Halloween Costume Ideas 2025

“We Never Go Out of Style”//Posing together, sophomore Natalia Arieli and junior Rose Anderson dress as different styles of the famous music artist Taylor Swift, inspired by her music videos. As Halloween quickly approaches, this is just one of many different costumes you can coordinate with a friend and do it DIY style with low price and little stress. (Photo by Natalia Arieli)

Halloween is a fun holiday, hanging out with friends, eating an unlimited supply of candy, and watching scary movies at 11:00pm, but there is one other huge part of Halloween: the costumes. Picture this: you’re eating some pretzels and watching some funny Tiktoks when suddenly you get a text from your friend, asking, “soo… What are we being for Halloween?” You check the date. It’s October 30th. Oh boy. You only have one day of the year to dress up as whatever you want and not be made fun of, so choosing a Halloween costume can be a hard decision to make. Whether you’re looking for a funny solo costume, a cheesy couples duet, or a huge group costume, Halloween costume planning is important as the spooky holiday approaches, and sometimes you need a little inspiration to choose something both cute and fun.

1. Solo Costumes

For those of you who are somewhat introverted or want to be the center of attention and do a solo costume, here are some ideas. First, a classic, the blow-up costumes. This is a pretty popular costume idea, so it is pretty easy to find, anywhere from Spirit Halloween to Amazon. For those of you looking for some comedy and want to be your silly self on Halloween, this costume is for you. There is so much variety too, you could be an alien, a hamster, a piggyback costume, even a dinosaur. You can even find different variations of each of these costumes. For instance, with the blow-up dinosaur costumes, there is a plethora of colors like green, brown, or purple. Some of these costumes make you look a lot taller than you are (helpful to my shorter friends), and you’ll definitely be the center of attention walking around holding a bucket of candy. One warning, however, is that this costume definitely scares some kids, so please be nice as you’re walking by.

Another great solo costume idea is your favorite book, movie, or TV show character. This could help show off your obsession with Harry Potter or Stranger Things to anyone who didn’t want to, but needed to know. These costumes tend to be more of a cosplay, and oftentimes are more expensive, yet there is some flexibility in which choice of costume you want to wear. For example, if you were looking to be Katniss Everdeen, from The Hunger Games, you could choose the iconic black body suit with a golden pin from the games, or you could choose to wear her flaming red dress (but please don’t put actual fire on it). For some costumes, you can even DIY some things or find different components from your Eleven costume at the dollar store or Amazon to aim for a cheaper experience. For example, fake blood that won’t come off your skin for a couple of days or a patient costume from the doctor’s office.

The last solo costume idea is a music artist. All different music artists have different iconic outfits and styles, which is why people would definitely know who you are in those costumes. These could also be pretty easy to find or make, as there are tons of concert outfit ideas you can find online on platforms like Pinterest. Whether you’re aspiring to be Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, or Drake, there are tons of different costume ideas you can find inspired by their iconic outfits. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even amaze everyone with that amazing voice of yours, so much so that you get posted on social media and get hired by your favorite artist!

2. Couples’ Costumes

Next, we move on to cheesy couples’ costumes. Now, this part won’t include just costume ideas for couples, but also for a set of best friends looking for ideas. The first duo costume category is movie partners. For example, one really cute option is Woody and Little Bo Peep from Toy Story, which could be found pretty much in any Halloween costume shop, and is the cutest idea for a cheesy couple. Another great one is Rapunzel and Flynn Rider from Tangled. With a cute purple dress, a frying pan, and a chameleon, you can easily pull this off. Some other ideas are Mike and Cecilia or Sharkboy and Lava Girl. For best friends, you could do a classic Elphaba and Glinda from Wicked, which could easily be found with a pink or black dress from Windsor, a tiara, and a witch’s hat. Another cute idea for a more funny and spooky approach is the Shining twins. If your best friend looks especially like you, this could be a win.

The next duo/couples’ costume category is for all the comedians out there. These are all the funny and unique costumes that you can do with your partner or bestie. For example, you could be construction cones, which could be pulled off with a ginormous and bright orange construction vest and an actual construction cone, which you can probably find in the middle of the street somewhere. (Just kidding, please don’t pick up a construction cone in the street; I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.) Another funny one is you could be different types of cereals. All you need for this one is your favorite cereal box taped to your shirt, and you can dress up as the characters on the box. For example, the leprechaun from Lucky Charms or Toucan Sam from Froot Loops.

3. Group Costumes

Now that we’ve covered quite a lot of duos and couples costumes, we go on to the final category: group costumes. From big to little groups, there is something for everyone in this category! One really cute idea is a classic from all of our childhoods: My Little Pony. This is especially great for a group of 6, and you can find different ribbons for the different color combinations with your character to put in your hair, and stickers or face paint of their cutie marks. Another great one that is also super funny is Shrek characters. There are plenty of characters in Shrek that could also show off each friend group member's personality. For example, you can give the short one Lord Farquad and the class clown Donkey. Some other group ideas include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Lorax, and Disney Princesses.

Now, onto smaller group costumes. For example, if you have a group of three, a great costume idea could be Alvin and the Chipmunks. These are a great DIY option. All you need are some ears, face paint, and a green, blue, and red hoodie. Minions are another great option, which you could then finally use your banana sitting in the fruit bowl. Some other smaller group ideas are the Three Blind Mice, Clueless characters, and Winnie the Pooh characters.

Now, after reading this, hopefully you won't go and text your friend that you have no idea what to wear for Halloween. Whether you're a solo, duo, trio, or large group, you should find some costume ideas that you think would be worth it to invest in for the one day you get to wear them. Even if you’re not going trick-or-treating, dressing up is the best part of Halloween, so why not partake in it this year? Whatever you decide to be, a princess, blow-up dinosaur costume, or Lord Farquad, be sure to plan it out, but most importantly, make sure to have an amazing Halloween this year.