Halloween Ideas for a Non-Crafty Mom

Startup Sunday

I can't believe Halloween is in two weeks, and neither of my little kids has a costume. I need some easy Halloween ideas, pronto! (The costume dilemma is too much on my mind to come up with a blog post about startups -- after all, Halloween is sort of the Superbowl for kids. Everyone can celebrate regardless of religion, you get to pretend to be a superhero or goblin for a day, and who can turn down all the candy and apple cider?)

My 6-year old has been back and forth about her costume, but lately she wants to be a Skittle. What? Apparently, her friend is going to be an M&M and my girl wants to complement her costume. So I asked the friend’s mom how she came up with the costume, and she said, it’s easy!

Just go to the fabric store, get big pieces of colorful felt that you can cut into a circle, sew straps over the shoulder so that you have a front and back, and then draw a white S on the front. Huh? To non-crafty me, this does not sound like the easiest of Halloween ideas. My husband actually is a fabulous sewer (comes from being a surgeon, I guess) so maybe I can talk him into the project.

But if I fail in persuading my better half to pick up a needle, I'm pretty sure that we will fall back on one of the other truly easy Halloween ideas I've used in the past:

1. Borrow a costume from a friend or buy a gently used one off Craigslist. (I can generally find a nice costume for $10 or less.)

2. Dress them up in last year's costume, or give the younger girl the older girl's hand-me-down.

3. Invent a costume from the clothes we have lying around:

• Baseball player: with tight leggings, a soccer jersey and baseball cap.
• Ballerina or fairy: we have plenty of appropriate clothes in the dress-up drawer.
• Doctor: our house is well stocked with scrubs, latex gloves and even a real-life stethoscope.
• Baby: we still have pacifiers and blankets in stock, combined with footed sleeper pajamas and a teddy bear.

Another problem with deciding on Halloween costumes is that you never know what the weather will be like. Typically, the day is in the high 60's or even 70's, so the kids get overheated in a full body costume. But by night it's in the 50's and way too cold for those delicate fairy princess outfits. They're just not the same under a parka -- or on top of layers of leggings and turtlenecks.

Any readers have fabulous Halloween ideas that won't tax my sewing skills too much? I guess it's time to head up to the attic to see what can be salvaged from previous years' Halloweens…

Photo credit: © Katherine Lewis

Comments

[Amanda Morin]

I love that you are willing to call yourself a non-crafty mom. When it comes to costumes, what I visualize is usually considerably different than the finished product! Lucky for me, here in the northern-most Northeast, my kids usually have to wear coats over their non-crafty costumes anyway.

This year, my 8-yr-old struck a bargain with me, though. He doesn't want to trick-or-treat and would rather I buy him a variety bag of Halloween candy. That solves the costume issue! (The teeth issue, I suppose, is not as well taken care of...)