Family Halloween Costume Reveal 2025
Every year we go all out for Halloween costumes! Our family chooses a theme together in July, and we get to work DIYing, ordering, creating, and scouting the perfect location for a family photoshoot to fit the theme.
This year, we did something unlike any other costume we’ve ever done before. In fact, one kid was instantly excited for this costume, and one we had to convince. He almost felt like he was morally opposed, until we showed him some costume ideas.
We have some new records like the amount of one color worn, the amount of face paint used, and the amount of stares while we took pictures in public.
So please enjoy this year’s Halloween costume reveal; it may be a new favorite!
The 2025 Whiting Family Halloween costume theme is…
Star Wars Costumes: Sith Costumes Ready for the Dark Side
A few years ago, we made one Star Wars-loving 1st grader’s dream come true with our family Star Wars Jedi Costume. He loved Luke Skywalker with all his heart, and we couldn’t help but lean into his favorite character.
And this year, we have another Star Wars-loving 1st grader, who happens to love the complete foil of Luke, the Sith Lord Darth Vader.
Not that he’s a Dark Side guy, he definitely loves the Jedi and identifies with them! But he loves that Darth Vader was once a good guy, and in the end, he finds his way back. It’s pretty sweet, actually, and I love that my forgiving child sees the very best in even one of the greatest cinematic villains!
This costume was Mom’s idea, hoping it would pique the interest of our youngest. He was instantly on board and so excited to be Darth Vader!
And although our Jedi-loving light-side son, who is ready to join the Rebel Cause, was almost morally opposed, once he saw how cool these costumes were and we offered to buy him a lightsaber at Disneyland, he came around and got so excited to rock our 2nd Star Wars Family Costume!
Star Wars Villains Costumes
There are so many fantastic Star Wars villains to choose from! This is one franchise with some of the best characters and the most iconic villains in cinematic history!
We knew we’d have the most famous: Darth Vader, for our son, who loves him.
Our other son loves the sequel trilogy, and Star Wars Episode 9 is his favorite movie. So we knew Kylo Ren would be his choice.
Mom and Dad had so many options. I actually love Obi-Wan Kenobi; he’s probably my favorite Star Wars character. The moment Reva the Third Sister appeared on screen, I instantly thought that would be the best female Star Wars costume! But a combination of child convincing and the need to have someone willing to wear the face paint later, we settled on Mom taking on the role of Darth Maul.
And since dad loves an easy costume that would only require Sith robes and some light makeup, he was all in on the Sith Lord Costume of all Sith costumes! We knew the root of all evil in the Star Wars unit would be just the ticket!
Here’s a breakdown of each of our Star Wars Villain costumes.
Darth Vader Costume
The best part of this costume is that it’s so iconic, so popular, and easy to find! You can certainly DIY your own with a black suit, black cape, and silver/red/blue fabric paint (or an accessories pack). But we found it so easy to find ready-made costumes for both kids and adults.
Darth Vader Adult Costume
Check out Amazon for ready-made Darth Vader costumes. But we also love that HalloweenCostumes.com makes a premium, true-to-scale one if you want to be the most authentic person ever! They also offer more affordable options!
Darth Vader Kids Costume
We love that The Disney Store has a classic kid Darth Vader costume every year! We actually bought one on clearance last year for our kid to enjoy and play with.
You can also find several excellent options at HalloweenCostumes.com for kids.
I feel like you need to know that our clever 1st grader mimicked the classic Darth Vader breathing sounds throughout his pictures. And he also requested a lava background to pair with the costume.
Kylo Ren Costume
As a Star Wars fan, I feel the need to clarify that I do know that Kylo Ren is technically not a Sith, but is a dark side warrior who leads the Knights of Ren. But since he clearly uses the power of the Dark Side, and he has such a cool costume, we had to include a Ben Solo/Kylo Ren costume in our Star Wars Villains costumes theme.
Kylo Ren Costume DIY: If you have a black hooded robe, black long-sleeved shirt with texture, leather gloves, boots, a Kylo Ren mask, and his iconic Kylo Ren red lightsaber, you’re set with a costume.
Kylo Ren Kids Costume:
I was ready to DIY this one before I realized how many great Kylo Ren costumes for kids are on the market! We ordered this one from Spirit Halloween, and it looks even better in person than it does in pictures! It looks sold out for this year, but there are several for sale on eBay.
Kylo Ren Adult Costume:
Check out the great variety on Amazon, and also on HalloweenCostumes.com.
And make sure you grab his iconic red lightsaber. A Kylo Ren costume just isn’t the same without it!
And as a side note, our Rey Star Wars costume would work perfectly as a really great couples Halloween costume idea to pair with this!
Darth Maul Costume
As the female in the Star Wars Villains costume, I was hoping to be Reva, the 3rd Sister. But my kids pointed out quickly how iconic Darth Maul would be. I swore off full-body paint after my Gamora costume for our family Guardians of the Galaxy Costume. But I quickly realized Darth Maul would be such an easy costume to pull together if I just went with the makeup and agreed to some face paint.
Much to my surprise, a DIY Darth Maul costume, and even the paint job is not as intimidating as it seems! I painted everywhere around the edges of my face red. Then I pulled up a photo and did my best to add in the dark clown makeup and markings with black. It doesn’t have to be perfect; it’s pretty iconic if you get it close enough!
And I’d say my boys were 100% right. This is such an iconic Star Wars character, and truly deserved some great representation in a Star Wars bad guy costume.
Here’s what you need to pull off your own Darth Maul Costume:
- A Black Karate Uniform 1-2 sizes bigger than your normal size. You want that tunic top to hang long like a robe, and baggy pants to hang loosely on top of your boots. I actually wore a pair of black joggers just for comfort on a hot Arizona day when we took pictures. But any loose black pants work great!
- Thick black gloves.
- Black boots. Knee boots are ideal.
- A thick textured belt. Darth Maul has lines in his belt, and any belt with a line weave that’s extra thick is a great option.
- Black and Red face paint. I ended up with two types. One of them was actually super dry; it had a crack in the seal on the packaging, and it was too late to replace it. Luckily, I had a backup oil-based face paint that came with another order. Both of these options worked; I just wish I had checked the packaging on my black paint before I used it! It dried and started to rub off on my neck and chest before we finished pictures, but it still did well for the circumstances!
For the record, it all washed off in the shower with soap. - Prosthetic horns. This can be optional, but boy does it make a difference! I also love that these are easy to apply, stay on well, and also come off with makeup remover fairly easily.
- Optional: Darth Maul Contacts. I haven’t worn contacts in years, but I brushed off the pre lasik surgery skills because the contacts make the biggest impact on this costume!
- Optional: Costume skull cap. Maul has no hair and patterns on his face and head. I opted to leave my natural hair and do small buns in sections that semi-mimicked his crown of horns pattern. I did four on the top, and pulled two on the side, so I had a place to pin a few prosthetic horns into.
But you could also look more authentic and do a full skull cap with paint and horns. - A double-sided lightsaber. This is the iconic piece you don’t want to miss! We looked at online orders and couldn’t find exactly what we wanted.
We’re Disneyland Magic Key holders right now, and took a trip to Disneyland to build a double-sided red lightsaber just for this costume!
I also found a handful of Darth Maul professional cosplay costumes and even a plastic face mask you could opt into wearing and forgo paint.
And let me tell you, I scared myself doing research for this costume! He’s freaky, and was designed to be freaky! They literally wanted a terrifying devil-like creature, and the edits on him show it! I’m quite worried small children will be afraid to trick-or-treat at my house this year. But I guess that is a sign of a great costume, and the true mark of a Sith costume!
And we saved the best, or should I say worst, for last.
Emperor Palpatine Costume
We looked up the most evil fictitious characters to see if Emperor Palpatine made the list. It turns out he’s actually number one, beating out every other fictional villain. That includes horror movies and all other creepy Halloween costumes we looked at!
Emperor Palpatine is the ultimate in Disney Villains costumes, and it’s so easy to put together his costume!
DIY Darth Sidius / Emperor Palpatine Costume
You only need an oversized black robe and some white face paint, plus an eyeliner pencil for this look. I’d recommend wearing dark clothes under the robe and black shoes. But get a black robe that covers feet and hands, baggy on your arms and hands for the best effect.
Palpatine is iconic for his pale, wrinkly face and creepy eyes. We used white face paint. And then grabbed a deep brown eyeliner pencil to draw creepy wrinkles, exaggerated lines, and dark circles to complete the Emperor Palpatine makeup look.
I’d recommend adding some lightning in Photoshop and making all the creepy faces if you plan to take a picture of this epic bad guy costume! It really sold it for us!
He usually doesn’t have a lightsaber; even in his epic battle with Yoda in the digitally remastered Return of the Sith, he uses his electrically charged Dark Side lightning strikes. But does use a red lightsaber on a few occasions. And if you want to carry one, by all means do!
We have one of THE cool lightsabers from Savvy’s at Disneyland. It felt like the right glow and use for Darth Sidious himself!
Other Sith Costume / Star Wars Villain Costume Ideas
If you have a larger group costume or family costume need and want to stick with the Star Wars Villain theme, here are some other great characters and costumes you could add.
Prequel Trilogy
- Darth Sidious / Emperor Palpatine
- Darth Maul
- Count Dooku
- General Grievous
- Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader
Original Trilogy
- Darth Vader
- Emperor Palpatine
- Grand Moff Tarkin
- Jabba the Hutt
- Boba Fett
Sequel Trilogy
- Kylo Ren / Ben Solo
- Supreme Leader Snoke
- General Hux
- Emperor Palpatine (returned)
- Allegiant General Pryde
Rogue One
- Director Orson Krennic
- Darth Vader
- Grand Moff Tarkin
Solo: A Star Wars Story
- Dryden Vos
- Darth Maul
- Tobias Beckett
The Clone Wars
- Darth Sidious
- Count Dooku
- General Grievous
- Asajj Ventress
- Darth Maul
- Savage Opress
- Mother Talzin
- Cad Bane
- Pre Vizsla
Star Wars Rebels
- Darth Vader
- Emperor Palpatine
- Grand Inquisitor
- Fifth Brother
- Seventh Sister
- Grand Admiral Thrawn
The Mandalorian
- Moff Gideon
- The Client
- Morgan Elsbeth
- Thrawn
The Book of Boba Fett
- Pyke Syndicate
- Cad Bane
- Mayor Mok Shaiz
Obi-Wan Kenobi
- Darth Vader
- Grand Inquisitor
- Reva / Third Sister
Andor
- Dedra Meero
- Syril Karn
Ahsoka
- Grand Admiral Thrawn
- Baylan Skoll
- Shin Hati
- Morgan Elsbeth
- Marrok
The Bad Batch
- Emperor Palpatine
- Admiral Rampart
- Dr. Hemlock
Star Wars Resistance
- Captain Phasma
- General Hux
- Commander Pyre
- Major Vonreg
And of course, you could also be your own custom Sith costume with a black robe and a red lightsaber.
Star Wars Costumes from the Dark Side
A Sith Lord costume will always have its place in any Star Wars costume theme! So feel free to step into the dark side for a day.
And as much as our light-side family would love to wish to have the Force be with you, I think we’d better close off with Emperor Palpatine’s quote, “Do not underestimate the power of the Dark Side.”
Like this post? Be sure to check out our other 10 years of family Halloween costumes!
2024: Ghostbusters Family Costume
2023: Super Mario Family Costume
2022: Jedi Costume: Star Wars Family Costume
2021: Peter Pan Costume
2020: Guardian of the Galaxy Costume
2019: Up Costume
2018: Jurassic Park Family Costume
2017: Pop Star Icons Family Costume
