star Wars characters
- A family of scarecrows
- Inside Out characters
- Bluey characters
I hope this gives you some inspiration for your family Halloween costume this year! I’ll just be over here trying to convince my kids it’s still a cool idea. Wish me luck!