With Halloween right around the corner, everyone is scrambling to find the perfect costume. Maybe you already have one. If you do, good for you! If not, don’t worry. The perfect costume is only minutes and pennies away.
Tip one: Don’t be that lame guy at the party who came in his work uniform. As terrifying as it might be to work as a waiter, don’t show up in your apron and slacks. Not cool. Other Halloween don’ts: your favorite football jersey does NOT a good costume make! Nor does any outfit you would wear on a daily basis.
You can put to use items you have hanging around your closet, and mix and match to make the perfect Halloween costume. I am not promising you a “Best Dressed” award at your next party, but hopefully you will not be “that guy-who-showed-up-in-his-child’s-soccer-uniform.”
Idea 1) Ghosts are always popular. You do not have to have the sheet over your head if that seems too lame. Dressing in whites and grays, with white make-up and hairspray will give you the aged-dead look.
If you are going to wear the sheet for the more traditional ghost, why not put a spin on it? Go as the Charlie Brown ghost from “It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.” Either draw a lot of black circles all over the sheet (remembering to cut two holes for your eye), or go authentic and actually cut a bunch of holes all over the sheet! Take a costume-gone-bad idea to make your own great costume.
Idea 2) Go as a stick figure! Dress all in black, and use glow sticks to make the shape of a stick figure on your body. Tape the activated sticks to your body, and in the dark you will look like a stick figure! (Tape a necklace from a black hat for your face, and tape straight sticks down the center of your body, legs, and arms.)
Idea 3) Go as the floor of a movie theater. Dress all in black and drape popcorn garland around your neck. Tape empty candy wrappers and ticket stubs to your clothes, and you are all set! If you have reflectors, you can arrange them to look like the lights on the floor of a theater, and get creative with “no smoking” or “exit” signs on your back. Have fun with this one!
Idea 4) Go as a picnic. Cut a hole in a picnic blanket for your head (disposable ones work), and tape/glue everything you would bring on a picnic to it. Empty plates, napkins, place settings, fake ants, fake food, a mini basket, etc. Go nuts!
Idea 5) Go as a clothing drive. Wear mix-matched clothes, with a sign that says “donations welcome.” Take an empty cardboard box and cut a hole in it for your body, and strap it on with suspenders. Drape more clothes hanging outside of the box.
You do not need to spend $50-100 on a pre-packaged costume this year. If nothing above caught your interest, I hope they at least got you thinking.
One last tip: If you are going to buy a costume, try to do it the semi-homemade way. See if you have any of the items you need at home, and anything you need to buy, make sure it is something you can use again in the future (either any day or for another costume; recycling is key to saving). You will find that building your own costume saves you money, and the finished product will usually look neater and more creative. At the very least, no one else will be wearing the same thing as you. You do not need to be able to sew to have a great home-made costume (but having a friend hem your pants doesn’t hurt either).
