The best and most creative Halloween costume ideas for dinosaur fans

“I want to be a Terror-dactyl for Halloween this year” she sniggered.

Our LDA’s still trying out her Halloween jokes and has not decided on her Halloween costume (at least she hasn’t told me the same idea twice in a row).

For dinosaur lovers, Halloween inevitably means a dinosaur-inspired costume. To help you, we’ve put together a list of the best and most creative Halloween costumes for dinosaur fans.

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Carnival instead of Halloween

I have a confession to make: Germany does not celebrate Halloween (Australia does not traditionally celebrate it either).

However, the fifth season, or Carnival season, officially starts here on 11 November (at 11:11 a.m.). It culminates in large Carnival celebrations and parades on the weekend before Ash Wednesday (16-22 February 2023 and 8-14 February 2024). For five or six days, Carnival is an excuse to dress up in extravagant costumes. Including dinosaur costumes.

Why can’t a dinosaur Halloween costume be a dinosaur Carnival costume?

1. Dinosaur Halloween costume

We’ll start with the most obvious dinosaur Halloween costume: go as a dinosaur.

1. The full-body outfit or onesie. These come in all shapes and sizes, even different dinosaurs, including Triceratops, Dilophosaurus and carnivore costumes.
2. The inflatable costume, such as this T-Rex. These come in pink, too! Most inflatable dinosaur Halloween costumes are for adults and tend to be T-Rexes, but some, including this cute inflatable Stegasaurus costume, are for kids.
3. A partial costume is perfect for those who might have to rug up in thick coats and scarves to go trick or treating or to a carnival parade. Ir should include a mask, claws and a tail. Capes, spikes, frills, etc., are optional.
4. The DIY costume. I’m good with paper crafts, but my sewing skills are basic. My favourite DIY dinosaur costume tutorials with limited or no sewing are this one and this one. And these for socks and claws.

2. Dinosaur fossil Halloween costume

Another easy and fun Halloween costume for dinosaur lovers is a dinosaur fossil.

Go the easy route and buy a dinosaur fossil costume. Or make your own.

What you need

• A black top and pants – with a skeleton on them if available
• 1 pair of black opaque stockings and stuffing for the tail
• White felt – to cut out bones of the fossil
• Hot glue gun – to stick the bones to the top, pants and “tail”
• Large plastic milk bottle (minus the milk) to cut into a fossil hat/mask, using this T-Rex skull craft for inspiration
• Sharp scissors
• White spray paint (for the milk bottle)

3. Robo Rex

Alternative Halloween costume for dinosaur fans #3: robot dinosaur.

There’s a pre-made costume you can purchase.

How to make your own

Save your boxes from your Prime Day purchases and use them to make a robosaurus costume using this tutorial. Paint it grey or silver to look more robotic. Add grey clothing and matching grey or silver dinosaur feet made out of tissue boxes (use this tutorial and skip the decoupage).

4. Dino rider

Neanderthals were not around when the dinosaurs roamed the earth (there’s a 65.5 million-year gap). But it is not difficult to imagine a Neanderthal – or modern jockey – as a dino rider.

Go the easy route with this costume (for the Neanderthal look) or this one (for a more modern jockey).

How to make your own

Go the much cheaper DIY route for your Halloween costume for dinosaur lovers. You’ll need:

• A large cardboard box to form the body
• Some cardboard to make the neck, head and tail of the dinosaur
• Ribbon or elastic to use as “braces” to hold the dinosaur up
• Paint – in the colour(s) you want your dinosaur
• Pants in the same colour as the paint
• A pair of stockings (or long socks) in a contrasting colour for the rider’s legs
• Stuffing for the stockings
• A stapler to attach the stocking rider legs

Follow this tutorial to make the body. Stuff the stockings and attach them to the dinosaur body with staples to look like the rider’s legs.

5. Pterosaur costume

Why haven’t I included a Pterosaur costume with the other dinosaur costumes? Technically, pterosaurs, such as the Pterodactyl or the huge Quetzalcoatlus are not dinosaurs (the latter was the size of an F16 fighter jet).

Pterosaurs or flying reptiles – there are around 130 valid genera – lived in numerous locations across the globe. They appeared in the late Triassic period and roamed the skies until the end of the Cretaceous Period, becoming extinct around the same time as the dinosaurs (228 to 66 MYA).

Modern birds didn’t descend from pterosaurs but from small, feathered, theropod dinosaurs.

Various Halloween costumes are available if your little dinosaur lover wants to be a pterosaur. This Pterodactyl costume is gorgeous. For a more traditional look, try this Pteranodon costume. There are pterosaur fossil costumes too.

How to make your own pterosaur costume

• Find long pants and a hoody in the same colour
• Find or make a cape in the same colour, with two hooks to attach each corner to the wrists
• A mask. A Pteranodon had a long pointy face (like a huge chicken beak) and a comb out the top of its head. You could make your own paper mâché mask, or a simple mask out of cardboard instead. Make a regular mask shape with eye holes and a “comb” sticking up from the middle of the face to look a little like a skinnier mini shark-fin, like this.

6. TV and film characters

One easy way to ensure your dinosaur lover’s costume is easily recognisable is to make it resemble their favourite TV or film dinosaur. Possible Carnival or Halloween costumes for dinosaur fans include:

• Dino from the Flintstones
• Arlo or Spot from The Good Dinosaur
• Rex from Toy Story
• From the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchise: Indominous Rex, Blue the Velociraptor, Owen, their trainer and the hotdog man (from the Jurassic World Lego series). Don’t forget the branded sand pail for trick-or-treating!
• Tiny or Buddy from Dinosaur Train
• One of the characters from Power Rangers Dino Fury, like the Red Ranger, Zayto, or the Pink Dino Fury Ranger, Amelia Jones
• Revvit or one of the other Dinotrucks
• Dino Dana – make your own with a bright blue and white striped t-shirt, a yellow long-sleeve t-shirt (worn underneath), cargo pants, boots (one laced with a yellow shoelace and one with a bright blue shoelace), a backpack (plain) and a palaeontologist’s vest. If you have the time, you could make a brooch with a felt dinosaur on it.

7. Dino keeper

Like a zookeeper, but for dinos. This creative costume can be styled on Owen from Jurassic Park or a normal zookeeper. The zookeepers at our local zoo wear jeans or cargo pants with polo shirts with the zoo’s logo on them. Simply change the patches on this zookeeper costume to dino patches – even I can manage that sewing. This Jurassic Park Ranger patch or this dinosaur patch would work well for this dinosaur-inspired Halloween costume.

A floppy hat and binoculars are optional.

8. Palaeontologist

Perhaps the pinnacle of Halloween costumes for dinosaur fans (if you are not going as a dinosaur) is the palaeontologist costume.

How to make a palaeontologist costume

• Jeans or cargo pants
• A shirt (polo shirt, denim shirt, check shirt or sand-coloured work shirt)
• A vest, if desired
• If your palaeontologist is digging in a warm climate (many dig sites are in arid or semi-arid land), you might like to add a hat, sunglasses and a neckerchief.
• Boots
• A tool belt and tools including a measuring tape, magnifying glass, toothbrush, paintbrush or pastry brush, hammer, trowel, and notebook/sketchbook.
• Flare, fossil and replica Utahraptor claw are optional, Dr Grant.

Let your little dinosaur fan play in the sandpit in their costume – everything should look dusty.

9. Dino doctor

This costume was a hit in our house – our Little Dinosaur Aficionado went to Carnival parties the last three years year as a dinosaur doctor (and enjoys playing doctor to her dinosaurs).

How to make a dino doctor costume

• A vet or doctor’s costume. We found a vet costume on sale at H&M. It has two pockets printed on it, one with carrots sticking out and one with a bunny rabbit peeking out. Our LDA shocked her kindergarten teachers by telling them the carrots were for the Brachiosaurus and other herbivorous dinosaurs and the bunny was a snack for T-Rex.
• Cover any references to vets or dogs or the like. Use patches, or otherwise paint or cover the references. In our case, we added “Dino” in front of the “Vet” – painted it on a piece of fabric and stitched it on. You could use paint to change puppy paw prints to become dino footprints, for example.
• Add some doctor’s instruments. We have a dino vet set, with a stethoscope, syringe, and hammer for testing reflexes which came in an animal carrier with a small dinosaur inside. Numerous similar sets contain toy dogs. We added a pink toy thermometer from another set.
• Our dino vet also needed patients. We put a Triceratops in the pet carrier and put bandages on a Brachiosaurus’ neck.

Dinosaur Halloween costumes for dinosaur fans

Young and old, boys and girls, even dogs: there’s a dinosaur Halloween or Carnival costume for everyone. Whether you plan to buy or DIY your costume, I hope you’ve found the perfect creative Halloween costume for dinosaur fans.

And if your little dinosaur fan is still practising their Halloween dinosaur jokes, here’s another one for you to be overly enthusiastic about: What do you call the ghost of a dinosaur? A scaredactyl.

What dinosaur Halloween costume will your little dinosaur be wearing this Halloween?

PS If you’re looking for a beautiful dinosaur book about Halloween, there’s a new book in the Tiny T-Rex series.

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