Props to Kym, who came up with this week’s timely topic once again . . . 10 Best Halloween Costumes You’ve Ever Seen.
- When my mom was alive she always made Hannah’s Halloween costumes. I loved the first year when she was only 7 weeks old and we called her a Pumpkin Princess and I loved the year she was a clown, complete with pink high top sneakers but I can’t find photos of that one. I think my favorite costume my mom made for Hannah was the pilgrim one. She had just turned one and carried a little pumpkin and was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.
- Back in the day, Dale’s band always played big Halloween parties and we saw some great costumes over the years. One of my favorites was the guy who was a dry waller. He wore his stilts but covered them with leather “chaps” and was a super tall cowboy. It was a terrific costume and I think he won first prize that year.
- Of course when the band plays a Halloween party they have to dress up, too, and my favorite was the year they went as Robin Hood and His Merry Men. The tights were awesome. Just sayin.
- At that same Halloween party was a guy dressed as a gangster and his wife was a flapper. He had a pin striped suit and carried a plastic machine gun, she wore a red dress covered in black fringe and she had bright red lipstick. They made a great couple.
- One year it was raining really hard on Halloween. We scrapped Hannah’s planned costume – I don’t even remember what it was – and we dressed her in a yellow slicker and rain hat. She carried a fishing pole with a fish made from a brown paper bag hanging off the end and she had a bait bucket for collecting her candy. We threw that costume together in about 10 minutes and got more compliments on it than anything else she’s ever worn. Plus, she was warm and dry while the other kids were cold and wet. Winning!
- Last year for our Halloween party our friends Amy and Bob came as victims from the movie The Birds. It was original and funny and full of awesome.
- Years ago Dale dressed as Beetlejuice for a party Hannah had. He teased his hair all up and covered his face in white paint. He wore torn clothes and had rubber bugs coming out of his pockets. It was a riot!
- Our friend Bruce came as a bottle of fruit juice last year. His wife made his costume and the label on his “bottle” read Juicy Bruce. Like Juicy Juice. Get it? hahahahahaha.
- Our bank used to have a Halloween parade for the kids and I remember one year there was a girl dressed as a rose. She wore dark green sweat pants and a dark green sweat shirt and her mother made this amazing head piece that looked just like a red rose. It was very cool. That was the year Hannah was a clown and my mother was pissed when the rose won first prize – a $25 savings bond.
- When I was a kid my best friend, Kimberly, and I went as a pair of dice. We wore black leotards and tights and my mom turned 2 cardboard boxes into dice by painting them white with black circles. It was a neat costume but I couldn’t sit down and that was a drag.
I had a nice trip down Halloween memory lane by writing this post. Can’t wait to read about all of your favorite costumes, too, so make sure you add the link to your post.
What great Halloween costumes! (But where is the photo of Robin Hood and his Merry Men??????) The best part of Halloween is the dressing up. (And, well, maybe the candy. . .)
One year a friend dressed as a buzzard, the feathers glued onto a body suit. She moved so realistically. The next year she wore a body suit covered in surgical gloves. Very creepy. She was great at costumes! My mother sewed many of my costumes and did a very beautiful job. I was often the hit of the neighborhood.
My brother and his wife went to a party dressed as Christian Bale and a victim in American Psycho. VERY creepy. I loved making Halloween costume for my kids. My favorite year was when my oldest went as Cleopatra. Dale would make a fantastic Beetlejuice!
One year my best friend and I decided to go as Raggedy Ann and Andy – we made our own red yarn hair. Another time, a group of us went as cast of Wizard of Oz which was fun as a group. My nephew was Pooh one year. Gold sweat pants, and old red T-shirt that was too small and showed his tummy and a coffee can repurposed to be a Hunny pot. The most creative was my Dad’s outhouse costume. He got an old refrigerator box which he turned inside out and cut a door (with moon in it) in one side to get in and out. He made a slanted roof for it and drew wood grain on the outside. Inside, he made two rope handles so he could carry it around with him. He hated how costumes got uncomfortable as the evening wore on, so he dressed in regular clothes under the costume. He said the funniest part was later in the evening when people had had a bit to drink he looked over to the corner where he had left the costume and watched one fellow standing there talking to it for about 15 minutes with no one inside.
My favorite was the year I was a Christmas tree. I made a green dress with a coat-hanger hoop in the hem, had battery powered lights and sewed satin Christmas balls all over it. I had a star headpiece with my face in the center and wrapped boxes on my feet over my shoes.
Oh Halloween – it was such fun when the girls were little. The younger one still likes to dress up and go to a party (and sometimes I still get to help with the costume!) but her boyfriend is slowing down on the costume front. Last year, he wore jeans and a plaid shirt, and went as the Brawny paper towel guy…… Hmmm, I wonder if I could get my husband into a pair of tights (oh yeah, men in tights.) Seems extremely unlikely.
you can’t even deny that the princess costume was the best!
Every year I see costumes that seem so clever to me but when it’s time to remember them, like now, I totally draw a blank. The only costumes I remember specifically are the ET costume my mom spent weeks sewing for my brother when he was little and the guy who went to a firm Halloween party as a tube of toothpaste.
A couple of years ago in college, my friends and I dressed up as all of the Clue characters. We had a ton of fun going to thrift stores to find our costumes. My friend, Jeannette, was Mr. Green and she found a kelly green blazer and light green pants. With the addition of a mustache thanks to an eye-liner pencil, she looked like the sleaziest used car salesman you’ve ever seen! One of the other girls happened to have a pith helmet (we never found out why) so she was Colonel Mustard. Another friend worked at the theater so we were able to borrow all of the weapons (wrench, fake gun, lead pipe, etc) for the evening. It was a really great group costume idea!
I got nuthin’! Love your list though and the pictures of Hannah.
What a great list!
i wish you had some band costume images…they sound wonderful. I love Halloween and all the doings
I technically didn’t follow the rules for this week, so you can remove my entry if you don’t want it up…
That pilgrim costume is ADORABLE!!
; )
I loved making the boys’ Halloween costumes … one year they were knights in shining armor (got the fabric from Saftler’s) riding horses (plastic rocking horses we took off the springs) … another year they were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (can’t tell you how many needles I broke on my sewing machine making those shells)! Love Hannah’s pilgrim costume, your mom was da bomb at costumes! Sure would pay some decent money to see a pic of Dale in those Robin Hood tights!!!
Love the pumpkin princess costume! My favorite Halloween was spent in San Fransisco about 10 years ago–right in the Castro district, among some of the craziest partying I’ve ever experienced. My favorite costume? Priest and altar boy…..Yikes.
One year I was a thrift store baby doll. Sewed rows and rows of lace on a pair of undies, bought a little girl’s slip that had tons of crinoline (I was way skinny then), wore a torn dress over that. Mussed my hair up good (I had PLANNED to use a highlight cap and pull various bits of hair through it and leave other bits alone so it’d look like part of my hair had been pulled out, but I was single and still wanted to look PRETTY so I scrapped that idea), drew on my arms and legs with markers and scribbled all over my shoes. Everything came from the thrift store so it didn’t matter.
My most popular costume was when I was Marvin the Martian. Wore black tights, big neon green plastic clown shoes, red turtleneck and turned a bicycle helmet into Marvin’s helmet.
I love Halloween!