Costume Tips From the Master of Halloween
Hi, my name is Meg, and I’m a Halloweenaholic. It’s that time of year when the cool breezes bring relief after months of sweating. The changing and falling leaves stir up cravings for a Tate Farms pumpkin slushie. And ALL I want to do is get crazy about Halloween. Everything about Halloween appeals to me. The playful decorations, the chance to get goofy and dress up regardless of age, the excitement of my kids as they plan their costumes and partake in fall festival activities, and I’m not going to lie – I love a fun size Snickers or two.
[sws_pullquote_right]I make time by letting other things slide. My laundry pile right now is beyond reason. I haven’t watched a TV show in over a month and I couldn’t tell you who’s playing the big game on Saturday if my life depended on it. But to me, it’s so worth it. [/sws_pullquote_right]
I’m sure a lot of you can relate. Who doesn’t love to throw their kids in costumes, take a picture, and trot them around the block for some candy? But I’m here to encourage you to take it a little further. Halloween has become an epic annual adventure for my family and it brings us together like no other event all year. Every year we come up with a theme and run with it. It might be a movie that we’ve enjoyed together, a personification of some toys that are a current hit, or even just a cast of traditional Halloween characters. The key is that we all do it together. And, yes, even my husband dresses up.
The Hard Truth
I always get asked, “How do you have time for all that?” and the answer is that I don’t. I make time by letting other things slide. My laundry pile right now is beyond reason. I haven’t watched a TV show in over a month and I couldn’t tell you who’s playing the big game on Saturday if my life depended on it. But to me, it’s so worth it. The memories that my family is making together are priceless. My kids literally talk about Halloween all year long. They have nicknamed me the Halloween master and they call themselves my apprentices. Secretly there is no other title I’d rather have bestowed!
An Obsession Is Born
It’s probably no surprise that some of my most cherished childhood memories involve Halloween. I have a sister several years older than I, and my mom would often make us coordinating costumes. I can remember standing in a fabric store choosing which color felt I wanted, and then watching the sales lady cut through the giant bolt as my sister and I giddily chatted about how awesome our orange and cherry Kool-Aid packages were going to be. We were M&M’s another year. As a toddler, I was the cauldron to her witch – a costume that I replayed decades later with my own son. We stood in the dollar store picking out plastic snakes, fake eyeballs and a rat to glue onto the rim of his cauldron. He still has the large bone that he carried to pretend he was stirring the brew.
It’s All About Making a Memory
Sure we’ve had all manner of elaborate DIY projects to create our costumes, but your costumes don’t even have to be homemade. The important thing is the together time. Last year we were all aliens and wore (GASP!) store bought costumes. Now I may have gone a little overboard by building a crashed UFO in our front yard, but the memory of playing with my kids in the crash site all month is something I will always treasure. Letting my kids see me being silly is important to me. I want them to know that parenting is fun and that it’s OK for adults to let loose and enjoy life. We did a family photo shoot last year in front of the crashed UFO and have hilarious pictures of my kids trying to do CPR on an alien dummy that was a casualty of the crash.
Halloween also happened to fall during a week when my dad was critically ill in the hospital last year. My kids saw that even though my husband and I were maybe a tiny bit shy about wearing head-to-toe spandex Morphsuits in public, we cared more about brightening grandpa’s day with an alien visit than what anyone might think about 4 aliens strolling through the hospital lobby.
The time is now to pull together your best Halloween effort yet. So think back through the year about what you have enjoyed as a family, and bring it to life for a night! The Internet is filled with ideas to help you along the way. I would love to see pictures of what your family comes up with!
Here are a few links to my favorite sites to help inspire you:
- 28 Of the Best Family Costumes
- Creative Family Halloween Costumes
- Top 10 DIY Family Halloween Costumes
- DIY Halloween Costumes On a Budget
- Follow RCM’s Halloween board on Pinterest!
Happy Halloweening!
~Meg (A.K.A. The Halloween Master)
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The mom of three rambunctious redheads, Meg Nester is a Chicago area native and wannabe crafter extraordinaire. When she’s not tending to her boys (and baby girl) or training for triathlons, you can find her in the garage wielding her beloved power tools or firing up a kiln full of enamel jewelry.