The Grinch and Cindy Lou Who Halloween Costumes (and Christmas Card!)

This is Sarah’s little sister, Rachel.  One thing that she and I have in common: We both love Halloween!  And we both go all-out on creative, unique Halloween costumes for our children!

One thing that we do not have in common: Sarah is extremely crafty and talented, and I am not.  So while she usually sews her family’s Halloween costumes and creates everything from scratch, I usually buy everything and piece it all together.  Hey, it works either way!

Last year, Sarah asked me to write up the Easy No-Sew Ghost Costumes that I created for my children a couple of years ago.  This year, she asked me to write up my latest Halloween creation: themed family costumes of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Here we are last year in all of our Who-ville glory!

As you can imagine, this was a super fun costume to create and wear!!

The inspiration for this costume came from my one-year-old daughter, Sally. She is tiny and sweet, and I often call her “Sally Lou Who.”  This got me thinking: Wouldn’t the Grinch be fun Halloween costumes??

I ran the idea by my four-year-old son, and he was excited about it, so I went to work gathering supplies for them to be Cindy Lou Who and The Grinch.  I looked at pictures from the original Dr. Seuss book and cartoon for inspiration.  This is what I ended up getting:

For Cindy Lou Who:

• Pink nightgown (I created a custom order from this seller on Etsy, but any solid pink nightgown would work)

• Mini felt red bows (I ordered mine from this seller on Etsy, but if you are crafty, I’m guessing you could easily make these!)

• Brown pipe cleaners for the Who antennas.  I just wrapped these around my daughter’s little pink tails aand stuck them in the rubber bands and curled them with my fingers.

Isn’t she the cutest “Sally Lou Who” you’ve ever seen??

For the Grinch:

• Fuzzy green suit  (I had a hard time finding something to work for this, but finally found this ridiculous outfit on Amazon, and it worked great.  My son is a normal sized four-year-old, and the size 4T fit him–it was a little tight and short, but it worked for the costume.  Unfortunately, the inside of this suit is scratchy, so he had to wear a shirt and pants under it, and there were times when he got too hot.  You could also use solid green footie pajamas for this, though they won’t be as fuzzy and puffy.)

• Green face paint (This is what I ordered from Amazon.  And just a note, this was a lot of work to put on my son’s face, and he got tired of doing it over and over for parties at school and church.  I let him wear a simpler costume to preschool!)

• Black face paint sticks to draw the eyebrows, nose, etc. (I got these at Walgreens.)

• Santa hat and coat (I ordered this set from Amazon. I was a little disappointed, as it is super flimsy fabric and even the size small was big on my son, but we made it work for the costume.  If I’d had time/energy, I might have searched harder to find something better.)

Definitely the cutest Grinch ever!

For the Grinch Sled:

I’m afraid that I can’t write much of a tutorial for this because my husband created it.  Unlike me, he is super artistic!  This is what I know about what he did:

• He used our bike trailer as the base, cut the silhouette of a sled out of cardboard (two identical pieces), and spray painted the cardboard brown.  Here he is in the process:

• He then taped the cardboard pieces onto the bike trailer, gathered some red fabric around the back to create the illusion of a big Grinch bag (I think he got this to stay on using Magformer magnets), and then we got out our Christmas decor and toys to make it look like the Grinch had indeed stolen Christmas. So fun!

This sled was a major showstopper, but the family costume would still be very cute without it!  So don’t let it stop you if you don’t have a creative spouse who is interested in spending hours creating something like this.

For the Who costumes:

• My husband and I borrowed “ugly” Christmas sweaters from our friends.  You can also search thrift stores or secondhand teacher-supply stores for these.

• We colored my husband’s hair with green hairspray.  (Something like this, though we got ours at Walgreens.)

• My Who-hair was surprisingly easy to style.  I merely hung my head upside down, stuck an empty 16 oz water bottle in the middle of my head, gathered my long hair all around it and tied it off with a hair band at the top of the bottle.  Then I hairsprayed the heck out of it and tied some fun red ribbons at the top.  Voila!   Seriously takes ten minutes.  (I used to do my hair like this for pep rallies in high school. Ha!)

This was definitely a costume and a night to remember!

And the best part?  We got to use the photo from Halloween for a super memorable Christmas card!  Double whammy!  I created the card on Shutterfly, and our friends and family loved it!

I also used Shutterfly to create photo ornaments for our tree and the grandparents’ tree, using photos of the kids in their costumes.

And the fun isn’t over yet. Because I’m slightly insane, I went so far as to create a reproduction of the entire How the Grinch Stole Christmas book as a unique gift for the grandparents.  Yes, we took photos of our kids reenacting the entire story!  Ha!

I will write an entire post about creating your own Grinch book at some point, and we will link it here once it is posted, but in the meantime, here is a sneak peak of a few of my favorite scenes:

Every Who down in Who-ville liked Christmas a lot…

But the Grinch who lived just north of Who-ville did not!

This costume was an investment to create, but it was worth it–especially because we got to use it for a memorable Christmas card and unique Christmas presents for our family!

I love these two little characters, and I’m so glad that they had a fun Halloween together.

Let us know in the comments if you decide to use this idea for your family Halloween costumes!  We’d love to see photos!

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Rachel Nielson

Rachel loves birthday surprises, summer sunsets, and a handsome man named Ryan. She taught high school English for five years before deciding to be a stay-at-home mom to their son, Noah Atticus, who was born in August of 2011. His little sister, Sally Grace, arrived in July of 2014. Rachel and Ryan consider both of their babies to be miracles, as Noah is adopted and Sally was conceived through IVF. When Rachel is not caring for the littles or picking up the house for the 100th time, she blogs about motherhood, infertility, adoption, eating disorders, her ridiculously cute children, and the ups and downs of daily life. Nothing gives her more satisfaction than capturing in words the deepest feelings of her heart.

Latest posts by Rachel Nielson (see all)

• Three Valentines Traditions for the Whole Family - February 7, 2017
• What a Trip to Africa Taught Me About Motherhood (& Help South Africa!) - December 8, 2016
• The Grinch and Cindy Lou Who Halloween Costumes (and Christmas Card!) - August 21, 2016