If your whole family dresses up for Halloween, what have some of your costumes been?

[kentuckymom]

This is a "just for fun" thread. I know I'm not the only one who still likes to dress up for Halloween, so I'm curious to know what some other parents have dressed as, particularly if your family coordinates costumes.

 

I actually didn't dress up myself when Squirrelboy was really little, but when he was 4 we went to Disney World in October and attended the Halloween party. We decided we should wear coordinating Disney themed outfits and Tigger was his favorite character at the time, so we dressed as the Super Sleuths from My Friends Tigger and Poo. I got a Tigger costume for Squirrelboy at a consignment sale. I pulled together a Darby costume for myself from mostly stuff I found at Goodwill. I got a yellow sweatshirt and pants for DH at Goodwill and made him a yellow hood with ears. i also got them blue t-shirts and drew the Super Sleuth sympbol on them.  Everyone who had seen the show knew right away who we were and we got a lot of compliments.

 

The next year Squirrelboy found a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume at a consignment shop and decided that was what he wanted to be, even though he'd never seen the show (he still hasn't). DH and I didn't really want to try to coordinate, but we did both dress up. I pulled out a loose dress I got a a renaissance fair when I was in college (I was pregnant with Kittygirl at the time), added a tiara, and became a princess. I made a black headband with ears for DH, he wore a black tail from Squirrelboy's costume box and a black shirt, and became a  black dog.

 

 

When Squirrelboy was in first grade he wanted to be Agent P from Phineas and Ferb. I was proud of myself for making that costume. DH coordinated with him as Dr. Doofenshmirtz. I borrowed a lab coat from a friend and he wore jeans and a black shirt. It was super easy. Kittygirl was 9 months old at the time and I found and absolutely adorable "Hunny" pot costume for her at a consignment sale. I reused DH's Pooh costume from 2 years previous and paired it with a red t-shirt.

 

Last year Squirrelboy wanted to be the guy from Tron Legacy. DH actually  made that costume. He sewed reflective striping to tight black clothing. We bought a Tron disk and attached it to the back of the shirt with velcro. DH dressed as the Dad, the one who created the digital world. He wore black clothing and pinned reflective material to the edges of my long black wool coat. I had an adorable black Kitten costume for Kittygirl already (my mom had found it at Goodwill earlier in the year) so I put on black pants and a black shirt and added cat ears and a tail from Squirrelboy's costume box and we were both black cats.

 

This year we're all coordinating with Squirrelboy again. He's going to be Harry Potter. Kittygirl is going to the a Hogwarts owl (a regular owl costume with a letter attached to the feet). DH and I are going to be Hogwarts professors. I haven't completely pulled our costumes together. I figured graduation gowns could sub as Hogwarts robes and I recently put out a call on Facebook to see if any local friends had one on hand. One of my friends replied that she has an actual Hogwarts robe that she wore on a previous Halloween so I'll probably wear that one. Maybe I'll add glasses and be McGonagall.

 

As you can see, the kids are often the generators of our costume choices, but we have a lot of fun dressing up. We also try to go to multiple Halloween events so we don't just wear the costumes once. This year we've been to the Louisville Zoo Halloween Party and a fall festival at a local middle school. Only the kids wore their costumes to the fall festival. At the zoo we actually followed a different theme. We had a Tigger costume from when Squirrelboy was one that Kittygirl wanted to wear. Amazingly, the Tigger costume that Squirrelboy wore at age 4 still fit him (it was very baggy 4 years ago). I put on a set of tiger ears and tail and painted my face with stripes. I also wore an orange Halloween shirt. DH just wore an orange Halloween shirt, but, seeing us from the back, many people commented on the "family of Tiggers." It was a ton of fun.

[happypamama]

My four kids went as various Star Wars characters (the then-infant got an R2D2 hat), so DH and I could have chosen characters to be ourselves.  This year, the kids are going to be various superheroes, so DH and I could be a couple of them.  I keep lobbying for the boys to go as hobbits (four boys, four hobbit characters -- seems obvious enough), DD to go as Galadriel or Eowyn, and DH and me to go as Aragorn and Arwen, but so far, they haven't taken me up on it.  A collection of Pooh characters would be so adorable; each of our babies has been nicknamed after one of the Pooh characters while in-utero, and it would be fun to dress up as the gang.

[saraha]

We have done the cast of the game Clue, all renaissance, characters from Little House and from Shark boy and Lava girl

[MelAR05]

We have done Little House. Last year no theme but I went as Smarty Pants (taped Smarties on my pants) and my husband went as a quarterback (taped a quarter on his back). We are thinking of going as Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar this year. :)

[KungFuPanda]

I have a friend who did this right. They went as The American Dream. I don't remember what everyone was, but someone was a dog, someone was a white picket fence, and someone was 2 1/2 kids. The fourth person 'might' have been a house.

 

I want us to all be X-men, but my kid in the wheelchair won't cooperate. He's going as a Minecraft creeper :-/

[Ravin]

Hmm... I could get boots and a black trenchcoat, spray my hair blonde, and be Spike. DD is going as Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

DS's costume is undecided. Not sure what you could dress a 2 yo. as that would go with Buffy.

[indigomama]

DH and I are going as Mary Poppins, the boys as chimney sweeps, and the girls as penguins.

 

One year the kids were all scarecrows and DH and I were farmers.

[ChristusG]

We are usually at Disney for Halloween and we choose a family theme.

 

2012: Star Wars - DH and I were both Jedi's, Oldest DD was Darth Vader, middle DD was Leia, baby DD was Yoda, and nephew was Chewbacca.

 

2011: skipped due to having a baby :)

 

2010: Super Mario - DH was Luigi, I was a goomba mushroom guy, Oldest DD was Princess Peach, and (then) youngest DD was Toadette.

 

2009: Pirates - we all dressed as pirates.

 

2008: Superheroes - we all had matching capes, shirts, wrist guards, and masks.

[Anne in CA]

Then the older two kiddos were younger we did the Adams Family. DS was Cousin It, covered in rafia. We won a prize at the local Halloween parade.

[FaithManor]

Our best was the year we went as Lord of the Rings characters. I made a really authentic looking Aragorn outfit for dh, I went as Arwen, dd as Eowen, and the three boys as hobbits since they were small yet.

 

I also made "three musketeer" outfits for the boys one year; they were super cute, and dh went to the party dressed as a French king.

 

Probably our worst look, but possibly most accurate set of costumes came from the year we did a 1620's harvest feast re-enactment...Plimoth Plantation style.

 

We haven't done anything recently. Eldest ds wants a disco costume, aka John Travolta. NOPE, Dh and I are not going as characters from any of his 70's movies, and frankly, I cannot pull off anything Olivia Newton John now!!! LOL

 

Faith

[Karen in CO]

This year,  4 out of 6 of us are going to be Waldo. 

I also have 3 pairs of elf ears which will get us an elf, a vulcan and a Waldo with elf ears.  

[sagira]

In the past, we have coordinated. Last year ds9 was Harry Potter and dh Voldemort. Little dd1 was Hedwig the owl :)

Dd5 wanted something different so she chose My Little Pony's Fluttershy (we just bought her a color-matching dress and she had bright pink hair and Fluttershy's ears.

This year dd6 is a cheetah, ds10 is a King Cobra, dd2 some princess or fairy, and dh and I are from the Renaissance period. The two of us have been invited to an adult-only Renaissance party.

[ScoutTN]

We haven't done this yet, though DH and I always did before we had kids because we have friends who always have a costume party.

 

We were:

Jean-Luc Picard and Dr. Beverly Crusher

Tiger Woods and Elin Woods 

Thing 1 and Thing 2

 

At work way before DH, we did:

Winnie the Pooh- all the characters

cast of the Wizard of Oz

Star Trek the Next Generation cast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LiveforLaughter]

I've done this so many times and it's really fun. One party we go to has each family pick a theme so we always have to come up with one.This year I'm going as Mother Nature and dh will go as a weatherman. The kids are going to be wind, a rainbow, a lightning bolt/thunder, snow, rain, a cloud and the sun. I love costumes and so do my kids - we usually go as different things for each event and have a blast!

 

Anything character based - Harry Potter, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Flintstones, Super Heroes, Pacman, Wizard of Oz, Rugrats, Mario, Sims

Other cool themes - Tetris, Scrabble, Crayons and Rock, paper, scissors

[Belacqua]

We were chemical elements one year. I wore loads of diamonds (rhinestones, of course) and put soot on my face. My husband stuffed glow sticks in all his pockets and stapled a box of yellow cake mix to his jacket. The kid was young enough that he wasn't resistant to being covered in Reynolds Wrap.

 

Nobody guessed what we were. 

[Audrey]

A colleague of mine is going with her dh and 5 kids as zombie Snow White and the 7 zombie dwarves.  The baby will be Sleepy, of course. She says if anyone asks about the missing dwarf, she'll tell them they got hungry on the way.

[Audrey]

My favourite costumes we ever did was the Pac-Man family.  Pac, Ms. Pac and Pac Jr.

 

[tshirtyogapantmama]

We are all doing Star Wars, My husband is Darth Vader, My tot is Yoda, My daughter is Princess Leia, My son is a Starship Trooper, and I wanted to be a Jedi but couldn't find an outfit so I ended up making a character....I am Darth Vadar's Sixth Apprentice (my daughter helped me create it since she is a star wars fanatic). We are doing 2 trunk/treats star war themes so it's pretty fun!

 

Sortof thinking of doing Hunger Games or the Hobbit next year...

[HS Mom in NC]

Oh, this topic stabs me in the heart!

 

Two years ago I almost talked the whole family into doing all Alice in Wonderland costumes.  My husband had just finished reading them the big, beautiful, red annotated Alice in Wonderland and my middle daughter (then 13) had just copied and made herself the short pale blue dress Alice wears in the movie with Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter.  I almost (So close and yet so far!) convinced my then 15 year old daughter to make a no sew Queen of Hearts costume with miles of ripped read, white and black tule (sp?) tied into a wearable (not risque) shirt with a shirt and a white t-shirt with a red heart painted on.  My husband was willing to have us look for a suitable suit for him as The Mad Hatter and my then 6 year old had a cute white bunny rabbit costume she picked out that year. (Which is what gave me the idea.)   I was going to go as the White Queen in a poofy white dress I could've easily thrown together as I have previous  historical costuming experience and an old hoop skirt from a previous historical costume. Alas!  the 15 year old wouldn't and I wasn't going to sink time into it of it wasn't the whole family participating. 

 

We could've even dressed up in those costumes and had a family portrait done with my husband seated and reading from the lovely red book with us all sitting around him

 

...sniff.....

 

...sorrowful moan.....

 

...sigh......

 

 

 

 

 

We have neighbors with 3 older boys and a little girl (each about 3 years apart from the other.) They've done:

 

Punk Rock Band

daughter: rocker chick with microphone and rocker clothes/hair

#1 son: drumsticks and rocker clothes/hair

#2 son: microphone and rocker clothes/hair

#3 son: inflatable "electric" guitar and rocker clothes/hair

 

 

Trauma Team & Patient

daughter: white nurse's dress, hat, cape (not slutty)

#1 son: doctor scrubs and stethoscope

#2 son: doctor scrubs with stethoscope

#3 son: accident victim with serious head wound elaborately bandaged

 

 

Trash TV Cast

daughter: Snooky wig, leopard pint outfit  (slutty by long enough to cover the important parts) and heavy make up

all sons: hair slicked back with A LOT of product, tight white tank tops, jeans and large gold necklaces

 

Self Explanatory

daughter: angel costume complete with halo and wings

all boys: devils in black dress shirts, dress pants, black dress shoes and red horns, red pitchforks, red tails, and red bow ties

 

 

The downside is her kids never get to pick their costumes.  They had no idea who the trash tv cast was because she would never actually watch that show, much less let her kids watch it.  So that was a weird set of costumes  for them.

[kentuckymom]

Squirrelboy and I went to a Fall Festival at a local church last night and I saw a family with both Peter Pan and Tinkerbell and a family that was all pirates. There are also an Incredibles family. They were all well done.  I actually didn't coordinate with Squirrelboy (he was Harry Potter). I pulled one of the medieval style dresses I wore when I was involved with the SCA in college.

 

i can hardly wait until we all go out as Hogwarts characters on Thursday.

 

Homeschool Mom in AZ:

 

If I were you I would have just had the rest of the family dress up and left the 15 year old out. Maybe she would have changed her mind. At the last she might have regretted not doing so :).

 

Your neighbors have had some neat costumes, but I agree that it's too bad the kids have never gotten to choose them. I prefer our method of letting the kid(s) choose and then trying to coordinate a theme around that.

[WishboneDawn]

Oh boy.

 

We needed a quick costume this year for a party so I took garbage bags, cut out holes for the head and arms and stuck them on everyone. I then made a headband from card board for everyone and stapled a piece of garbage bag to that for a hat. Final touch was stalling a brown pipe cleaner to each hat.

 

We were all raisins with stems. :D

[Karen in CO]

We did this as a family this year which is why we're all Waldo.  It is one of those costumes that are better if there are more of them.

 

[Desert Strawberry]

We did snacks one year. A potato chip, a slice of pizza, a cookie, and heart burn.

Anime characters.

Hippies.

Ninjas. 

Knights and queen .

This year legos all different sizes.

[Erica in OR]

We haven't done family dress-up for Halloween, but I always loved the idea of this BLT costume: http://www.parents.com/holiday/halloween/costumes/group-and-family-costumes/#page=5. Some other fun ideas at the same site.

 

Erica in OR