What Are Your "Hip" Halloween Tips and Tricks?!
Ohhh… I am so excited that my favorite time of the year is fast approaching! I absolutely love fall…I love the cool, crisp air; love how the trees change colors; love the scent of pumpkin pie etc. I also love that one of my favorite holidays, Halloween, is almost here. So that got me thinking… what are my kids going to be for Halloween this year?! Although my 2 boys are pretty flexible and up for any sort of manly/scary/gory/disgusting costume, my little Piper is determined to be the oh-so-original glittery/sparkly/pink princess for the 3rd year in a row. Although I would like to make creative and budget-friendly costumes for each of them, I am often at a loss as to where to start. So this is where you come in! If you have successfully made a Halloween costume in the past, please share your ideas, tips and tricks with all of us. If you are a fan of purchasing costumes, where is your favorite place to shop?
Wondering who the cute cowboy is in the picture above?! That’s my nephew, Hudson, dressed as his all-time favorite object… a John Deere tractor! 😀 My very creative big sis, Bryn, created this costume from scratch. All she did was paint 2 cardboard boxes a John Deere green color and then attach them with glue. She used black plastic plates with yellow construction paper for the wheels, black poster-board for the smoke stack (attached to the bottom of the smoke stack was a bag so that Hudson could drop his candy down the smoke stack), and even battery operated lights for the back and front of the tractor! How cute and unique is that?!
On a side note, I’m also always looking for creative Halloween treats and snacks too! If you have favorite Halloween recipes, please share them in the comments!
My mom came up with the cutest costumes for my little sisters one year…they went as ice skaters. She bought inexpensive dance leotards (with tutu’s attached) at Target, had them wear thick tights, hair was up in fancy buns, and they wore their roller blades to trick or treat in.
Last year, my children received some coupons to McDonalds for a free cone or free fries. I loved it! It wasn’t the same candy and was coupons for free play dates at McDonalds! I was told that they are coupon books sold for $1 at McDonalds around Halloween. I will be purchasing a bunch of these to hand out this year, since this was my favorite, as a mom.
What a great idea! Thanks so much!
Yes, my mom gave these to my kids for Halloween and they were perfect for the kids and cheap for her!
I did the McDs coupons last year too…I think I got like 12 coupons for $1. We don’t get many trick or treaters so I just made up little goody bags for a couple of my neighbors!
I always take my kids trick or treating so there’s no one home to hand out candy to others, but I like buying several of the McD’s treats for my own kids. I mean, seriously, 12 items for a buck…who can beat it! 🙂
One year I used a large clear plastic trash bag … cut leg holes in the bottom, arm holes in the side, CAREFULLY bunched the bag top around the neck AFTER filling the bag with assorted colors of balloons! Make a sign that says “Jelly Beans” (you can add a price or whatever) Ta-Da!
A tiny sized toddler in a yellow sleeper can easily be turned into a box of cheerios! Buy the bulk size box of cheerios that usually contains 2 bags. cut out the bottom and top, cut arm holes in the sides. Magially… your child is now breakfast!
(Note: I do not suggest the jelly beans for a young child who may try to smash their face into the bag!!)
I did this for a university halloween residence dinner (hard to sit in) but everyones loved it. I used ribbon that came in the bag of balloos for around the neck.
There was also someone that had all purple ballons and went as a stem of grapes, painted face brown.
I saw a little girl once in this kind of costume, but she was a bubble bath. White leotard, tights and balloons. Very cute.
My son has expensive taste. One year he wanted a special light saber and a star wars costume. We compromised. I bought the light saber and he wore a hand-me-down black hooded cape and I made a Darth Maul mask with a cheap craft store plastic mask and red and black magic markers. It is so easy to search for images on the computer, I am sure that a lot of masks could be made with Sharpies.
I was an oreo cookie one year when I was small! Cut 2 big circles out of a cardboard box, and painted them black. On the inside around the edges I used Pillow Fill (from gutted thrift store pillow or using a coupon at the craft store). I also formed the word OREO in the fill and spray tacked it on the front and spray painted it black. punched 2 holes in the top of each circle and used some black rope for it to just rest on my shoulder. I dressed in all black! It was cute and cheap!
my best friend was once a bunch of grapes. Purple ballons just tied together and she dressed in green and had a green felt stem glued to a headband. kinda like the fruit of the loom guys now, but way before their time!
Last year I made my 3 year old twins a bunch of grapes, they loved it, I got so many complements on their costumes, again this year I will be making theirs again, another great surprise!!!!
Collin – thanks for what you do. The blogsite https://eighteen25.blogspot.com/ is doing a month long Halloween roundup that may interest you.
I normally think costumes are a huge rip-off since they are always flimsy and don’t last long… But after discovering the Old Navy ones two years ago, that’s the only place I’ll pay for a costume!! They are usually around $20 each but go on sale close to Halloween (I think I got hers for $12 last year?) and they are SUPER CUTE and well-made… with fleece, too, so if you live in New England like us where Halloween usually means freezing your butt off, your kids will stay warm when out gathering goodies!!
I had no idea Old Navy had costumes. I just looked on their site. So cute! Thanks for the tip!
I agree. I got a kangaroo costume 4 my lil one for $15.so cuter
Check your nearest “Once Upon a Child” for Old Navy costumes … they run $7 or $8 and are wonderful!
I got the butterfly one and dalamation one last year at Old Navy. My kids loved them. They are full fleece top and bottoms, so nice and warm if you live in the midwest or northeast. They’ve used them all year for dress up and want to be the same thing again this year (so far).
Everyone has always said my little boy looked like the Campbell’s Soup Kid, so that is what he was last year! I just bought felt and cut it out to make the soup can. I made a chef’s hat out of white paper. Here is a link to the finished product: https://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i158/onlyonetoni/soupkid.jpg
oh that is so cute
Thank You! This pic was taken AFTER trick or treating, so it’s a little out of sorts! Lol!
That is adorable!
very cute and creative! You did an awesome job! 🙂
Last yearmy kids went as Thing 1 and Thing 2 from The Cat In The Hat… I bought red pants and shirts from the thrift store…( on 99 cent day 🙂 ) and I bought turquioise stocking hats at the dollar store and then at the craft store I bought two pieces of white felt to write Thing 1 and Thing 2 on and a turquoise feather boa and hot glued it to the stocking hats for the crazy hair… All together I think I spent less than $10 on both costumes all together….I went as The Cat right along with them but splurged a little on my costume, I spent 25 cents on the hat at a garage sale, just about nothing on the cat suit as I used an old pair of black pants and a shirt but I spent about $8 on a jacket at the thirft store that I cut up and made into paws, put it on my ears, tail and belly….it was just too perfect I had to splurge on that piece: )
I love this!! If we didn’t already have an idea for this year, I’d so do that!!
wow, Hudson is soooo cute little guy!! My 2 kiddos will be a pumpkin from Pottery Barn Kids costume and my little one will be a humberger from Old Navy this year.
I looove this time of the year!! I’m already so excited what to do while Halloween to Christmas. I’m from overseas, and my country doesn’t have traditions like Halloween or Thanksgiving, so everything so much fun and festive to me!! I love curving pumpkins!! Sorry I don’t have any tips or tricks.
If you have trouble finding the hamburger….send me a message at boyddebi@msn.com…I make these!
I dressed up one year as the Energizer Bunny. I got SO many compliments! I wore pink sweats, sandels, ears, tail, whiskers, and I made the drum & sticks.
Another year I dressed up as a “shopping Princess.” I had a big credit card I made that I wore, front & back of me, (made out of that hard type poster board I painted pink) It looked almost like the real thing with my photo & everything on it! I wrote on it “Diane-Princess of Sales. I also wore a purple velvet blouse, a tiara & other accessories, and I carried shopping bags from various department stores. I got a ton of compliments on that also! That was real fun!
Doing the Energizer Bunny and the Shopping Princess in the past, I think I will dress up as Flo, the Progressive insurance gal this year.
i made my daughter a bag of m&ms one year using felt (by the yard) from the fabric store for the “bag” and small squares of felt to cut out the M’s and the circles (candies) I also made my son’s costume last year. He was jupiter last year and I used an exercise ball, balloons to fill it and paint to make that one. I have pics on my blog colonialcottage.blogspot.com under family of the jupiter costume.
My daughter will only be 18 months at Halloween so she has no choice in her costume. This year she is going to be Daddy’s Lil Helper. I am making her some cloth tools out of felt (got the idea from Bugga Buggs) and a tool belt that looks just like her daddy’s. I am also going to get a paint can and turn it into a Polly Bucket for her to carry her candy in. Its a time consuming costume but I enjoy making things and she will have the tools for years to come. If you want it to be simple you can just buy plastic or wooden tools. Her daddy is going to dress up with her.
When i was a kid my mom turned my dads graduation gown into our Halloween costume. It works great for a witch or a reaper.
My son is all grown up and moved out, halloween was our favorite time, we would both get dressed up the scarier the better…….he is so cute…..
as far as snacks go…my family and coworkers love it when i mix up equal parts candy corn and dry roasted peanuts….tate like a payday…and its fairly inexpensive to make a big batch of….
I had this for the first time last year and loved it! I thought it would be gross but I ate so much of it I almost made myself sick lol!
yes, tastes exactly like a payday! so good!
Have loved that mix for years … it is soooo good! I never thought about making big batches for gifts … great idea – thanks for sharing 🙂
My son & daughter are going to be rag-a-muffin dolls. I got their costumes during the celebrate express sale not too long ago! Thanks for posting.
My 3 year old daughter is going to be Fancy Nancy this year. She already has dress up skirts and accessories so it should be really easy to pull off. She loves the books so I’m sure she’ll be thrilled!
As a side note, I remember a girl going as a Hershey’s Kiss when I was a kid. Her grandma bought the silver fabric and stitched a very simple sleeveless style upper body that flared out at the bottom and attached to a hula hoop at the base to get the round shape. I would assume you could use fabric glue for that part instead of trying to sew around a hula hoop. I don’t remember what the hat was, just that it did have the trademark Hershey’s Kiss “flag” sticking out the top. You could probably find an inexpensive beanie to paint and use wired ribbon or something like that for the top. It was really cute!
Oh, and my husband used his graduation gown and one of those black out masks one year and wore several bulky shirts and black gloves underneath so he would look like an overstuffed homemade prop and just stood in the front yard while I and some friends sat on the porch handing out candy. He didn’t jump out and scare any kids (he’s too nice for that), just stood there and enjoyed watching people’s reaction to and comments about our “prop”. Most kids didn’t even notice him. There was one little girl that didn’t want to walk past him, but her mom thought he was fake and so did her brothers, so the mom kept saying “Go touch him! He’s fake!” but the girl wouldn’t, so the mom went up and hugged him and he stood completely still the whole time! The girl finally decided it was OK and came to get her candy. As the family was walking down the driveway the mom turned back and thanked us for being such good sports so my husband waved – the mom squealed! She still thought he was fake, even after hugging him! There were also a couple bratty older kids that probably shouldn’t have been trick or treating anymore that were making fun of our “prop” so while they were on the porch getting their candy he just turned around but didn’t move from the spot where he was (his ornery sense of humor was so much fun for us to watch). It made the kids do a double take and rethink their smart talking when they noticed the subtle change! 😀
That is most excellent! 😀
Sounds like fun!
Ha! That is awesome!
For my daughter’s second Halloween, she was a gnome. Blue long-sleeved shirt, navy sweatpants and one of my big black belts. Made the beard and the red felt hat. I got so many compliments and she was cute as a button. It was really cheap and she used the shirt and pants again. Got the idea from here: https://familyfun.go.com/crafts/little-bearded-gnome-674561/
We love Halloween around here! For fun appetizers I’ve found that you can take the canned bread sticks, pull them out a bit to bunch up the ends into two attached bumps to resemble bones, serve with “blood”, marinara sauce. Cupcakes with Candy Bugs or you can draw them on with frosting or make an easy spider web. Spread white frosting over the top. Circle the outside with black frosting and then make two or three smaller circles inside. You can cut the tip of the side of a ziplock bag if you don’t have a cake decorating bag and tip. Once done take a tooth pick from the very center and draw straight lines out from the center in a star patter. Makes a great spider web! Also if you have little kids give then a sharpie to draw a face on a small pumpkin instead of carving. No sharp instruments to worry about.
These are all great suggestions!
One year for Halloween I had two bowls for trick-or-treaters to choose from. One bowl had candy and the other bowl had all the happy meal toys my kids had gotten through the year. Guess which basket got emptied first? The toys! Go figure! I would have gone for the candy for sure. 🙂
two years ago i dressed my son up as his father. My husband is 6ft1 and like 300 pounds bald and has chin hair with tattooes covering both arms, lets just say very scary looking dude if you didnt know him. so my son was two and a big boy so i shaved his head, had our tattoo artist draw all the tattoos my husband has on my son and got the chin hair from a quarter machine and had my husband and son where white shirts with the arms cut out and jeans they looked exactly the same it was very cute and everyone loved it.
Year before last I made my little boy a sushi roll costume. It was the cutesy thing ever. Then last year I made him look like one giant Lego.
We always win the costume contest in our neighborhood, everyone always waits to see what we’ll do this year.
Still thinking about this year.
Last year my hubby made my daughter an Amelia Earhart plane and I made the costume. She was so cute!!!!
M
We did a black cat, Cindy Lou Who and Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat last year. Being in FL it was still in the 80’s in october. See pic here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/47862404@N02/4948861211/in/photostream/
Year before last I dressed my 1 1/2 year old son as a scarecrow. He wore a pair of jeans w/ raffia sewn to the bottom of the legs and a red plaid shirt w/ raffia sewn to the ends of the sleves. I used brown face paint to paint freckles on his cheeks. If I would have thought about his costume earlier in the year (like in the summer), I would have bought a straw hat for him to wear. So instead I let him wear a denim ball hat. He was so cute! The outfit cost under $5 (I’m not counting the cost of the jeans, shirt and hat, since he was able to wear them during the winter). I love being creative and not buying store bought costumes.
My Mom almost always made mine and my brother’s costumes. Felt is great. My brother went as a dalmation dog one year. She bought a white haynes or fruit of the loom jogging pants and sweater and put the black felt on it as dots. She made him a collar, painted his face, and did a tail and hood with ears. She did a black one for me my first Halloween and I was a black cat and she went as a witch and carried me. The pics are cute! She made a pumpkin costume out of a hula hoop and orange material another year. Thrift stores often have Halloween costumes too. I’ve found mine there the last two years. I still dress up now that I’m a adult. You might also want to check out Martha Stewart’s webpage.She has some DIY costumes.
Last year my daughter was a fairy princess I made her a big fluffy tutu covered with glitter I got some wings a the dollar tree added some glitter put her hair up in a bun little bit of make-up lots of pink glitter she loved it
My son wants to be a Lego Figure this year…any ideas?? (Yellow cylinder head, C-shaped hands,etc??) It’ll be a challenge anyway!
OMG I’m anxious to see suggestions for this one! My son looooves legos more than anything in the world so I might be suckered into making one too!
Here is a tutorial for an adult sized one but Im sure you could down size it.
https://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=327017.0
https://www.fabulousfoods.com/index.php?option=com_resource&controller=article&category_id=109&article=17836
I like this and everyone to eats it loves it too!
did this once…was very fun to watch the reactions of people
Piper might feel a little girly in this https://familyfun.go.com/crafts/jellyfish-costume-785313/ I think it’s cute!
That is so cute and such a good idea!
i also saw this one done with an umbrella so the girl didn’t have to wear a hat!
My son has a ton of food allergies, so our favorite snacks are those with labels 🙂 He has always been a fan of the nickel in his bag…As far as costumes…my sis dressed her son as a mailman (light blue shirt, pants, felt stripes down the sides). He carried a “mail bag” for his candy. She then used poster board to decorate the stroller (for the baby) as a mail truck. You could take this one step further and dress the baby as a package. Another easy idea…my son (the swimmer) dressed as Michael Phelps…swim cap that we sharpied “Phelps” on, navy warmup suit with USA ironed on the back, and 8 gold medals from the dollar store.
So so so so cute! My 2 little boys are complete John Deere-aholics! They would love this costume! I may make this for my oldest, my youngest, though has to be an animal for Halloween. He attends a Lutheran Preschool and they celebrate “Noah’s Ark Day” instead of Halloween, and all the kids dress like animals. This year he wants to be a puppy.
When they were really little they were Steve and Blue from Blue’s Clues. So cute!
We did that too! My boy 4 was Steve and my daughter 18 mo was Blue. So sweet.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/47862404@N02/4949039995/
I have a ton of fruit snacks I scored for practically free during a sweet back to school promo- I gave them out last year in our candy bowl and it was a huge hit!
Aww, what a cute picture!
Anyone know when Wal-Mart is scheduled to put out there Halloween stuff?
I am surprised that it is not out already!
me too! I have been waiting ever so impatiently! Thats why I was hoping someone here might have the inside scoop 😉
I made my daughter a princess costume. I used an old dance leotard and dyed it to match the costume. Took sheer material and cut long ribbons out of it and hot glued it to a ribbon to go around her waste. Used a wire hanger and shaped it into wings and then stretched pantyhose over that and decorated them with spray glue and glitter. I made her a floral crown as well and then glued matching flowers onto the front of the ribbon. I found the main parts of my idea on the family fun website. GREAT Halloween costume site. We LOVE Halloween to as I throw my daughters entire class a party at our house. Favorite snack so far… use a mellon baller and cut balls out of apples. Dip the bottoms into melted peanut butter, chocolate, or carmel chips. Must be like a chip used in baking and then dip in sprinkles. It was a huge hit!!!
Any football player! This year I’m going to be Troy Polamalu…. I already have the jersey, now I just have to find a long curly wig that will suffice for that luscious mane of his… haha 🙂
I work for a department that does workplace retreats and my facilitators often use little toys to keep their participants engaged. We clean house every year and whatever unused little toys we have left I take for Halloween giveaways. I mix them in with the candy and they’re extremely popular and make my candy bowl go farther.
My 5 year old is going to be a racecar driver. I got him an outfit at the beginning of the year at a clearance for 80% off and today actually I saw a deal on graveyardmall.com where there’s this racecar plushy thing that he can wear it looks like he’s driving a car! It was half off, so I paid around $20 total for the outfit and this car thing. He’s going to LOVE it.
I’m not totally organized with a website, but i make costumes. I specialize in Pottery Barn knock-offs. I sold these on ebay last year and around my metro area. I love doing. I just love sewing. I made a ton of the cupcake costumes last year and this year looks like cookies, donuts, and ice cream cone are hot. Also Collin…looks like Peacock princess is hot.
Everyone has such good ideas for costumes! It makes me excited for halloween! Last year I was a party pooper and did not dress up, but the year before I was an egyptian princess! I bought some shiny gold material for a $1 a yard at Walmart for the outfit (luckily my husband knows how to sew! lol!) I bought some bangles and earings on clearance and put alot of mascara and eyeliner on!
My kids love the movie Mary Poppins. Last year I made a Mary Poppins Holiday in the Park costume for my daughter and found a costume cheap on ebay for the penguin waiter for my son. Super cute and we had tons of compliments. If I had had more time, I was going to find some things to throw together to make my husband into Bert. I think this year we’ll all dress up like Little Red Riding Hood (daughter), the big bad wolf (son), grandmother (me) and the woodsman (hubby). Now, too make the wolf costume. . .
for the wolf costume, you could get ideas for a dog costume but choose shaggy fur and a longer snout and bushy tail.
My daughter LOVE Mary Poppins & I have a 8 month son, so I might steal this idea.
Take Smarties candy and pin them to your pants (several) …Smarty Pants! When I was teaching I needed an easy costume so this was it with a halloween t-shirt. You make a noise when you walk but it keeps people guessing and it is cute.
cute idea!
Saw a kid a few years ago…that had a white (doctor’s coat, stethoscope ) and had attached the little red and green peppers…he was Dr. Pepper!
that’s so cute!
My husband made a robot costume for my son last year. He used cardboard boxes and silver ’tissue’ paper to cover it. He used other metallic covered ’tissue’ paper for accents. We went to the dollar store and picked up some LED lights and stuck them to it. He even had tiny battery operated red and green lights in the shape of a V on the chest. We used dryer tubes for the legs and found robot hand coverings at the dollar store. It was very cute.
For a Halloween party last year, I made spider cakes. The body was a king dong. I used white frosting to attach M&M’s to the top for eyes, and small pieces of pull and peel twizzlers for the legs.
I made my son a solar system costume. Cheap long sleeve shirt, made a sun out of felt for the front, and glued glow in the dark stars to the back, then hung the pieces of a glow in the dark mobile off the sleeves. We got so many compliments on it.
I LOVE to make my own costumes. I usually go to a bunch of thrift shopes since I lack any sewing skills of any kind (hope my grandma doesn’t read this!). I always seem to have the best luck with Value Village. I’ve been I Love Lucy, Wayne and Garth from Wayn’es World (with my hubby) and Peter Pan, Wendy and Tinkerbell (again my hubby and my daughter). My favorite has been Rainbow Brite https://coolest-homemade-costumes.shippony.com/images/characters/rainbow-brite/rainbow-brite-costume-02.jpg.
This year I’m going as Ursula from Little Mermaid. I’ve already found a dress to use at Value Village. A great site for ideas is :https://www.coolest-homemade-costumes.com/
As far as fun ideas for a party we blow up two black balloons (one smaller than the other and taoe them to the wall next to eachother. THen we get black crepe paper streamers and create four legs for each side and we end up with giant “spiders” on our wall. 🙂
Collin, You are truly my HERO!!!!!! My little man of 3 yrs old loves John Deere tractors and wanted to be John Deere for Halloween. I could not think of how to accomplish the task on a tight budget, so when I saw your posting I went crazy with excitement. Wish I could give you a huge hug but instead here’s a virtual one ((((((( )))))))))) !!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I bought costumes for this year at Walmart LAST year right after Halloween, for around $5 or less.
Remember to look everywere for costumes. I was at goodwill and managed to find a deerskin BATHROBE that when sewed shut makes the perfect poconhantas dress. I also found my mocconsins (sp) there for $2~