Happy Halloween Costume Hunting!

It’s that creepy, crawly, jack o lantern, witch on a broom stick Halloween time of year.  Grave stones are popping up in my neighborhood yards like political signs during an election year and Booing has begun. (I think the same bag of candy will have seen its way around my four neighbor’s houses at least twice before the season is over.) 

It is also that wonderful time for children to pretend they are whatever they dream to be. In my daughter’s cases, what I think they really truly want to be are boys. Or more to the point, dressed in typical boy Halloween costumes. When they were younger, I could get away with dressing them as something cute or adorable. I even got to dress one of them like a princess once and she was so pretty! (I won’t tell you which one under the threat of eye rolling and scoffing that I am the worst blabbermouth of a mother EVER!) Once they were passed the toddler years though, I did start to encourage them to be what they wanted to be. In doing this, I may have made life a little harder on myself.  

The problem is, sometimes what they choose, I can’t MAKE and I can’t BUY. I mean, I could MAKE a costume, but sew, no, no way. Thread tangles frighten me more than spider webs, so I avoid sewing at all costs! 

When my oldest was 4, she wanted to be a FRIENDLY dragon. Believe it or not, friendly dragons are not easy to find. Scary dragons, Chinese dragons, Sexy dragons and Ninja dragons are all available. I could find tons of dinosaur costumes, but no friendly dragons that did not resemble Barney. (I found out very quickly that a 4 year old thinks there is a BIG difference between a friendly dinosaur and a friendly dragon!) I did finally find a friendly dragon online at a store in ENGLAND.  After paying double shipping charges it came a week before Halloween and was too small. 

Luckily, friendly dragons do not mind sweatpants sticking out of the bottom of their legs, so she was thrilled. It didn’t get easier as she got older. When she was 8 she decided she wanted to be the guy in the picture The Scream, NOT the guy from the movie Scream. (I would never let her watch that movie anyway!) Her art teacher had shown her class the picture and she was determined to be that guy IN the picture. So, I bought her the Scream movie mask and she didn’t know the difference, because she never SAW the movie. In the end, I was caught. She wasn’t allowed to wear the mask to school because it was scary or violent or something like that. I’ll never forget her pouting “But I’m ART! I AM ART!”

My youngest daughter never chose the most feminine of costumes either. She followed in my footsteps with a love of pirates, and her first self chosen costume was a swashbuckler! In her preschool years, ToyStory 2 came out of the Disney vault and while all her friends were Jesse (or sigh, yes a Disney princess), she had the ultimate Buzz Lightyear costume with wings that said, “To infinity and beyond!!” I was worried the boys in her class might give her a hard time until I realized there were two other girl Buzz Lightyears and two boy Jesses. Very cool!

Last year I finally thought I would catch a break. My youngest announced early on she wanted to be eas-to-purchase SpongeBob. Then my oldest announced she wanted to be Patrick Starfish to go along with SpongeBob, which it not so easy.  Patrick was out of stock everywhere. Luckily, there was some kind of “Hobo” phase going through her school at the time, so she went into her father’s closet, ripped up one of his 200 pairs of plaid shirts, put a rope through old jeans and shoe polish all over her face. She was the most adorable hobo I ever saw. (Which I told her repeatedly much to her disdain!) 

This year my smart husband took charge. He convinced my youngest to be a zoo keeper. Due to her current obsession of Steve Erwin AND a summer special at Walmart, she already has three safari outfits with all the “tools”. My oldest originally wanted to be Homer Simpson (again, WHY??), but my husband convinced HER to be Buffy (she has been watching old reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Netflix) with the promise to get her a “Buffy Slayed Edward” T-shirt, blond wig AND a spike (fake I hope). So, even though I don’t see any princess costumes in my near future (they would make such pretty princesses) as long as they are happy and I get to eat their trick-or-treat candy, who cares?