Today, MP and I went to WalMart to pick out a Halloween costume. She started out leaning toward the Princess thing again but did a 180 at the last minute and went with Bat Girl.
She ROCKS the costume. She wore it off the rack and cruised proudly around the store, holding out her bat wings and solemnly nodding when shoppers said, “Hi Bat Girl!” When we pulled out of the parking lot an hour later, grinning broadly, she said, “Did you see how everyone thought I was the REAL Bat Girl? They all thought I was there to save the day!”
You go, Girl.
That’s kind of how I felt back in 1979 when my friend Stacey and I dressed up as punk rockers. It was my first “grown up” costume. My hair was green, literally spray painted with some nasty toxic smelling hair product that simultaneously succeeded in getting me high, making my head hurt, AND killing the ozone. My jeans were ripped, my thrift store Army jacket was awesome, and I felt SO cool.
I LOVE Halloween. I’m eating candy corn right now. I can’t wait.
So here’s your question. What’s YOUR most memorable Halloween costume or memory?
Mommy Pie 
ooooh it’s a tie.
the clown costume that my Granny made me when I was 4 and the super hot purple gypsy costume that my mom made me when I was 14.
I love Halloween and I love passing on that joy to my kiddos.
Thank you for sharing this adorable story with us.
When I was 8, I had a skin tight red devil costume with a tail. My best friend had a skin tight black cat costume, with tail. So we walked the halls of our elementary school shaking our hips and spinning our tails. We thought we were so cool, but looking back on it, the teachers probably thought we were little skanks in the making!
I’m loving that your daughter went with Batgirl instead of the princess. My little girl chose the blue velvet princess a la Target. 🙂
i think it was my last official kid halloween costume. i was a drunken bum. by far, the easiest costume and the closest to my heart. i was in high school – some of us were 15, but some of us were 16 and we drove to the nice neighborhood to get the good candy…
It’s a toss-up. In grade school, I went as a piece of dice (or is it a die?). My dad painted the box, and I was so proud until . . . . . during the school parade I got stuck between a radiator and someone’s desk.
In highschool, we went to a Halloween party (at Pete M’s, I think) and I was dressed as a bag lady. Lucky perms were in style then! People were amazed that I would actually look sooo bad in front of people who I really wanted to like me.
And a shout out to our other Hawaii pals, who could forget “The Sin Twins”????!!!!
LMAO with the dice — sorry I missed that one, but you DEFINITELY rocked the bag lady look, Finn. Much more so than my Jolly Green Giant, aka Human Bean, aka stem to Hamster’s giant pumpkin, costume.
And if I had a pic of the Sin Twins, I’d SO post it.
My favorite was when I dressed up as Jeanie from “I dream of Jeanie”.. I must have been 13 or 14 at the time. The most memorable that was NOT me was when my sister dressed up as a lamp. Yes, a LAMP.
My memories are being hijacked by my children and their costumes last year. My wife made little airplanes out of boxes. They were awesome. AND I got most of the candy! They’re too young for all that sugar.
Batgirl! That’s badass.
I think my kids want to be cats or something this year. But I generally wait until a day or two before and go to Toys R Us to score cheap costumes. Last year we got awesome princess and cheerleader cotumes for under $10. Just call me Cheapy Cheaperson.
When I was a kid, we mostly made our own costumes. Every once in a while we would get a store bought one, but usually it was stuff from the thrift store and face paint. Witches, hobos, psychopathic ax killers and such.
The memory that stands out the most is my Grandma dressing up in old man clothes and sitting, eyes closed and slumped over, in a chair on her porch. When kids would walk up to the door she would jump out at them, scaring the bejeesus out of them all. My Gram got such a kick out of that.
Good times.
Captain Dumbass — I’m totally impressed and just a little jealous of your wife for making AIRPLANE costumes. That’s one crafty lady.
blissfully caffeinated — I SO want to be a grandma like that.
That would have to be the time I went trick or treating as a box of Brillo.
I know. I was a weird kid.
My most memorable Halloween was the one I turned 9. It happens to be my birthday, and I was really looking forward to being a ballerina with a pink tutu and the works. We always had my friends over for cake and icecream before trick or treating (because you just can’t have enough sugar!) My mother made a lovely 2-layer caked topped with gobs of whipped cream. So there I am facing the cake, waiting to blow out the candles, with all my friends on the opposite side to help me. After I made my wish, everybody bore down and blew so hard on those candles that the entire whipped cream top blew off and right onto my tutu! Yeah, to say I was disappointed was an understatement. Since emergency cleaning was out of the question, I had a be a hobo. I remember my father streaking my face with a burned cork, and loaning me a gigantic flannel plaid shirt. That sure wasn’t my plan, but hey! Thanks for letting me reminisce!
Oh, bikerchick, that’s SO sad! 😦
What DOES crack me up though is how your dad went the polar opposite of ballerina. He didn’t even TRY for something close, like “princess.” Nope. Hobo.
I love, love, love halloween!
My favorite halloween is one of my more recent – my husband and I have an annual costume party every year…2 years ago our son celebrated his 1 month birthday on the night of our party – so we dressed up as H.I., Ed and Nathan, Jr. from Raising Arizona.
It was a huge hit and my favorite memory because it was the first (of many more to come) halloween memory with Hudson.
I LOVE that movie!
Has to be the skeleton that I wore five years in a row because I was seriously short as a kid. I loved that costume. And I love Halloween, ’cause my birthday is right before it. I always had Halloween/Costume parties as a kid because my birthday was so close to it. Ahhhh…good memories of candy corn and warm apple cider.
Or maybe it is the Star Trek costume I made when I was 19 and it STILL FITS.
Two things:
1) When I dressed up as a hooker sophomore year (I went to Catholic school) (I wasn’t loose, I just couldn’t think of any other way to explain why I was wearing a skirt and heels for Halloween)
2) That year, I also went trick or treating for the last time with my friend Ellen (we really liked candy) and dressed up as ghosts by putting sheets and baseball caps on…
Lo-sers.
p.s. I love Cactus’ Brillo memory.
I went as a pizza box once. I think that was my last year of trick or treating. I was a junior in high school. But, a couple of years ago, Hubby Bee and I went as Jack Skellington and Sally. It was great!
I grew up in the midwest, so Halloween costumes often were covered up with winter coats, and I hated that. One year, I had a panda bear costume that my aunt had made, and it covered me completely, like a mascot uniform. I was thrilled – no winter coat hiding my faux-fur-covered-from-head-to-toe self. On Halloween, we were allowed to wear our costumes to school, and we all had a parade outside around the playground. Of course, this being the midwest, the year that I was shrouded in fur from head to toe, it was 90 degrees outside. I passed out in the middle of the costume parade. Sorta hard to forget.
We always had Halloween parades at school too! I LOVED it. But then again, I never passed out. Heh heh.
Halloween used to be SO big in Chico, my college town (where I still work). Like 20,000 revelers loose on the streets big. The year before I met Chas, I went out with friends to walk around and look at the costumes (which, other than fighting or squeezing into an expensive bar party, is the only thing to do downtown on Halloween). I wore white jeans and a white oxford, heavy black shoes, a black belt, a policeman’s hat I hat spray-painted white, and I had painstakingly twisted my ENTIRE head of shoulder-length hair into tiny twists to look like dreadlocks.
Give up? I was the Good Humor Mon, and I had made a chest logo and a hat logo to go with it. I walked around passing out popsicle sticks and saying, “Have a nice day, Mon!” like the Uncola man.
No wonder I didn’t get married until 32.
Okay Foolery, I didn’t see that one coming, but can SO picture you passing out popsicle sticks. HA!
I’m not a huge Halloween person, but somehow I’ve managed to win awards for my costumes. Therefore, they’ve become favorite Halloween memories, because you know, I WON something, and was cool for half a second.
Childhood fave: A beautiful butterfly costume my mom made me. I won the town (!!) costume contest. I was so proud.
Adult fave, and one I fall back on often: Devil with a Blue Dress On. Consists of cheap-o devil horns & tail purchased from Halloween store, and a blue shift dress I found at Goodwill. When I won an award with the Devil with a Blue Dress On costume at a recent Halloween party I attended, the Deviled Egg was PIST.
Grrr..Im the only fool in the world who can’t stand Halloween!
But my most memorable costume was one my mom made..bare with me.
It was made of 2 sheets dyed green. The one was just cut with a whole in the center that my head went through to cover my body…the other fit over my head with fishing bobbers with the red part painted dark green with red blood shot marks. There was a hole cut for my face to see through. It had an embroidery loop fit with a piece of purple netting so I could see, but yet not be seen. The hair was a mop head dyed purple for hair. I can’t remember what she did for the nose, but I know there was one. I don’t know if my description is doing it ANY justice..but it was soooooo darn cute! I dont know where she ever came up with the idea.
Dawn- Were you a monster or something, or a peice of bait? 😛
I was Medusa for halloween when I was about 12, and I make paper-mache snakes coming out of a ski-hat. Unfortunately the wires sticking through the ski-hat got caught in my hair and could not be removed without major cutting.
Thankfully, I was high on candy and remained blissfully oblivious until the next day at school.
My most memorable costume was when I was about 8. My mom got a pink pair of bra and panties and sewed sequins and pink mesh netting on them to make me an I Dream of Jeannie costume. I had pink ballet slippers, and my own long blonde hair was in a high ponytail through some kind of crown my mom made. All was wonderful, until…it snowed in CT in October. I refused to wear a coat, so people could see I was THE Jeannie. I was too cold to hold onto my bag of candy, but I LOOKED GOOD!
Neat page / will definitely visit again.