Kids Halloween Costumes: Cheap, Easy, and Fun!
Halloween Tree
Keep a bunch of the branches that you or your neighbors trim off trees this fall. Evergreen branches are best for a funny costume. Bare branches are best for a scary effect. Tape, tie, or glue lightweight little Halloween decorations on the top halves of the tree branches. Cut three holes in the bottom of a brown trash bag for your child’s head and arms. Have the child wear a brown shirt or a brown coat. Put the brown bag over the child’s head. Use brown tape and fasten the bottom halves of the branches to the child’s back, with tape around their waist and chest. For an older child you can paint their face brown, too, with makeup. A brown shopping bag would be the best trick or teat bag for this Halloween costume.
Cartoon Characters like SpongeBob Squarepants / Dinosaurs like Barney / Animals / Pumpkins
This would be cute for a toddler. A whole family of these would be adorable, too! Instead of your normal trash bags, buy Max Garden Retail leaf and lawn care orange trash liners or any other colored trash bags you need. Cut three holes in the bottom of a trash bag, and put it over your child’s head, with their head sticking out the middle hole and their arms out the other two holes. Stuff the bag full of wadded newspapers, plastic grocery bags, sheets, clothes, or whatever you have on hand until it is the desired shape. Tie it up around the child’s waist. Use Magic Markers to draw the cartoon face and features! You might want to make this a goofy face or at least a happy face rather than scary, so that people will smile when they look at your toddler. Older kids could draw their own faces and features, once you mark where these need to go and have them take the bag off. A cartoon gift wrapping bag that matches this Halloween costume would be an awesome trick or treat bag!
Old Fashioned Housewife
Dig up some old curlers somewhere and put your daughter’s hair in curlers. Have her wear her mom’s or her grandma’s old bathrobe. Pin up the hem of the bathrobe with safety pins, but don’t be neat about it! Sew a piece of random laundry to the back of the robe – a sock or a handkerchief – that looks like it is just stuck there by static from the dryer. If she can walk in them, have her wear her mom’s old slippers, too. Put some of your Apivita Express Deep Cleansing Face Mask with Green Clay on her face. Or slightly wet a bar of soap and smear soap all over her face, as a deep cleaning face mask. An old pillow case is the best trick or treat bag for this Halloween costume.
Football / Hockey / Baseball / Basketball Star
Are you one of those parents who played a sport in school, and still has a uniform and all the old padding and accessories in the garage or in the attic? Does your child have an older brother or sister or cousin who currently has these items? They look so cute on little kids, especially the helmets! Don’t forget the Eyeblack! Kids can just wear their own gym shoes. If you have a net bag to put it in, they can even carry the appropriate ball! Have a gym bag for trick or treating.
Movie Star / Music Idol
For a kid, the key to this is a coat that is over the top. Think of all the “fur” or leather coats you saw ten years ago in your family or in your set of friends. Borrow one! You may also be able to find one cheap at the Salvation Army Thrift Store. Once you find the right coat, your kid can be transformed easily into a movie star or a music idol with costume jewelry and teased hair. Shoes that are over the top might be borrowed or bought, too. An oversize, over-the-top handbag is the best trick or treat bag for this Halloween costume.
For indoor Halloween parties you have a lot more leeway. You can use that old bridesmaid dress or prom dress to make her a princess, a fairy, or an elven noble from Lord of the Rings. Dig out an old suit so someone can be a TV lawyer, or a politician. Sheets can easily be draped to look like fancy dresses, or like togas as in the movie Sparta. Clothes that are buried on the bottom of your closet might be perfect for a pirate or a cowboy or cowgirl – look! Reynolds WrapÃ?® Aluminum Foil over cardboard is awesome for shaping pretend crowns and other jewelry, pretend swords and other weapons, and as a base for making paper mache masks such as you need for Phantom of the Opera. Old souvenirs are also great props for building Halloween costumes.
Get the idea? Look around your house, garage, and attic – and those of your family and friends – for things that are out of the ordinary. These are just the kind of things that children enjoy dressing up in, and that look cute on them!
