Come Halloween, this legendary Hollywood dad gives his family the BEST Halloween costumes

Rick Baker is a straight-up legend in Hollywood. You could list all of his historic accomplishments from now until Christmas, but I’ll try to keep a fangirl grip and limit it to the highlights. He won the inaugural Academy Award for Best Makeup for his work on An American Werewolf in London in 1981. Over the course of his career, he’s won seven Academy Awards in his category (Yes, that IS more Oscars than Meryl Streep, correct), for his work on Harry and the Hendersons (1988), Ed Wood (1995), The Nutty Professor (1997), Men in Black (1998), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2001) and The Wolfman (2011). Oh, and if all that wasn’t mindblowing enough, Rick is also the artist responsible for Michael Jackson’s makeup in the ‘Thriller’ vid. Yes, this is the man behind ‘The Werecat,’ you know that costume you tried to do one year and then gave up halfway through because it was totally impossible to even get half-right. It’s okay, don’t feel bad, you did your best, you basically have to be the Michelangelo of makeup to get that ish done right. Also, Baker’s got a star on Hollywood Blvd, because that’s how industry legends roll.

Okay, so that’s all super-crazy impressive. Now here’s where things get super-crazy adorable. Every year, come Halloween, Rick takes his makeup magic and uses it to make his family’s costumes A+++. I know this because I was scrolling through Facebook on Friday and I stumbled upon his daughter/my Facebook friend Veronica Baker’s Halloween costume and my jaw literally dropped to the floor and I still haven’t been able to pick it back up. Check it:

So, of course, I immediately scrambled to my Facebook messages and dashed off a frantic missive to Veronica that essentially said, “You! This Halloween costume! Tell me the story of everything!” That’s when I learned that Veronica’s dad was THE Rick Baker, her mom, Silvia Baker had an awesome career as a Hollywood hair stylist AND is an accomplished seamstress (she put together Veronica’s Joker outfit and MADE that coat from scratch!) and together Rick and Silvia got Veronica dressed up and ready Friday for her digital marketing job at DC Entertainment. Veronica proceeded to win “Best Villain” in the company’s Halloween competition because how could she not?

As it turns out, Rick, Silvia, Veronica and her sister Rebecca have been doing tricked-out Halloweens since the girls were children. The family’s group costumes were sometimes based on a specific group (They went as The Munsters in 1995, be still our Nick at Nite-loving hearts) and sometimes they would just base their costumes on a general theme, like the ever-moody-and-evocative “gothic.” And to add cute on top of cute, they use their Halloween group pic as that year’s holiday card.

The Munsters (1995)

Gothic (1998)

They fam doesn’t ALWAYS do spooky-scary, check out this pic of the clan as the Wizard of Oz gang:

When Veronica got back from college and started getting her working world on, her parents always made sure she was dressed to impress for Halloween.

Veronica as the Bride of Frankenstein in 2011:

And as a Ghost Bride, a character of her father’s invention, in 2014

And every once in a while a costume is so awesome, it must be repeated:

Veronica as Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas in 1994…

And in 2013…

And now that her sister’s back from college, the family is getting their group costume on again, and, as it turns out, Veronica’s costume on Friday was the most badass of spoilers, because tonight, on Halloween proper, Veronica, her parents, her sister, are going as the villains of Gotham (her sister’s BF will be going as The Man Who Laughs, a cited inspiration for The Joker).

We just love these sweetheart parents who, year after year, have taken their talents and used them to make this holiday so special for their daughters. This family is giving us all the Halloween goals. I could not be more inspired and am going to try EXTRA hard to get my Jem and the Holograms makeup right tonight, in tribute to the amazingness of this badass Halloween clan.

P.S. Bonus feature, if you’re dying to see how the magic happens, check out this vid of Rick doing Veronica’s 2013 Nightmare Before Christmas makeup:

(Photos via Veronica Baker/Rick Baker.)