In our house, we have allowed our daughter to pick out her
Halloween costume ever since she could talk. Little did I know it would turn
into years of me racking my brain, pulling out my hair and testing my limits, to
pull them off. Generally kids would say,
“I want to be a ghost or a pirate or a princess for Halloween.” Not my daughter she has always existed
outside of the box, with her thinking, and that is why I LOVE HER. For some reason, she has come up with ideas
for things, you would on no occasion, think to make into a costume, but WE DID! A decade of costumes and my offspring has
kept me on my toes for every single one of them.
With my costume making proficiencies you would at no time guess
that I’m not an admirer of Halloween. I loathe
scary movies, nighttime hayrides and haunted houses. I detest being terrified;
I despise seeing adolescents with hatches coming out of their heads and blood
dripping down their faces. I don’t get enthusiastic
about commercial holidays and I’m not sure why grown-ups now gussy up all on
their own for parties. Where we live, children
have to bundle up and brave the freezing cold just to get candy. Wouldn’t it be easier to just buy a bag of
your preferred candy, so as to; skip the wind, rain and sometimes snow blowing
you from house to house? To say I don’t get it and don’t like it is an understatement. It is however a rite of passage for tots and
so I continue with tradition for my daughter.
I have always been of the mindset, if you are going to do something, DO
IT RIGHT (no half assed in my world)!
One of the coolest things about being a new parent is that
idea that you get to do all those “kid” happenings that you have been too old
for and forgotten all about. So you can
imagine the first two years we had our daughter, it was thrilling to think that
at Halloween, we could pick out an adorable costume and go out to flaunt her
around. For the earliest two years of
trick or treating, we garbed our daughter in two exceedingly lovable, warm,
fluffy and huggable costumes. At four
months old, she was a Lion, her chubby legs and plump baby fat face filled out
the costume from tip to toe and made everyone roll in the aisles, when they saw
her. To date I think she was the cutest
Lion, I’ve ever laid eyes on, but maybe I’m biased. The following year, at age one, she was on the
move, dressed all sweet and cuddly as a chicken. Since she didn’t eat sweets yet, we accompanied
her on visits to see family and friends and completed some trick or treating
for UNICEF. These were the lone two
costumes I was allowed to pick out for my daughter, EVER! 
As soon as my daughter could communicate, she decided all on
her own, she was making her own choices straight away. So, I unhesitatingly asked her what she wanted
to be for Halloween? Thinking back perchance
I might have been zany for bequeathing her so much power or maybe I believed it
would go much different. All I know, is
from that instance onward, I would be challenged year in and year out. Much to my disbelief at age two, she replied
to my query, “spaghetti and meatballs.” Perhaps
it was because it was one of her favorite foods, I’m still not sure why she
chose it? A good number of parents would
have giggled and said, “No really let’s go to the Halloween store and pick out
a nice princess costume”, but not me. I’m a glutton for punishment and I crafted
the costume. At age two, she spent her initial
REAL trick or treating experience as spaghetti and meatballs. She won first place in her age group at a
local costume contest. 
The succeeding
year, we had a similar conversation; she told me that she would like to disguise
herself as grapes for Halloween. Grapes,
REALLY, who wants to be grapes? Much to
my surprise, I was able to stumble on a few other eccentric people on the
internet that had blazed that trail before me (keep in mind this is before Pinterest)
and I set out to create a bunch of grapes. We fashioned the best bunch of
grapes we could and she once more won first place, in her age group.
When our
fifth year of Halloween rolled around, I asked my daughter if we could possibly
stay away from food for a costume and she concurred, until one day when we were
grocery shopping together. She articulated
to me that she would like to be a bag of groceries! Creative little bugger but I think she missed
the point of not being food. Constructing
her into a bag of groceries was more of a challenge than I had initially thought
it would be but by hook or by crook, we created a masterpiece. Our stroke of genius was complete with a REAL
head of cabbage, on top of her head! (I wouldn’t recommend this as it starts to
smell.) I will say it’s the first and
only costume; I’ve had to keep refrigerated.
By now, she really grasped the idea of picking a good costume,
making this the year I remember her being eager to pick her next transformation. She regularly had friends, neighbors and
family asking her what she was going to be for Halloween, sometime around the end
of summer. No pressure there! Much to their amazement, she didn’t conceive
very far ahead on her costume ideas. She
would just pull them from her brain haphazardly, when I asked her at the start
of October. This was her first year in
Kindergarten, and I figured she had been chitchatting with her chums at school
and was going to come home this year and notify me she fancied dressing up as a
cute kitty, puppy or pumpkin. No such
luck!
She enlightened me to the fact that she wanted
to be Chinese food (since of course this was her favorite food at the time). I was beginning to deliberate that my
daughter might have a problem with food or she was learning to screw with me at
a dreadfully young age. Come to find out,
it is more the latter. The Chinese
Takeout costume we generated may well be my all-time favorite and possibly my
daughters too, she talks about it to this day.
With a little more school under her belt, I figured she would
get a little bit easier on me, in the costume choosing department and I was over
the moon excited when she said to me in first grade, I want to be
Cinderella! I stood in front of her and
breathed a huge sigh of relief. I
figured it had something to do with our trip to Disney World or other kids at
school schmoozing on about wanting to be princesses. My girl was finally going to be a NORMAL kid
at Halloween, one that didn’t need helpers to get her to the door to ring the
bell, the one that the other kids didn’t stare at and wonder what she was. Thank the gods above, we could go to the
store and pick out the prettiest Cinderella costume you’ve ever seen. Just as the air was filling my lungs back up,
she said, the words, “In a Snow globe.” After a long pause, I replied, “Come again?” She grabbed up one of her Disney snow globes
and answered, “Like this.” Seriously,
how can this be? Time to get creative ONCE AGAIN!
I pulled it off and it worked out well but this
costume turned out to be rather large and not very convenient for trick or
treating. She coped and made it through
the holiday because she discovered that she could every once in a while, take
off the globe and walk around just as Cinderella. I can’t tell you how many times I burnt the
fingerprints off of my hands using the hot glue gun for that one! I guess it was worth it because she was the
costume she wanted to be and she received numerous compliments.
By second grade her tastes began to change, she wasn’t drawn
to being food anymore, the princess fascination was going away and she learned
that it wasn’t fun to carry around a colossal costume when ringing doorbells. She had decided this year she was going to
keep her costume simple (her words, not mine), which I concurred with. That was the year the allure with space began
and so she declared she planned to be the Solar System for Halloween. That’s what I get for reading books way above
her head for years, teaching her to dream big and telling her anything is
possible. Seriously, the ENTIRE freakin’
solar system, how is that simple?
For
this costume she was able to help out, she lent a hand with painting planets
and attached the stars and astroid belt onto her clothes. Again, we made it happen and we did a Big Bang up job, if you ask me.
Third grade presented a challenge and was the only year we
improvised. She came to me telling me
she wanted to be a head on a platter, which after a few days morphed into Marie
Antoinette carrying her own head (that’s what I get for letting her read a book
on Marie Antoinette!). At this point why
would I expect anything less? Thank god Halloween is only once a year. We hit up thrift stores, gathered supplies and
worked exceedingly hard on pulling this off but in the end, we ran out of
time.
I did what any mother would do; I
grabbed a sheet, threw it over her head and cut some holes. It was almost ironic, the girl who came up
with all those crazy creative costumes, dressed as the most basic costume ever,
a ghost. 
She of course in her own
fashion, gave her ghost a little bit of a twist and made him Italian (her idea,
as she was riveted with all things Italy that year). She added a mustache and a Fedora and Giovanni
the ghost was brought to life. It wasn’t
our best work but she had just as much fun!
After being a ghost the prior year, I figured she would recognize
that simple is sometimes best! She must
not have received that memo and her NOT off the rack thinking continued into
this year. What would she come up with
this year? Of course, why didn’t I think
of that, a half man, half woman? After
ten years of Halloweens with this child, the element of surprise is lost on me!
Where does she come up with this
stuff? I think she is an old sole,
trapped in a nine year olds body. She
sure does come up with ideas that get my creative juices flowing. Of course I obliged as I always have. Since she is getting so much more grown-up,
we made a fun-filled day of this and spent the day together gathering supplies
at thrift stores to complete this transformation.
To my daughter’s credit, I would say not only
has she come up with some superior ideas, she is now able to see her vision
come to life and is wonderful at picking things out to bring things full circle. I’m not sure this year’s costume would have
been as smashing, if I did it on my own.
She has the ability to see the whole picture now and she is able to see
her vision from start to finish. Boy
does she make me proud.
Albert Einstein once
said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
I have had ten blessed years with my daughter creating her unique
Halloween costumes. The experience has
been priceless. There were tears, cuts
and burns and screaming matches but I wouldn’t change any of it for the
world. I was able to use my creativity
and turn my daughter’s Halloween costumes ideas into EPIC costumes that she
will remember forever. We took our intelligence
and creativity and had so much fun over the years. It is my hope that by making these bespoke
Halloween costumes I have taught her how to create whatever it is that she
wants. If she yearns for something in
life that is not on the rack, to go out and make it happen herself!
Instead of thinking that there is a certain way to do things,
open up your mind, think outside of the box, use your intelligence and create
your fun. Even if you don’t like
something, I am proof that if you put your whole heart into it you can create
something special and fun. Get out there
and show the world your intelligence through your creativity, the possibilities
are endless. The memories and fun you
will create along the way will be worth it.
Parents let your kids use their
brains, even if it is in an unconventional way, who knows what they will come
up with? I know that someday soon, instead
of dreading the Halloween season, like in the past, I will miss the time my
daughter and I spent together, using her cleverness to create those amusing
costumes! Time goes by so fast; let kids
be whomever or whatever they want to be, not only on Halloween but every day of
their lives.
