Every Mariah Carey Halloween Costume, Year by Year

2025: Kawaii Look in Tokyo

Halloween night 2025, in Tokyo, with Monroe and Moroccan

A Japanese kawaii-style outfit: a long pink pigtailed wig, a frilly white shirt, a puffy blue skirt, ruffled white socks, and a white parasol. Monroe and Moroccan wore matching animal onesies next to her, a yellow one and a white one (E! News).

The whole family posed with the Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel characters at the park, both dressed for Day of the Dead. It only works as a costume if the trip is real. Recreating this at a party back home loses the reason it happened in the first place.

2024: Alvin and the Chipmunks, With Moroccan

Halloween Horror Nights, Hollywood, early November 2024

Mariah played Alvin, in red, with her son Moroccan as Simon in blue and a third family member as Theodore in green, chipmunk ears for everyone.

The joke half-writes itself: she’s the actual Queen of Christmas showing up as characters best known for a Christmas song. It’s a costume built for people who already know her holiday brand, not a stranger at the door.

2023: Jessica Rabbit

Halloween night 2023

A floor-length red gown, purple opera gloves, and a bright red wig styled in heavy Hollywood waves, a full departure from her usual honey blonde.

This is the costume most people picture when they think of Mariah Carey at Halloween, and it works because Jessica Rabbit is a costume built entirely around glamour, which is already her whole thing.

2019: 80s Rockstar, With Bryan Tanaka

Heidi Klum’s Halloween party, October 31, 2019

A black leather bra and underwear under a sheer fishnet bodysuit, a cropped leather jacket, over-the-knee leather boots, and a platinum mullet wig with spiked bangs. Bryan Tanaka matched her in an oversized tank top, ripped jeans, and a silver mullet wig, guitar prop included.

Showing up to another celebrity’s Halloween party in a matching couple’s costume is its own small tradition in this group, the same one that shows up in Heidi Klum’s guest list most years.

2018: Nurse and Doctor, With Bryan Tanaka

Halloween night 2018

A fitted nurse costume for Mariah, paired with a doctor costume for Bryan Tanaka.

It’s built for two people, not one. On its own, a nurse costume is one of the most common Halloween choices there is.

2016: Red Latex Devil

Her annual Halloween party, with Nick Cannon and the twins

A form-fitting red latex devil costume with a corset top, sparkly horns, and black platform boots. Nick Cannon and son Moroccan came as Mario and Luigi, and daughter Monroe wore a purple princess dress.

The devil costume is simple enough to copy: red latex, horns, boots. But the corset and the platform boots are doing most of the work. Skip either one and it reads as a plain red dress with horns.

2015: Witch

Halloween 2015

A floor-length black latex dress, a wide pointed witch hat, and a green apple held up like a prop. Worn without a matching partner or group.

A witch costume is one of the easiest on this whole list to recreate. Black dress, hat, an apple if you want the prop, done.

2009: Angel, With Nick Cannon

M2 Ultralounge, New York, Halloween 2009

A white angel costume with wings and a halo, worn as a couple’s look with then-husband Nick Cannon, who wore wings of his own but skipped the halo for a furry headband instead.

An angel costume alone is generic. Doing it as a mismatched pair, one halo, one headband, is what actually made this one memorable.

2008: Famous Amos Cookie, and a Firefighter Look With Nick Cannon

Halloween 2008, two separate looks

Mariah dressed as a Famous Amos cookie while Nick Cannon went as a carton of milk, a pairing that only works because they showed up together.

This costume depends entirely on having a partner who commits to the joke. A cookie by itself is just a cookie.

The same year, the two of them also matched in full firefighter turnout gear, helmets included, for another party. Two different couple’s costumes in one Halloween season is a lot of commitment even by her standards.

2007: A Leopard Cat, With Friends

Halloween 2007, exact venue unconfirmed

A leopard print bodysuit cut low at the chest, worn with cat ears and sheer black tights. Two friends in matching leopard tights and leather jackets posed with her for the photo.

It is a straightforward animal costume with no real story behind it, the kind that works because of who is wearing it more than what it is.

2004: A Bride

Halloween 2004, exact venue unconfirmed

A strapless white corset dress, a long tulle veil, elbow-length gloves, and a bouquet of white flowers, with a garter showing at the thigh. It reads as a costume version of a wedding dress, not an actual one.

A veil this long catches on doorways and other people’s drinks all night. Worth knowing before you commit to one this size.

2003: A Mermaid

Halloween 2003, exact venue unconfirmed

A seashell bra top and a long green tail skirt, with loose curled hair and a shell headpiece. Older write-ups of this year filed it under Venus de Milo, but the seashell top and mermaid tail in the surviving photo point to a mermaid costume instead.

The tail skirt is the part that actually sells it. Without it, the seashell top alone reads as a beach costume, not a mermaid.

2002: A Bunny, With Friends

A group Halloween party, 2002, exact venue unconfirmed

White bunny ears, worn in a group photo with friends in their own costumes, one in devil horns. The surviving photo is dark and low resolution, so most of the outfit itself is hard to make out.

Documentation on this one is thin. It reads more like a snapshot from a group party than a planned costume moment.

1997: The “It’s a Stick-Up” Bit

Halloween 1997

A tied-up white shirt, workout shorts, and a toy gun, playing on the phrase “it’s a stick-up.” It’s from early in her documented Halloween history, a couple of years after the leopard two-piece below.

This is from early enough in her career that the costume looks like something put together same-day, not built by a team months out.

1995: A Leopard Print Two-Piece

Halloween 1995, exact venue unconfirmed

A cropped leopard print top and matching skirt, worn early in her career. The surviving photo shows her next to a costumed party guest in a red beret and uniform, and it’s one of the earliest Halloween photos of her still in circulation.

The leopard print shows up again in her 2007 costume, more than a decade later. Some looks she just comes back to.