Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka are scaling back their Halloween costumes this year

But this year, David, 44, has said things have gotten “so crazy” over the years that they’ve decided to “pull it back a little” this year.

He said: “It got to be so crazy. The expectations for us and Halloween have gotten so nuts, that I think it’s time to pull back a little. I don’t know how many years we have left for this, but last year was nuts. We found ourselves in a cemetery with a generator and a smoke machine, and we’re in these costumes and going, ‘What has happened? This has gotten [out of hand].’ ”

Neil, 46, and David are planning on doing something “a little more adult” this year, and although David doesn’t think this will be his “favourite costume” they’ve ever done, he does think scaling back the extravagance is a good idea.

He added: “There’s so many high expectations for it. I don’t know. I feel like it’s not as good. Pulling it back this year, I think, might be good for next year.”

Over the years, the two ‘How I Met Your Mother’ stars and their children have taken on characters from the likes of ‘Peter Pan’, ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘The Wizard of Oz’, and ‘Star Wars’.

And David says the family always try to ensure everybody gets some input into every costume choice.

Speaking to Us Weekly magazine, he said: “I’ve come up with the last couple years. The kids always want to put their input, but I don’t want to be the ‘Descendants’. I try to come up with more obscure things for us to be, but it’ll be interesting. We’ll see. Hopefully, we’ll turn out [OK].”