easy last minute Halloween costumes

We’re almost there, the sugar-high holiday known as Halloween! I know not everyone is a fan because of its origins as a holiday. And I know not everyone feels comfortable with having their “normal” celebrations this year. However, I also know several parents out there are trying to figure out what their kiddos will do this year. Today I’m talking to you—you overwhelmed, last-minute parent who has just realized their kid is still hoping for a fun costume for the spookiest night of the year. I’m sharing our family Halloween costume and one piece of it was pulled together in mere minutes. Plus, I’m sharing lots of other last-minute Halloween costumes if you’re in need of some inspiration! Links contain affiliates. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

A Hogwarts Halloween

This year I somehow convinced my kiddos that they should all be Hogwarts students. Actually, it was more like I told them—”you’re all going to be characters from Harry Potter this year!” and they just went with it. I think it was helpfuk that we had recently re-watched the entire series so the Harry Potter excitement was high.

Truth be told, I partially picked this family costume because I knew it would be easy. I could just purchase some Hogwarts robes and be done with it. My older four were content to be Hogwarts students. My dress-loving 2 year old makes a cute Hedwig in a dress from primary.com and a feathered skirt from Amazon.

a last-minute Halloween costume

Originally I had planned for baby girl to be Dobby. I already had Yoda ears I figured I could repurpose them. The rest of the costume would just consist of an old, torn tee. Easy enough, right? But then, depending on how you look at it, I unfortunately or thankfully saw this cute idea for a baby Mandrake costume and knew I had to make the switch.

This costume was perfect because I could baby-wear (so you could actually see her) and it was easy. The two main components of this costume are the baby Mandrake hat and the pot.

Baby Mandrake last minute Halloween costume.

I didn’t have a brown beanie for baby girl so I ordered this adorable little outfit from Amazon. It cost as much for both pieces as a crochet baby Mandrake hat off of Etsy. I love supporting small shops, but I also like to be practical. Baby girl will be able to get a ton of use out of this adorable outfit this winter.

All I did to make her leafy top is poke a stem of faux leaves through the top. Then I glued it to a piece of felt on the inside. After Halloween I can just take the leaves off and it will be a “normal” and adorable beanie again!

The pot is a plastic pot from Home Depot that we cut the bottom and a portion of the side out of with tin snips. I also glued a cute Mandrake warning sign on the side that I found on this website! We realized we didn’t even need to secure the pot onto the baby carrier since it’s flexible and can just slide around it.