Halloween Costume Ideas
When my 10 year old was little, I wanted to dress him for his first Halloween, but we were broke. I bought him a cheap pair of black sweatpants, a black sweatshirt, and a cat-ear headband. The ingenious part of this was that he could wear the sweatsuit in the upcoming cool weather. Walmart sells the seperates very cheap. Add some black socks and shoes and you are SET. You can even let them wear regular shoes if you want. Take black eyeliner and draw whiskers on those cute little faces. Instant cat! You can also do something similar with a red sweatsuit and a little devil ear headband.
Almost every child has a pair of overalls and some sort of plaid shirt. Add a straw hat or cowboy hat. Use the eyeliner to make freckles and color the nose and you have a cute scarecrow!
Does your toddler have colorful pajamas? Dress them in them and paint those adorable faces to make a clown! You can use your own make-up or buy a kit at Walmart for about a dollar. If your toddler will toloerate it, you can use the color hair spray to color their hair, too.
If your child has a white dress shirt, tie, and dress pants, make Harry Potter! All you need to get is a small wand (or spray-paint a stick black) and a fake pair of glasses. Sometimes you can find the glasses in the toy section dirt cheap. Get a black piece of fabric from the fabric department and pin it around their shoulders. Black hair spray paint will finish the effect.
Similarly, if your child has a whole suit, you an buy them a pair of sunglasses and let them borrow a briefcase. Then they are one of the Men In Black. Get a small plush pug or alien to make it cuter.
Walmart has lots of superhero pajamas. Buy a set of those, and add the necessary extras and you have a superhero that can use their costume over and over. One year, the pajamas came complete with capes!
You can also pin a variety of tails onto sweatsuits or pajamas and buy various kinds of ears cheap. Even the Dollar Tree will carry some. Try bunnies, dogs, teddy bears, or an assortment of other animals. A white sweatsuit or pair of pajamas with black spots glues or pinned on with floppy ears makes an adorable dalmation.
Use a black sweatsuit and red posterboard to make a ladybug. Cut a big circle out of the posterboard, draw on black spots and attach to the sweatsuit with pins or velcro.
Cut a poodle out of some material, pin it to your daughter’s long skirt, and put her hair into a ponytail, and make her a 50’s girl! Grease up your son’s hair, put him in a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt and fold a small box up in his sleeve. What an adorable pair they will make!
On a warmer Halloween, put your son in shorts, a loud Hawaiian shirt, knee socks, sunglasses, a straw hat and hang a camera around his neck. WOW! He’s a tourist!
Don’t forget the old stand-by’s! Wrap your child in gauze, lightly spray with green hair spray paint in some areas and make a mummy. Cut a sheet to fit, cut out eye holes and make a ghost. Dress them in their white dress shirt, black pants and a cape, add some inexpensive vampire teeth and paint thier little faces white, perhaps with some red around the corners of the mouth. Again, the face paint is very cheap.
If your child has some outgrown pants and a white shirt, cut the bottoms of the pants and lower arms of the shirt into strips. Add some costume jewelry and perhaps an eyepatch and make yourself a pirate. Ahoy Matey!
Let your daughter wear her pajamas, a robe, put her hair up into rollers and give her a coffee cup to carry around (preferrably plastic). You can even smudge eyeeshadow under her eyes to make her look tired.
Find a box that will fit your child’s middle section. Cut out holes for the head, arms and legs. You can draw on a tv, wrap as a Christmas present, or any such imaginative thing.
Don’t forget your friendly neighborhood Goodwill. You can find all sort of ideas inside. Dress up as a bum, a bride, a beuty queen, any number of things with the clothing and accessories you find in there.
With a little imagination, and just a LITTLE money, you can make great costumes for your kids. Don’t be afraid to experiment! Have a happy Halloween!
