What are you Going as for Halloween? {DIY vs. Store Bought Costumes for Kids}

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EVMBHalloweenCostumesHalloween has always been a mixed bag for me (yes, pun intended).  On one hand, I love the dress-up and pretend aspect of it.  On the other hand, I hate the blood and gore.  And I HATE being scared.  I haven’t watched a horror movie in years, and even when I did, I watched through my fingers while my hands covered my face.  After college, I didn’t dress up for Halloween much at all except for the occasional party.  Over the years, I’ve always lived in apartments, so I never got trick-or-treaters.  Halloween was all but forgotten at my house.

That is, until I had a child.  All of a sudden I was right back in the Halloween spotlight and “What are you going as for Halloween?” is once again VERY important, although not for me this time.  Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, you were hard pressed to find a store bought costume that didn’t come with a creepy plastic mask.  And if you did, there was no way your parents were buying it because it was super expensive.  Once we graduated from the plastic mask costumes, we all wore DIY costumes.  Our next door neighbor made my older sister the most amazing Raggedy Ann Doll costume with a pinafore, bloomers, and a red yarn wig.  It stayed in our family for years with my sister and I wearing it multiple times.

We loved coming up with DIY costumes and putting them together ourselves.  Fast forward to today when almost every costume is store bought and retailers rake in millions of dollars in Halloween sales.  Each year the taste level of these costumes becomes increasingly disturbing, as they are either too sexy or too scary for the age group intended.  Just last month Wal-Mart was forced to remove its “Naughty Leopard” costume for toddlers because of public outcry over the name, with “naughty” being a sexual term, especially when describing Halloween costumes (Naughty Nurse, Naughty Nun- you get the point).

Since my daughter has participated in Halloween we too have gone the store bought route because she wants nothing to do with my DIY costumes.  But I still love them!  I always try to use things I already have in my closet, purchasing as little as possible.  I put together a mean Mary Poppins a few years ago, and I think I spent less than $20.  And recently I was Flynn to my daughter’s Rapunzel, all with items I already owned.

So, I was very excited when she told me she wanted to be a black cat this year.  How easy is that?  We just needed to purchase a $5 cat kit (ears and tail) from Target and the rest would be DIY.  However, when we went to actually purchase the cat kit, she spotted a Dorothy costume, and the black cat was a distant memory.   We did purchase the ruby red slippers, but I put my foot down at the $15 Toto in a basket, and I now had a DIY project.

I purchased a basket from the Dollar Tree, and we found a white Yorkie at Target for $5.  The Yorkie had a pink bow in it’s hair which we removed.  I then purchased some black hair spray from the Halloween section at Safeway for $2, and we turned that white dog into a black one in no time.  Personally, I think our $8 Toto looks way better than the more expensive version.  My roommates and I were “The Wizard of Oz” in college (all DIY), and I have to secretly admit, I’m pretty excited to pull out my Glinda costume again this year.

Since becoming a mother, I’ve embraced Halloween with open arms.  It doesn’t have to be scary, there are plenty of age-appropriate ideas out there, and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune.  Try looking in yours and your kid’s closets for items to use for your costumes.  I’m sure you’ll be surprised by what you already own!  My 1987 pink prom dress is coming in very handy again this year…

Do you prefer DIY or purchased costumes?  Do you find your parenting skills challenged when your child wants to wear a scary or sexy Halloween costume when it’s not age appropriate?  What is your favorite Halloween costume, either DIY or purchased?

Have a Happy and Safe Halloween!

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This post is sponsored by:

bike-land-150x150The Brett Saks Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, hopes  to make our Arizona communities safer for bicyclists by teaching adults and children about road safety and mutual respect between drivers and cyclists in fun and engaging ways. We are “Shifting Gears to Saves Lives,” as more than 600 cyclists are lost each year to car-bike accidents. Learn more at gearupaz.org.

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