Lost Art of Halloween Costumes

Declaring Halloween in February, I’m doing all stories this week about Halloween stuff. Enjoy!

Why don’t more people make their own costumes?

Thinking back to my childhood, there were always Halloween costumes available to buy in stores. Back then they were cheap plastic things that didn’t last very long. (I remember one year our neighbor friend Alex ripped his almost in half not ten feet from leaving his house.) In my house, though, my Mom instilled in us the desire (and some talent) to make our own costumes.

I remember some of my childhood costumes. Mom made me an American Indian costume one year, which was more like what Hollywood would say Indians dressed. Another year I made my own robot costume with some cardboard boxes and a LOT of aluminum foil.

Editor’s note: It’s a bad idea to put a child in a costume that they can’t turn around in. That usually leads to kids banging on the back of the costume and running away.

When all else failed and we couldn’t think of anything, our fallback costume was the Hobo, complete with old clothes and some burnt cork for the 5 o’clock shadow.

Other costumes are mentioned in some of my other Halloween stories on this blog.

I also had a couple of fun work-related costumes. One year in NJ I came to work not in the usual business casual attire but in my best suit and tie with polished shoes and everything. When my coworker asked what I was supposed to be, I told her I was an employee who cared deeply about his job. Another time in Fort Worth (right after Thompson acquired Harcourt and announced they were closing us down), I dressed in all the branded Harcourt clothing I had with new Thompson items layered over it along with a Borg arm and Borg headpiece – I was a Harcourt employee being assimilated by Thompson. It got a big laugh and earned me 2nd place in the company costume contest.

snow whiteMary also has a history of making her own costumes, being adept in the sewing arts. She made some interesting ones for herself and for our kids as well – witness young Diane as Snow White.

We’ve imparted this lesson to our kids about the importance of making their own costumes, and we’ve had some good ones. My personal favorite of ours was in 2002 when my kids and I constructed Lord of the Rings themed costumes. Diane went with a “Legolas as a girl” approach, I knocked up a Ranger outfit, and Natalie was best with her Frodo costume. As we walked the neighborhood, people immediately figured out she was Frodo but couldn’t tell what we were – some thought Diane was Peter Pan, and one guy wondered if I was the WWF Undertaker(!)

As we sit on the porch every year, I see lots of store-bought crappy costumes. (We also see crappy homemade stuff, mostly from teens that probably shouldn’t be trick or treating any more.) Still, every once in a while we see some kid who took their (or their parents’) time and made a costume from scratch.

And that’s the best part of Halloween. That, and the leftover candy.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *