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How to Make the Perfect HALLOWEEN Costume at Home
By Matt Stringer

You could spend an hour in a crowded store at the mall to buy a pre-made costume, bumping elbows with others and scrambling to find the perfect outfit in the right size or you could drive to the craft or goodwill store, spend less money and create a costume with the children right at home.

“If your child makes it they will take pride in it,” says Teri Gault, CEO and founder of The Grocery Game. “It becomes theirs. Let them go for it and have a lot of fun. If you want, leave them and let them get real detailed for a couple of hours. I think it’s good to let them do as much as possible, if they’re old enough, since a lot of the projects involve scissors.”

Teri said her kids like anything they can be a part of and when she decorates her house for Halloween she’ll build tunnels from boxes and then fill them up with latex gloves, making them feel all slimy. Or you could put a box filled with spaghetti and tell the kids it’s worms at a Halloween party or just for fun. Your kids can do some of the thinking, too. “They come up with great ideas,” Teri said. “They’re more creative than us.”

Here are a few quick, simple ideas from Teri to help you make your own costume this year:

1. Go as a “Bubble Bath.” Start with a pink or blue leotard and tights set. Use safety pins to attach small clear balloons all over. Kids can attach the balloons. You can use a shower cap and make your head like a bubble too.

2. Be a Gypsy! Take your daughter to a second hand store and let her pick out any color or print of skirts that she likes. You can layer several flowery skirts, tied in different levels. Any shirt will do, but be sure to drape on several different scarves and lots of costume jewelry. Make sure to add some lipstick and a scarf around the hair, tied like a head band and hanging down like a sash.

3. Construction Worker: Wear jeans, a white shirt–tucked in–flannel shirt left open. Wear dad’s toolbelt. Either buy a costume and hard hat or borrow one.

4. Pirate: Kids can get involved in this one. Just take an old pair of black pants, and  have your child use scissors to shred or zipzag the legs. Then tuck in any white lady’s blouse. Thread a red scarf through the belt loops. Wear a hoop clip on earring in one ear. Make an eye patch using felt and black elastic, or buy one from a party store. Use Eyeliner or an eyebrow pencil to pencil in a beard.

5. Farmer or Scarecrow: Wear overalls and a flannel shirt. Roll up the bottoms of the overalls, or let the child cut or zip zag the bottoms. Then have your child cut holes in the shirt and pants, and stuff some hay in the holes as well as in the pockets of the overalls. Let him decorate an old straw hat. For a scarecrow, anything goes for the hat. For a comical scarecrow that would really scare away the crows, glue a pinwheel or other funny colorful objects to the hat. And also let him glue on extra straw.

6. Flower Power Girl: Pick out some old jeans and t shirts and tye dye or let the kids decorate with permanent markers.

7. Be a Mime: Wear all black, white gloves, paint face white with black and red accents with black diamonds around the eyes.

Some easy ideas for decorating the house:

1. Halloween party: Let the kids make crazy hats from colorful craft paper, which can be purchased from the craft store. Provide several staples. Kids can tear big pieces of the paper, fold it, crumple it, and use staples to hold it together. No rules. Just fun big wild crazy hats in lots of colors.

2. Haunted house: make a picket fence out of PVC pipe spray painted black. Place shrunken heads on them (pick up at craft store).

3. Make a haunted house maze out of cardboard boxes...put latex gloves filled with water and hang them throughout the dark tunnel...it feels creepy when you bump into them. Poke at them through holes along the tunnel or throw in a wet rag as they crawl by.

4. Icky Squishy game...place different items in card board boxes on tables, and cut a hole in front for your child’s hand. Let the child squish the item, and let them guess what it is. For spaghetti noodles, tell them it’s veins or worms. For Jello, tell them it’s brains.