Philadelphia-Themed Halloween Costumes That Can Be Put Together in No Time

Time is running out to plan your Halloween costume for this year, especially if you’re heading out for “weekend” festivities before October 31st.

If you haven’t started sewing your own costume well in advance and haven’t had a chance to visit your local Spirit Halloween to purchase a pre-packaged costume, there are still plenty of creative costume ideas you can put together in a short amount of time.

MORE: Sewing instructors give tips on how to make your own Halloween costume

Sure, you can always throw on an Eagles jersey and call it a day, but why not step outside the box a little? There are many local figures who have made headlines in the past year. For example, you could wear a suit, grab a rose and call yourself a Montgomery County native “Bachelor” star. Joey Graziadei. Wear a mini dress or corset and skirt, slip on some boots and style your hair in a voluminous style – or put on a blonde wig – and suddenly you’re looking a lot like a pop star from Pennsylvania Sabrina Carpenter.

For something a little more abstract, you could wear an outfit green shirt, brown pants and a brown jacket or cardigan and calls itself the viral Liberty Kitchen Kale Caesar Chicken Cutlet Sandwich. Bonus points if you wear a “sold out” sign or have a line of people waiting behind you. Or you can go hyperlocal and spray paint a white shirt to look like “Shamcow” graffiti, street art that has been popping up in Northwest Philadelphia.

Don’t want to go it alone when it comes to dressing for the holiday? You and your boyfriend could dress up like retired Eagles center Jason Kelce and his wife Kylie Kelce — think a velvet tracksuit and flip-flops for Jason, and that coveted Princess Diana Eagles (or silly) jacket for Kylie. Or you could be Jason’s little brother, Travis, and his famous girlfriend, Taylor Swift — wearing Chiefs merchandise for Travis and something bedazzled, plus friendship bracelets, for Swift.

For a more unlikely pairing, you could be Phillie Phanatic and Grimace – the McDonalds mascot turned Mets pet that haunted Phillies fans during our heartbreaking NLDS showdown. Amazon Prime selects Phanatic and Grimace gear. You can draw a tear for both, as the Phillies and Mets are now mourning the premature end of their seasons.

Here are five more last-minute costume ideas – for solo Halloween revelers, groups or couples – based on iconic Philadelphia moments, people, animals or trends from the past year:

‘Abbott Elementary’

For a great large group fantasy, look no further than the Philadelphia-set sitcom “Abbott Elementary.” The cast of teachers includes a style icon for everyone, whether you want to wear a sweater dress or a janitor’s uniform. You can also split into couple fantasies, like newbie boyfriend Gregory (Tyler James Williams) and Janine (Quinta Brunson), or best friends Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter). If you have an even bigger group – we understand you have friends, stop bragging! — your costumes could spark the next “Abbott” crossover with “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”

Garrett Stubbs

While Phillies fans are still nursing the wounds from another disappointing postseason collapse, there’s a good last-minute Halloween costume that has popped up this season. You can wear overalls like backup catcher Garrett Stubbs, affectionately known as the team’s “vibes director.” Over the past two seasons, he has been seen wearing beer-soaked FOCO overalls during postseason celebrations in the clubhouse. You can choose to put an empty Budweiser box on your head and fill the pockets of your jumpsuit with beer cans – perfect for when you get thirsty. If you haven’t joined the trend and bought FOCO jumpsuits or “shorts”, you can always use any old jumpsuit.

For another simple Phillies-themed costume, you can simply wear an oversized Phillies shirt, like Carpenter did during the finale of his show in Philadelphia earlier this month. But beware of what some fans call the “Sabrina Carpenter curse”.

Joro Spider

In January, a New Jersey-based pest control company caused quite a scare when it claimed the state could have “giant venomous flying spiders” by the end of the year. From then on, some media continued to incite panic with the arrival of Jorō spiders – large spiders native to Asia, but which were first seen in the United States a decade ago. Although claims that they are poisonous, flying monstrosities have been debunked, the invasive species arrived in the Philadelphia region much sooner than expected. Six Jorō spiders were found in Northampton Township, Bucks County, in September, and a seventh was found in Warminster.

Want to be the eighth Jorō in Pennsylvania? Wear yellow striped clothes and create extra spider arms using plush socks. You can also hold an umbrella to represent the “balloon” method of travel used by the puppies.

Portal sculpture

Philadelphia just got a fun new ride: a portal sculpture in LOVE Park with links to live streams from Dublin, Ireland; Vilnius, Lithuania; and Lublin, Poland. Whether the installation leads to global connections or not, it’s at least a great idea for a Halloween costume. There are probably several ways to do this, but the first one that came to mind was using a hula hoop. You can dress all gray and attach the hoop to the front of your outfit. It would be especially cool if you wrapped the hoop in aluminum foil or glued a picture to it. Be creative!

Wildcard: a Philly version of Moo Deng

This last one is a bit far-fetched, but stick with me as I weave a Philadelphia connection. In case you’ve somehow avoided the Internet in recent months, a cheeky baby pygmy hippo named Moo Deng – whose name translates to “bouncing pork” – has gained fans across the world after his debut at a zoo in Thailand in July . Unfortunately, there are no pygmy hippos living in our area’s zoos – although you might see them if you make the trek across the state to the Pittsburgh Zoo. At the Philadelphia Zoo, however, we have the pygmy hippo’s much larger cousin, the hippo, and our hippos have had their own fair share of viral fame.

A video made by publicist Kory Aversa at the 2021 Boo at the Zoo event has been viewed on TikTok more than 55 million times. The video shows some Philadelphia hippos munching on huge pumpkins. So, you could pay homage to Moo Deng’s newfound fame while giving flowers to our local celebrities with a costume I’d like to call “Boo Deng”. Get it? For the costume, all you need is a gray outfit, lots of blush, some hippo ears – a mouse ear headband would probably do the trick – a pumpkin and lots of moisturizer.