Halloween costumes

It's almost Halloween!!

Our two kids already have had their costumes. If you're a parent who claims their little baby or pre-pre-school toddler already knows what Halloween is, I hope you aren't fluffing your dear little one. Let's be real: at their age, they really don't know what Halloween is about yet. So instead of buying commercial costumes that they'll only wear once, we always play thrifty with these.

For his first Halloween at 6 months old, we took an existing skeleton onesie Gerard received from his Godmother and put it on him along with some pants and a zipped hoodie. He has a picture of this costume with a stuffed bunny in the background. He went as Donnie Darko. We spent zero dollars on the creative idea.

In his second Halloween at 18 months, his other Godmother lent him a human guitar costume that she originally bought for her unborn child at the time. She thought Gerard would be so cute in it (yes he was) and it was just the right fit for him. He really was a cute human guitar. And now, that costume will be used again by his Godmother's baby so the purchase was not a complete waste (plus it was on sale). We also spent zero dollars.

This year, with 2 kids -- it's Aubrey's first Halloween at 10 months old and Gerard's third -- we did buy costumes except we made sure they were clothing they could wear beyond Halloween. Gerard is going as Indiana Jones. His dad bought a safari-type outfit that he can wear in any situation, and he now has a cute cowboy hat that he loves (he pretends to be Woody from Toy Story with it). The hat, though not quite the same as Indy's hat, will work just fine with his outfit. Aubrey will be going as a 49ers Cheerleader, also an outfit she can wear now that football season* is starting.

The reasons behind these costumes were purely to ensure that their costumes don't go to waste after a one-time wear, and the fact that they really wouldn't understand what the dressing up is all about. I sometimes don't understand why parents even dish out $ on costumes that will be worn once with no one to pass it down to. Yes, sure, hopefully they find someone to sell it to. Or perhaps they are rich enough to just hold on to the costume for memories. But we prefer to let our dollar stretch, as we see no financial advantage to buying mass-produced commercial costumes. Maybe when the kids hit the age of 4 or 5, and they begin to expect that Halloween is about dressing up and getting candy, we'll just have to deal with their costume-wants then. Right now, we parents have complete control and creative direction and we've been having fun at it.


*FYI: We really don't care about football. But we recognize our hometeam, so GO NINERS!