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Since 2011 Neil Patrick Harris Shows His Family’s Halloween Costumes And This Year They Went All Out
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Since 2011 Neil Patrick Harris Shows His Family’s Halloween Costumes And This Year They Went All Out

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Beloved actor Neil Patrick Harris who is also know as Barney Stinson from the TV show How I Met Your Mother has a beautiful family and it seems that they created a fun tradition of celebrating Halloween by wearing matching costumes. And we don’t mean dressing up as the same character but in different sizes; the family actually coordinates their outfits to a certain theme or movie.

Through the years fans have seen the couple’s children grow and also witnessed how their costumes evolved. And we continue to observe what the family will be embodying this year as they winning over the internet once again after sharing photos of their newest Halloween costumes. Neil, his husband David Burtka, and their twins Gideon and Harper who are already 11 years old went all out on their costumes and dressed up as characters from horror movie classics so if you want to see the result, scroll down!

More info: Instagram | Twitter

NPH, his husband David, and their twins Gideon and Harper have been surprising us with their Halloween costumes every year

Image credits: nph

Last year Bored Panda reached out to Lenore Skenazy who is the president of Let Grow, a nonprofit organization promoting childhood independence and resilience, and founder of the Free-Range Kids movement to learn more about what these kinf od gatherings like Halloween mean to a family. She said that different families have different traditions but she was impressed with those who treated Halloween as an occasion to do something together and create amazing memories.

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She believes that it’s nice when families have traditions, i.e. something they do regularly and if that tradition is very specific or peculiar to that family, “Kids will remember this pretty much forever, and may even pass it along to the next generation.”

Peter Pan in 2011

Image credits: nph

The Wizard Of Oz in 2012

Image credits: nph

Alice In Wonderland in 2013

Image credits: nph

Traditions unite the family, help strengthen relationships and it makes the members look forward to those events. As Lorene mentioned these traditions can be passed down through generations and that can become a very important tool to make members from different age groups feel like they all belong together. It is also a natural way of teaching family values to the children and forming their identity.

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It’s nice to see that even celebrities who usually are very busy and are even more overwhelmed during festivities make time for their families and make sure that they do things they all enjoy and want to keep the bonds between them strong. Their positive influence might inspire others to do something similar with their families and establish their own traditions that would keep their relationships strong, especially when the children grow up and it becomes harder to keep in touch.

Frankenstein’s Monster, Wolfman, The Bride of Frankenstein, and Dracula in 2013

Image credits: nph

Halloween From Gotham City in 2014

Image credits: nph

The family dressed up as characters from Star Wars in 2015

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Image credits: nph

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Image credits: nph

Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx, Marilyn Monroe, and James Dean in 2016

Image credits: nph

Through the years we had the joy of being involved in Neil Patrick Harris family’s Halloween celebrations and they still manage to come up with something new. As already mentioned, the family often chooses movies as inspiration for their costumes. They have already cosplayed as The Wizard Of Oz characters, they have dressed up as characters from Alice In Wonderland and they tried to scare us by making the Frankenstein’s Monster their own. Just last year they paid homage to the 1971 American musical movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

When they are not recreating movie characters, the family chooses a theme to dress to. In 2016 they portrayed some of the most iconic American actors of the 20th century and in 2019 the parents and the children became some of the most famous artists in the world. This year the creative four didn’t disappoint either.

Harris Halloween Carnival of Curiosities in 2017

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Image credits: nph

Image credits: nph

Hitchhiking Ghosts in 2018

Image credits: nph

Neil Patrick Harris and his family invited us to visit the Burtka-Harris Boo-seum’ in 2019

Image credits: nph

In 2020, the wholesome gang decided to pay homage to the 1971 American musical movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Image credits: nph

“Oompa, loompa, doompety doo! We’ve got a family photo for you!” Neil Patrick Harris greeted his followers on the spooky occasion. Just like Heidi Klum in her brand new Halloween special, the actor reminded everyone of the global pandemic and advised to keep safe. “This year, may you invent an October 31st that is spirited, safe, and scrumptious.”

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“Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple,” NPH continued. “Happy Halloween from the Burtka-Harris Crew!”

And in 2021 the four of them put all the classic horror films in one creepy composition

Image credits: nph

This year the family decided to turn themselves into characters from different classic horror movies. David Burtka is dressed up as Jack Torrance from the movie The Shining, Gideon embodies the creepy doll Chucky from a the movie Child’s Play, the other twin, Harper is the possessed girl Regan from the Exorcist and Neil Patrick Harris himself is Norman Bates from the movie Psycho.

The actor put in the caption: “‘Frights, Camera, Action!’ This Halloween, may all your screams come true…” Seems like the family went all out and brought all the spookiness in one place. What is your reaction to their costumes and which do you like the most? Let us know in the comments!

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Jurgita Dominauskaitė

Jurgita Dominauskaitė

Writer, BoredPanda staff

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Having started as a content creator that made articles for Bored Panda from scratch I climbed my way up to being and editor and then had team lead responsibilities added as well. So it was a pretty natural transition from writing articles and titles as well as preparing the visual part for the articles to making sure others are doing those same tasks as I did before well, answering their questions and guiding them when needed. Eventually I realized editing gives me the most enjoyment and I'm focusing only on that right now.

Read less »
Jurgita Dominauskaitė

Jurgita Dominauskaitė

Writer, BoredPanda staff

Having started as a content creator that made articles for Bored Panda from scratch I climbed my way up to being and editor and then had team lead responsibilities added as well. So it was a pretty natural transition from writing articles and titles as well as preparing the visual part for the articles to making sure others are doing those same tasks as I did before well, answering their questions and guiding them when needed. Eventually I realized editing gives me the most enjoyment and I'm focusing only on that right now.

Greta Jaruševičiūtė

Greta Jaruševičiūtė

Author, BoredPanda staff

Read more »

Greta is a Photo Editor-in-Chief at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication.In 2016, she graduated from Digital Advertising courses where she had an opportunity to meet and learn from industry professionals. In the same year, she started working at Bored Panda as a photo editor.Greta is a coffeeholic and cannot survive a day without 5 cups of coffee... and her cute, big-eared dog.Her biggest open secret: she is a gamer with a giant gaming backlog.

Read less »

Greta Jaruševičiūtė

Greta Jaruševičiūtė

Author, BoredPanda staff

Greta is a Photo Editor-in-Chief at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication.In 2016, she graduated from Digital Advertising courses where she had an opportunity to meet and learn from industry professionals. In the same year, she started working at Bored Panda as a photo editor.Greta is a coffeeholic and cannot survive a day without 5 cups of coffee... and her cute, big-eared dog.Her biggest open secret: she is a gamer with a giant gaming backlog.

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Vicky Zar
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've never really noticed it before, but I love that his kids got normal names. No fruits or numbers or other strange stuff. Love him!

Daniel ONeil
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Norman Bates was the name of the character in Psycho. Patrick Bateman was the name of the character in American Psycho.

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Vicky Zar
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've never really noticed it before, but I love that his kids got normal names. No fruits or numbers or other strange stuff. Love him!

Daniel ONeil
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Norman Bates was the name of the character in Psycho. Patrick Bateman was the name of the character in American Psycho.

Load More Comments
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