Homemade Halloween
For me, when it comes to Halloween costumes, store-bought is the only way to go. It's one of my curmudgeonly quirks; I don't like homemade costumes. Yes, they're charming and teach kids creativity, but I say, save it for dress-up days at home. When I dress my kids (or myself) up for Halloween, I like costumes that resemble the character detail for detail, not costumes that are pieced together to resemble the character in some odd, distant way. If my daughter wanted to be Dora for Halloween, I wouldn't be satisfied with her pulling on a pink shirt (with Barbie on it) and orange shorts -- she'd need a backpack and map to go with it, and I'd find some way of hiding her blond hair under an exact replica of Dora's, down to the M-shaped mound on the top (fortunately for my daughter, she has never expressed a desire to be Dora). Cutting some holes in a cardboard box and sticking aluminum foil circles on it just doesn't do it for me, and there's nothing sadder than seeing a five year old explaining to each and every grownup and child that he is, in fact, not a mailbox, not just a robot, he is Wall-E. And while there are numerous patterns and tips and ideas, I've found that you end up spending quite a lot of time and money to get the raw materials necessary to get it to look nice — so you might as well buy the finished product.
But all that authenticity comes at a price, and it's difficult to justify spending $30, $40, $50 or more on a new costume. Yes, it's a gorgeous witch gown and the stitching is intricate and the fabric doesn't make her neck itch and the skirt has twinkly lights and plays music when she twirls around, but when all is said and done, she's only going to wear it a couple of times before, and after Halloween night the costume has to be given away along with all that extra Halloween candy.
Fortunately, there are ways to get your hands on some nice, store-bought kids' costumes without spending an arm and a leg — as long as you remove any say your kids have in what character they're going to be. If you don't care which character you're going to be, you can always find something used on eBay, craigslist or your local thrift shop. You can borrow from friends and family. Or you can stalk all the costume stores the week after Halloween in order to stock up for the next year (And here's a tip: Don't buy Halloween costumes the day after Halloween. Stores usually only discount them at 50% off. Wait until 3 or 4 days after Halloween, when they reeeelly need to get rid of their stock and get their Christmas stuff in. If you time it right, you should wait until the discount reaches 75%, 80%, or yes, even 90% off — but don't wait too long, otherwise all the good costumes will be taken, leaving nothing in the aisles but a few vampire capes and Coco the Clown. Which shows you how far I'm willing to go in order to save a few bucks on a good Halloween costume).
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