With Halloween drawing near, I can’t help but reflect on the many ways that Halloween costuming has changed in the last 30(ish) years when I was a kid. It’s fun to reminisce about the Halloween costumes that I wore growing up in the 80s and 90s. I was desperate to have one of the plastic Strawberry Shortcake or Rainbow Brite costumes with the crazy eye, nose, and mouth holes, but it just wasn’t in the budget. I usually had to make do with my own creativity and the fact that I had 7 older siblings who had hand-me-down cheer leader uniforms and random things that were repurposable.
Some of my Halloween highlights were when I fashioned a California Raisin costume out of a black garbage bag, wadded up newspapers, and donned some face paint. I carried my saxophone so that I could be recognizable as one of the musicians from the ’80’s music group. I also was so proud of my Little Bo Peep costume that I wore in 3rd grade. I wore my sisters old Easter dress, and asked my dad to make a shepherd’s crook out of scrap wood. But, I think my favorite costume of all time was my 5th grade punk rocker costume in which I wore my lacy tights layered over my purple ones, added my jean skirt and sweater worn off the shoulder, and topped off with bright pink hair spray. Unfortunately, since it took a whole week for my Kodak 110 camera to get developed, pictures were not always taken to document all of my creative strokes of genius.
My children LOVE to dress up for any (which means every) occasion. They always have. I couldn’t even begin to guess how many costumes they have worn in their lives. I’ve taken Iron Man to the bus stop to pick up his big brother, eaten more meals with superheros than Batman himself, and watched The Force defeat The Dark Side with light saber fights in my living room. So, as you might imagine, Halloween costumes are something that my children look forward to all year long. We start brain-storming and daydreaming about the perfect costume they would like to express themselves.
When they were smaller, I didn’t even think about purchasing costumes. When my oldest one was 3, he was insistent that he wanted to be a spider. I immediately googled “spider costume” and got to work making one out of pool noodles, black tube socks, a black sweat suit, stocking hat, and googly eyes. And because I don’t sew, I used hot glue and safety pins and said a little prayer it would hold long enough to take a few pictures and visit a few neighbors. As my boys have aged, they no longer desire the simple fabric glued together to make a vest for Woody from Toy Story, but the costumes with the sewn in lights, padding, and all the props such as noise producing Iron Man hands and light-up Kylo Ren light sabers. These accouterments are obviously outside of my expertise, so we ended up purchasing costumes that could basically pass for the actual characters. My boys have inspired by garage sale finds, and scoured the internet for the best Buzz Lightyear helmet and gloves we could find. We visited the Disney Store on spring break to purchase the most authentic furry headed Incredible Hulk we could find, and cross our fingers the beloved costume would fit in 6 months. For the last few years, we basically spent months preparing for ONE DAY.
Dressing in costumes has allowed my kids to cultivate their imaginations and learn to be confident while expressing themselves in a fun way. I love that they are learning to be comfortable in their own skin, even when dressing in a costume. I hope they can value playfulness.
While the costumes of my childhood differ greatly from the costumes of today, I can still remember that my favorite part of Halloween was that I enjoyed pretending to be someone I admired, appreciated, or even aspired to be. My boys have the same opinion about dressing up on that exciting day. Maybe times haven’t changed as much as I thought.
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