Halloween has come to a close, and we’ve accumulated many digital camera pictures and teeny tiny clothing pieces — plus lost hours of sleep. Every year, almost by chance, a few popular costumes take over the holiday.
This year, a new rotation of popular costumes rose to the top. Here’s the 2025 Halloween costume recap.
Alvin and the Chipmunks
This trio costume seemed to show up in every other post in my social media feed with the tricolored and initialed t-shirts with sunglasses and a hat.
It’s arguably the most low-effort costume for guys to put together. I’ve always wondered how they decided who was who and which chipmunk was fought over the most.
However, on the girl side of things, the Chipettes weren’t seen as much this year compared to last year. Although it’s a decent costume, it needs to be out of rotation by next year.
Beanie Babies
Stuffed animals are a new spin on the animal prints and animal headbands trend. The popular 2000s stuffed plushies were basically animals in the wild — but with the addition of a giant red TY tag. It’s a level up on the basic cheetah and black cat, while giving homage to our childhood.
Red riding hood and the big bad wolf
This popular couple costume romanticizes the original fable in which the big bad wolf eats the grandma. It’s a warmer costume where the cape acts as a blanket, and fur is used for insulation.
Somehow, many people decided to choose this particular fairy tale to recreate, perhaps because the black corset that was so popular this year for Red Riding Hood can easily be reused for a vampire costume.
Disney princesses
There are so many Disney princesses to choose from, and each comes with a different color scheme that people brought to life with corsets, skirts, gloves and a tiara. It is very easy to order different pieces and assemble the costume on your own. Plus, you can put in varying degrees of effort.
This can be a fun group costume to do — as long as everyone doesn’t fight over one particular princess.
Tate McRae
This singer on the come up was a popular costume this year. A cross between a cheetah and a sports fanatic is the formula for the Tate McRae look-alike. It’s a low-effort outfit, but after adding a blow-out and sunglasses, you now look like you sing “Sports Car.” It’s funny — to dress like Tate McRae, you just have to dress like her fans.
Christina Aguilera and Eminem
People are always trying to come up with unique costumes, and this one started out as one. However, what was once a niche pop culture reference to the VMAs, where Christina Aguilera was presenting an award to Eminem while they were currently having beef, is now a popular couples’ costume.
But their outfits were iconic, as many of them were in the early 2000s. With a blue top, jean skirt and white hat for Aguilera and the brightly yellow colored hat for Eminem, these normal clothing pieces together make an easily recognizable costume.
My final thought: this costume was entertaining last year, normalized this year and will be overdone next year.
‘Rio’ birds
The 2011 animated bird movie “Rio” was a highly popular movie to recreate. Blu was the popular choice to dress up as since she is the main character. It was easy to wear blue and add on feathers and jewelry.
That’s not to say the yellow and red birds were left out this Halloween. I noticed many trios doing all three birds together.
However, the popularity of this costume surprised me because it seemed so random, since the movie came out 14 years ago. It’s a solid costume, but I’m just confused how everyone came up with the same idea.
Victoria’s Secret angels
Maybe it was because the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show happened just two weeks before the weekend of Halloween, but many donned lingerie with robes and wings to mimic the models on the runway. Some people just wore minimal coverage pajamas, and others included a lot of lace.
It’s simple to make it yourself — or DIY — so it’s an easy costume to pull together, especially at the last minute. This costume will always withstand Halloween because if models don’t go out of style, neither does dressing up as them.
Rodrick from the ‘Diary of the Wimpy Kid’
Many people enjoyed cosplaying as the legendary older brother from the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” — Rodrick. Average clothing pieces made this outfit: black t-shirt with his Loded Diper logo printed on it, with a white long-sleeve underneath and black pants. Heavy black eyeliner was needed to sell the outfit.
Recently, there was a meme going around pairing Rodrick and Regina George together as a couple — that may have been the spike in motivation to dress up as him. It’s a costume that wasn’t too overdone this year, so I would be pleased to see it next year.
Many of these costumes this year tried to be unique character costumes, but due to social media, word traveled fast. Once someone has a niche idea, suddenly everyone has the same “niche” idea.
It is always interesting to see what movies, cartoons and memes are popular every Halloween, because it reflects our pop culture and what we find to be most peak and popular that certain year.
