Are you looking for fun and recognizable Halloween costume ideas for your whole gang? Level up with these Super Mario Family Costumes! I’m sharing all my DIY ideas and inspiration to help you pull off this fun theme that is a perfect fit for any size family! Heaven knows themes are getting limited with seven family members!
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It’s that time of year again! When everything gets put on hold so we can pull off some epic Halloween costumes! Okay, that is a little bit of an exaggeration, but let’s just say its always crunch time the last few weeks leading up to Halloween.
The intention for this year was to create circus themed costumes for the entire family since it got pushed aside last year for Star Wars Costumes because my boys had a major fetish for the films. Well, that plan fell to the wayside yet again with the recently released movie, Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Family Theme for our Halloween Costumes
I had heard my kids singing “Peaches, Peaches, Peaches, Peaches, Peaches” before I ever sat down to watch the film, and I honestly had no desire to see it. My husband had shown short clips of the film to the kids, so when the movie came out, they were over the moon to see it!
My husband picked the film for our family’s Friday “Pizza and a Movie Night (we rotate through the family when you reach the age of 3, who gets to pick the movie) and I was obliged, by tradition, to watch it.
To my surprise, it was a fun and entertaining movie. My boys were in LOVE with it and enjoyed singing the songs, quoting the lines, and even learning a few of the songs on the piano. This was right around the end of August, which is when my thoughts begin focusing on Halloween costume ideas for the family. Since the current craze was Super Mario Bros., I thought why not capitalize on it by immersing ourselves into the theme by dressing up in Super Mario family costumes for Halloween!
The boys were ecstatic and I had a lot of fun letting my brain run wild with all the different Super Mario character possibilities I could go with for Halloween!
So once again, the circus theme got pushed aside, this time for the Super Mario Bros. theme. Maybe one of these years it will make it on the list below of our Halloween family costumes. 🙂
- Alice in Wonderland Costumes
- Firefighter Family Costumes
- Peter Pan Family Costumes
- Star Wars Costumes
- Wizard of Oz Family Costumes
What Super Mario character should I dress up as?
This year, I left it up to my boys to decide who would be which Super Mario character for Halloween. Size was a big factor in their decisions. When I suggested Sissy should be Princess Peach, they hesitated and said she was too little for the part, and instead suggested that since I was big, that I should be Princess Peach. Thanks… I think.
They also wanted to be sure that we represented the main characters of the film. So we made a short list of the main ones and picked family members to fill each one. My three year old REALLY wanted to be the Kooper General, so that character was added to the list. 🙂
Super Mario Family Costumes DIY
The Super Mario theme for Halloween was super fun to carry out! There are so many unique recognizable characters that a family or large group can easily find a character for everyone to dress up as.
There are loads of great options for purchasing pre-made Super Mario costumes for the family that can save you a ton of time and hassle. Especially if you want to enjoy the Halloween season without the stress of DIY projects! That’s what I opted for when it came to the Donkey Kong costume.
Or if you have a bit of the creative bug, you could choose to DIY a costume or two. This doesn’t necessarily mean making everything from scratch, but instead buying several things and then piecemealing them altogether. But sometimes what you need for a costume isn’t being sold (or it isn’t being made as well you would like), then you have to get creative.
I did a combination of all three this year with our Super Mario family costumes and thankfully it all came together in time for our church’s Trunk-or-Treat!
If you are looking for Trunk-or-Treat invitations for your school/church/community, be sure to click on the link to grab your free editable invites!
I learned a ton, so as always, I am excited to share with ya’ll the DIY inspiration, very helpful youtube videos, and Amazon finds so that you can create your own stellar Super Mario family costumes for Halloween!
Feel free to click on the links to take you directly to the Super Mario Bros. characters you would like to learn more about and DIY!
- Super Mario and Luigi Costumes
- Adult Princess Peach Costume
- Bowser Costume
- Donkey Kong Costume
- DIY Koopa General Costume
- Toad Costume for Toddler Girls
Along with our DIY Super Mario Family Costumes be sure to check out our freakishly awesome Super Mario Trunk of Bowser’s Castle (Post coming soon!). I’ll need to apologize beforehand because “Peaches, Peaches, Peaches, Peaches, Peaches” will definitely get stuck in your head!
Easy DIY Super Mario and Luigi Costumes
“That’s-a why the Super Mario Brothers are here! To-a save Brooklyn!”
The characters of Mario and Luigi make for great last minute costumes because they are so easy to put together! I admit, I had debated purchasing the premade Mario and Luigi costumes, but that was vetoed by my older boys who said those costumes didn’t look like the real thing. The costumes had short sleeves (in the movie they are long sleeve) and the blue of the overalls was too bright. So, that being said, I decided to piece meal their outfits together!
I already had a few items I needed to pull off the Mario and Luigi costumes, but thanks to a few searches online, I was able to find the majority of the rest!
Mario and Luigi Costume Supplies:
- Mario Hat / Luigi Hat
- Red Long Sleeve Polo / Green Long Sleeve Polo
- Overalls
- White Gloves
- Brown Shoes
- Thin Foam Sheets (to make the mustaches)
How do I make Super Mario Bros. Halloween Costumes?
I opted to purchase the costume Mario and Luigi signature hats, just to make my life easier, and the ones I found looked spot on. There was the option to buy gloves with the hats but the quality of them didn’t look very good, so I decided instead to purchase these white work gloves. It gave the costumes the Mario and Luigi look I was hoping for, and now those gloves can be put to good use in helping with yard work!
Those overalls were a little of a hassle to find, I’m not going to lie! To find the same design in the two sizes I needed wasn’t as easy as a simple search on Amazon, but thankfully Tractor Supply came to the rescue!
I made their mustaches from brown thin foam which I then used a black sharpie to make lines on. Originally, I was planning to use that fury material to make their mustaches, but I didn’t want the mustaches black and the brown option I found was not the right shade, so these worked out well. Except that we forgot to bring their mustaches to our church’s Trunk-or-Treat and didn’t realize it until it was too late to go back to get them. Owell!
DIY the Mario and Luigi Costume Materials:
Adult Princess Peach Costume for Halloween
“That is how you princess!”
There are a lot of ugly and cheap Princess Peach dresses, so I started brainstorming plans to put together my own. But then I found this Adult Princess Peach costume.
It was love at first sight! The dress was absolutely stunning! It was a little more pricey than I typically like to spend on costumes, so I hemmed and hawed over whether I should make the plunge or not. And honestly I felt guilty purchasing a costume which I could recreate myself.
In the end, I decided against buying the Princess Peach dress, and I SOOOOO regret it!
I’m all for making things myself because most of the time my costume creations look better than the ones I can purchase (unless you go full scale expensive, of course). But when I find a fairly reasonable priced costume that I actually LOVE, I need to just purchase it! It would have been well worth the little amount I saved. Because I still had to buy a dress, the tulle, and the white gloves to pull off the Princess Peach look.
People definitely knew who I was dressed up as but it would have been really fun wearing that beautiful Princess Peach Dress! Several little girls came up to me at our church’s Trunk or Treat because they wanted to meet Princess Peach. Later I even heard from one of the moms that her daughter had excitedly told her that she had met Princess Peach! Can you imagine the affect if I had the full on Princess Peach dress!?! It would have been fantastic!
We live and learn I guess.
This is also a really easy look to pull off if you have a certain few things laying around.
Princess Peach Costume Supplies:
- Pink Dress
- Bright Pink Tulle
- White Long Sleeve Gloves
- White Tights
- Princess Peach Crown (3D printed)
- Gold Spray Paint
- Red and Blue Acrylic Paint
- Red and Blue Nail Polish
- Princess Peach Pendant (3D printed)
- Ping Pong Balls (to make the earrings)
- Earring Clips
- Blonde Wig (optional)
How Do I Make a Princess Peach Costume?
This is another easy to piece together costume. I found a pink dress online and simply added some bright pink tulle to match the Princess Peach colors. But what really helped the costume come alive was the accessories.
The big DIY on the Princess Peach costume was the crown and pendant. There are a lot of crowns online but they all look cheap in my humble opinion. So since I couldn’t find one, I recruited my husband to find a 3D Princess Peach Crown Design and pendant we could print on our 3D printer.
After Princess Peach’s crown was printed, I set to work on bringing out it’s beauty. I spray painted it gold, found some tiny diamond stickers at the craft store that I placed around the crown, and then painted the “jewels” before placing them on. The acrylic paint on the jewels left them looking extremely flat. There wasn’t any sparkle whatsoever!
So in a stroke of genius, I decided to paint the jewels with nail polish and voila! It gave them the shine and dimension I was hoping for! I followed the same process when it came to painting the pendant.
The earrings couldn’t have been more spot on, and guess what they are made from? Ping pong balls! I found this DIY tutorial on how to make Princess Peach earrings. All I did was poke a hole into the ball, push in the earring piece and paint it blue. Super easy and they are perfect Princess Peach earrings!
Recreate the Princess Peach Costume:
Bowser Costume from Super Mario
“Not sure if you know who I am, but I’m about to marry a princess and rule the world.”
There are a several Bowser costume options to choose from online, but I wasn’t a big fan of any. Mainly because to really give it the Bowser look, it requires wearing a mask. I’m not against masks by any means. But for our family’s scrapbook, I personally like to see the face of everyone and who they dressed up as. So that’s why I opted to make my own.
This costume, along with the Koopa General, took me down creative paths I have never ventured into, namely the world of EVA foam and cosplay foam clay. The possibilities with these materials is endless! It’s pretty amazing to see what people can create out of a couple sheets of foam and some clay.
This costume was definitely a labor of love but totally doable for anyone who wants to make the effort! I had absolutely ZERO experience working with EVA foam and clay and look how good his costume turned out! So don’t let that hold you back!
Bowser Costume Supplies:
- Yellow Long-Sleeve Shirt
- Black Pants
- Black Premium Cosplay EVA Foam Sheets Roll
- Super Glue
- Duct Tape (to make shell mold)
- Plastic Wrap (to make shell mold)
- Large Thin Foam Sheet (for front of shell)
- Moldable Cosplay Foam Clay (for spikes)
- Black Faux Leather (straps to hold up shell)
- Velcro Strips (attach arm bands and choker)
- Green, White, Black, Silver, Gold Acrylic Paints
- Red Wig
- Thin Foam Sheets (for head piece)
- Neon Shoes add a nice touch! 🙂
DIY Bowser Costume Overview
The Bowser costume wasn’t a piece meal costume like the previous Super Mario family costumes. This one took a lot more work so I would have to go into great detail about every aspect of his costume which would make this post reallllllly long. Instead, I will just touch over the basics and you can read all about how to make the Bowser costume (post coming soon!) by clicking on the link.
As I was perusing the internet to see how I would go about making a Bowser shell, I stumbled across this awesome youtube tutorial that taught me so much! I improvised here and there but for the most part, followed her directions to make the shell and the choker and arm pieces.
Yes, I know it is for a Bowsette costume, but the building concepts are the same you just need to be mindful of the color.
For the head piece, I covered a bump cap shell that my husband had laying around with foam sheets and then painted them.
I tried making the horns out of foam clay but found it much easier and less time consuming to find a design online for horns that I could print from our 3d printer. Not to mention, they were perfectly symmetrical! For the hair, I found this red wig which I cut off a bit for the eyebrows and played with for the placement on top of the head.
I’m typically a hot glue type of gal but that would have melted the foam, so for this year’s costumes, super glue was definitely my go-to for securing most everything, creating the shell and attaching the spikes.
Recreate the Look:
Donkey Kong Costume for Halloween
“It’s on… like Donkey Kong!”
This was one of the Super Mario family costumes that I didn’t have a single clue how to DIY and have it actually look good with my elementary sewing capabilities. So I went easy on myself and just bought a Donkey Kong costume.
My son loved the Donkey Kong costume, especially the puffiness of the arms. The only con of the costume was the head piece was a little small to attach the velcro underneath his chin. But it wasn’t a big deal, we just left the velcro undone.
Recreate the Donkey Kong Look:
Kid’s Koopa General Costume
“You… can’t escape me! Blue Shell!”
My cute little three year old really wanted to be the blue Koopa General from the Super Mario Bros. movie. There wasn’t much out there as far as costume ideas for the Koopa General so this one I totally winged it and was so pleased how it turned out!
I created the Koopa’s blue shell the same way that I created Bowser’s shell but obviously on a smaller scale. The helmet turned out pretty epic and brought the whole costume together.
If you want to dive into all the details of how I created the Koopa General costume be sure to click on the link (post coming soon!).
Koopa General Supplies:
- Yellow Outfit
- Thin Foam Sheets (for head piece and breastplate)
- Moldable Cosplay Foam Clay (for spikes and horns)
- Black Premium Cosplay EVA Foam Sheets Roll (for shell)
- Super Glue
- Duct Tape (to make shell mold)
- Plastic Wrap (to make shell mold)
- Black Faux Leather (straps to hold up shell)
- White Acrylic Paint
- Blue Acrylic Paint
- Buckle
- Wings
Recreate the Koopa look:
DIY Super Mario’s Toad Costume for Littles
“I’m Too Cute to Die!”
Since my oldest two, who are my counselors in the costume department, vetoed Sissy as Princess Peach, I needed to find another Super Mario character for her. I decided on Toad.
There are a lot of great Toad costumes… for little boys, which makes sense. I had seen a few adaptations for girls but in every single one it made the baby girl look like a boy due to the obnoxiously large mushroom head. Even adding a tutu to the costume didn’t help!
I am all about being inline with the costume’s actual look but I do improvise at times, especially when it comes to making my little girl look girly and cute (as seen in her R2D2 Costume). So I opted to dramatically reduce the size of the Toad’s mushroom head to be quite a bit smaller and secure it by way of a head band instead of it being a hat.
DIY Toddler Toad Costume Supplies:
- White Onesie
- Blue shirt
- Yellow Ribbon
- White Felt
- Red Felt
- White Tulle
- White Tights
- Brown Booties
The Toad costume wasn’t that difficult to put together and required only rudimentary sewing. I made the little blue vest by simply cutting a shirt down and attached some gold ribbon on the edges. The skirt is SOOO easy to make because all you need to do is tie the tulle into the band. For the hat, I used a piece of white felt and stuffed it with some cotton filler then formed it into a round shape. Cut out some red circles and hot glued them to the white top.
If you want further detail into how to make the Toad costume, be sure to check out my post DIY Toad Costume for Baby Girls (post coming soon).
Recreate the Girly Toad Costume:
Hope You Enjoyed Our Halloween Super Mario Family Costumes!
Do you like dressing up as a specific theme for Halloween with your family? Which of the Super Mario family costumes was your favorite? I really needed someone to have dressed up as Kamek, you know, Bowser’s powerful wizard servant. But thankfully he made an appearance in our trunk-or-treat display. Be sure to check out our Super Mario Trunk, Bowser’s Castle, (post coming soon) if you haven’t yet!
Did you find this post helpful? Then be sure to save a PIN to your Halloween costumes ideas board!
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