Avatar the Last Airbender family costume for Halloween, including character costume ideas for Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, and Zuko.
For our 2020 Halloween costumes, our family decided to go with something simpler than what we’ve done the last few years, but also something fun that our family loves.
2020 was a strange year and we didn’t know what would happen for Halloween, so we didn’t want to spend too much time making our costumes. I’ve learned that the simplest cosplays to make are animated characters. Because animators have to draw a character so many times, they tend to make their clothing and accessories much simpler than live-action characters with lots of solid colors and simplified lines. That means the costumes are a lot easier to make.
We love the Avatar, the Last Airbender series. And the idea to dress as Avatar characters started with a discussion we had about how much my son’s sense of humor is just like Aang’s sense of humor–goofy, a little mischievous, and always funny.
When we realized that if we cut his blond hair super short, he looked a lot like Aang too, the decision of what to be for Halloween was decided.
To make his costumes, I made a tan shirt with a collar and tan pants cut short with elastic at the bottom. His cape is orange fleece cut into a circle shape with a small circle cut out for his neck and a slit down the front. He’s also wearing some of his sister’s black legging under his pants.
My husband also made Aang’s Airbender staff using a pole leftover from my girls’ closet makeover. He used old tent poles and red fabric attached to the pole with eye screws.
And of course, Aang needs Appa. Luckily my son’s Wampa rug from his Star Wars room made a pretty good Appa. Minus a few legs. Plus my son loves his Wampa rug almost as much as Aang loves Appa. Almost.
My daughter has always identified with Katara’s nurturing personality and her exasperation with Aang, so she was excited to dress as her favorite Avatar character. She sewed her own wrap dress from a Simplicity pattern and added white trim to all the edges. She wore boots and an army surplus leather pouch. And she copied Katara’s hairstyle.
To make my husband’s Sokka costumes, I used a pattern for making scrubs because it had a good V-neck and then sewed a strip of white fabric diagonally off the neck to make it look like a wrap shirt. He used scraps of white fabric for his wrists and belt.
Sokka’s boomerang is a work of foam art. If you’ve seen our previous costumes, you know my husband loves making foam weapons and armor. The boomerang he made by gluing foam onto a thin piece of wood and cutting out the shape of the boomerang. Then he beveled the edges of the foam and painted it metallic.
We had a lot of fun taking pictures of our costumes as Avatar characters, especially my husband as Sokka. He really got into Sokka’s sense of humor. And what can I say except, Drink cactus juice, it’ll quench ya! Nothing’s quenchier! It’s the quenchiest!.
My older daughter loves the character Zuko with all his inner struggles and conflicts. Plus, I think she relates a little to his angst. Teenagers, got to love them!
She sewed a red jersey shirt and pants (that she now uses as pajamas), and sewed a simple darker red cloak with a satiny gold trim. The most amazing part of her costumes is the makeup. The detail in her scar is pretty incredible.
We had some fun with Photoshop too, adding Firebending and Waterbending elements.
And hopefully you can tell that Aang and Zuko are doing the Dragon Dance here.
As much as I love Toph’s character, I have to admit that her outfit is not the most figure-flattering, but it is simple. A simple green dress with a white apron over it. The apron is just a rectangle of fabric with a square cut out of the middle for my head to go through. I think my next costume needs to be from a character a little closer to my age.
We had a lot of fun making and cosplaying in our Avatar, the Last Airbender costumes. Make sure you check out our family’s past Halloween costumes too!