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Gurley Candles from habershamsales on ebay. Item number 321866355810 |
Remember when the only costumes in the stores
were those thin cotton or plastic sheaths with a Ben Cooper mask? They were
displayed in drugstores in cellophane fronted boxes, or on cardboard hangers in
the Halloween section of the store. The same isle with the Gurley Company
candles, and the Brach’s cardboard Halloween Display (Just a whiff of
cinnamon and black licorice sends me back to this bewitching isle!)
While we never purchased these costumes, their
existence in the stores helped set the mood for the season. Like everyone else
we knew, we made our costumes.
Sure, some friends had mothers and
grandmothers who were brilliant seamstresses, whipping up long-tailed
dinosaurs, and curly-headed clowns, but the majority of us had costumes put
together with things out of the rag-bag and attic. Cardboard box robots, and
bed-sheet ghosts were what we trick-or-treated in, and a good deal of the fun
was putting it all together.
When I first became a parent, I was admittedly
seduced by the puffy pumpkin and fuzzy chick get-ups from places like Pottery
Barn Kids. I think I was looking to put my finger on that “bewitching” feeling
from childhood, and the warm atmosphere of such stores were doing a fine job of
dangling a proverbial pocket watch before my eyes, subtly suggesting I needed
to spend $85 on my tiny tot in order to give the best Halloween experience.
Luckily, I snapped awake in time to DIY the
costume for my barely-able-to-walk Trick-or-Treater, making her an easy
crepe-paper flower hat and dressing her in a green top and bottom she already
had. She was perfectly charming in this costume, and the experience was a good
reminder of how Halloween should be.
The next year, I grabbed an old tank top of mine,
sewed a long length of cheap fringe from top to bottom, tucked the top of a
peacock feather into a headband, and voila! Little Flapper Girl. I’ve “made”
(read: cobbled together) every costume since. With a tiny bit of planning
ahead, and a little creativity, making the costume is part of our Halloween
tradition, and is a great memory builder.
While chatting with the owner of Perennials
Boutique recently, she was contemplating whether or not she’d carry kids
costumes, as the bulk of store bought costumes could be overwhelming and take
up too much rack space in her store. I told her how succumbing to the high
expense of mainstream “Halloweening” is easy to do, but that I was very
old-fashioned about it. This inspired the put-together of some easy costumes in
her front window. A fancy dress with ice-blue snowflake cape and little tiara:
Frozen Costume! A secondhand flower-girl dress with inexpensive wire wings:
Fairy Princess! Even a black shirt and pants with lone-ranger style mask and
DIY cape could be the base for a Super Hero costume.
For those times we don’t feel particularly
creative, or have zero time left in this last quarter of the year, look for a
costume exchange. We have one here in our Arcadia neighborhood with a
bring-a-costume-leave-a-costume rule. Costumes are in gently used condition,
and allow your Trick-or-Treater to trade in his Tigger costume from last year
for the Spiderman he wants to be this year, without being cash-out-of-pocket.
Whichever way you go when choosing a costume,
make the experience part of your tradition. After all, Halloween lasts for an
average of 12 years for your little goblin, and is only a few hours long, from
sunset to bedtime. Make those precious hours count!
Stay tuned for an easy way to memorialize
Halloween costumes without having to save every one of them.
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