Family Circus Costumes

Our family chose a circus theme for our family Halloween costumes this year and every costume was so much fun! This theme had a lot of flexibility and options, which allowed for a lot of creativity.

If you want to do a family circus costume theme, read on to learn about each of our costumes and how I made/assembled them.

Ringmaster costume

This costume was totally store bought. Adeline wanted a ringmaster look that was Taylor Swift inspired. We found this jacket (size up) + hat combo and a fitted white dress shirt and paired it with fake leather shorts and rhinestone fishnets. Black combat boots completed the look. She loved having the cane as a prop (found at Spirit Halloween, similar here)!

popcorn vendor Costume

It felt fitting that as the mom I would be the popcorn vendor. The costume was very simple, as I wore black pants and a white dress shirt and bought a costume set on Amazon with the apron, hat and popcorn box. I added plastic popcorn boxes, which I filled with shipping paper and then hot glued popcorn to the very top.

If you buy this costume, I would recommend doing different straps for the popcorn box, or just skipping them, as the ones that came with the costume did not stay up at all!

Circus Clown Costume

A circus isn’t complete without a clown and Matthew embraced the assignment! He created a costume that was visually bright, fun and perfect. Matthew purchased a red shirt and paired it with a rainbow vest and polka dotted pants. He then added rainbow socks and iconic clown shoes. The blue wig and hat completed the look.

Human Cannonball Costume

The Human Cannonball with Cannon costume was a big favorite when we went trick or treating. Ezra’s costume was pretty simple to make. I bought a white shirt and white baseball pants, then added iron on star patches (I needed two packs). I also bought a cape on Amazon and added one star patch to the back. The red helmet finished the look.

The cannon was assembled out of a large metal tube of sheeting + spray paint and cardboard. Duct tape and a few screws helped hold it together. Watch this YouTube video for how I assembled it and some more details.

Wheel of Death

My fifteen-year-old loved the idea of being the wheel of death, complete with a knife that missed. I will write a full tutorial on making this costume, but it was made out of a huge piece of cardboard (I got a refrigerator box from Home Depot) that I cut in a circle and then painted the target. I used string lights that turned on with a USB plug and then used a phone charger to to light them. Elias kept the charger in his back pocket.

I bought retractable fake knives and removed the knife components, then glued the handles on the target with hot glue. We did find that the hot glue was not super strong and I think I should have used super glue instead!