I don't like buying Halloween costumes because I feel like it's a waste. Your child will most likely wear the costume just once, right? Next Halloween, she/he will want to be someone/something else. Or maybe it's not all a waste especially if you have kids that are the same gender. My 8 year old son's Halloween costumes have definitely been passed down to his two younger brothers! They really had no say in what they wanted to be for Halloween because they had to be a frog or a tiger or Buzz Lightyear or Mr. Incredible or a pirate or Prince Caspian. (Yes, those are my oldest son's Halloween costumes). My three year old's costume is already picked out and ready to go. He'll be a tiger this year. Done. For my daughter, I always face the dilemma of buying her a Halloween costume every year. I laugh at myself now remembering how I used to be so extravagant about her Halloween costume when she was little. Until she was five years old, she had beautiful Disney costumes or she was an angel or a princess. I find it funny because she didn't really care what she was for Halloween being that young. Of course now that she's ten years old, she does care what costume she wears for Halloween and now I'm "burned" out of Halloween costume-buying.
I decided to be more creative this year! Well, it's creative for me anyway. My daughter couldn't decide what she wanted to be for Halloween so I decided for her. I had to get her a few staples from Justice (the girls store) this weekend and by the time I was done, I ended up creating her Halloween costume! Justice had a very small selection of Halloween props and some Halloween-related items such as a miniskirt made from a tulle-like material. I looked at the pictures of their models by the Halloween section and got to thinking. My daughter's costume (all from Justice) is a cross between a rock-star, punk girl, Disney star wanna-be. I put together that hot pink tulle miniskirt, black and hot pink leggings, a shirt with silver sequins (which is part of their fall line), silver sequins gloves (in the Halloween section) and a hot pink bob wig which I also found in the store's Halloween section. Voila! That's her costume this year and she actually loved it!
Two Halloween costumes down and two to go. I needed a costume for my 8 year old and 6 year old sons. I decided to tackle consignment stores and yard sales first! There's this really nice, somewhat upscale childrens' consignment store just minutes from my house that I have browsed in a couple times. I thought maybe I'll be able to find a Halloween costume there for at least one of my boys and save some money in the process too. I went the other day and twenty minutes later, I came out with two BRAND NEW Halloween costumes with the tags still on and the exact sizes I needed for my sons! They just happened to be having a sale too and Halloween costumes were 30% off! So, I purchased two BRAND NEW Halloween costumes for $6.99 each! What a steal. I asked about the return policy before I bought the costumes and they told me as long as I returned them by the 14th, it would be fine. I figured that gave me plenty of time to convince my sons to like the costumes. My 8 year old son's costume is a skeleton. I was worried about that actually because I thought maybe it would be too scary for him since he doesn't like to wear scary costumes, but he actually liked it and thought it was cool. The skeleton costume (brand new like I said) came with a full body suit, a mask, footsies and gloves! My six year old's costume is the red Bionicle and he LOVES it! Of course he had to be reminded by his older brother what Bionicle is. Nevertheless, his costume came with a full body suit and a Bionicle mask. AWESOME. Total cost for my sons' new costumes: $13.98. Total cost for my daughter's new costume: $32. That's a little costlier than I would like, BUT the silver shirt with sequins, which was the most expensive, is something she can wear to school. She can also wear the leggings another time as well. The wig, miniskirt and gloves can be recycled for another costume another year!
If you too are struggling with the Halloween costume-buying, I highly recommend you look into second-hand stores such as children consignment stores, yard sales, Goodwill or your friends! A couple of my friends did a 'switcheroo.' They have boys the same age and they just exchanged costumes which is a great idea! I may have to do that next year.
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