JENN McKINLAY: I love, love, love passing out candy and checking out the Halloween costumes that parade across my porch. My favorites are when entire family dresses up together, but I am a generous candy giver regardless. There might be an extra fun sized chocolate bar tossed into the jack-o-lantern bucket for obvious extra effort but otherwise it's all good and everyone's a winner at my house.
One of my favorite things about October is the costume pics that come across my feed, starting in September. Since it's Halloween today, I thought I'd get us all in the mood with a few recent favorites.
Being from AZ, this was a winner for me:
I think that's Kenough - LOL.
What about you, Reds and Readers? What are some of your favorite costumes that you've either seen or worn yourself? Lookin' at you, Karen!
Happy Halloween! One of the cutest costumes I've seen was a Little One dressed as a crayon . . . .
ReplyDeleteAwwww....
DeleteHappy Halloween, Jenn!
ReplyDeleteHappy Halloween, Everyone!
Happy birthday to YOU!
DeleteBack atcha, Judy!
DeleteThose are great! Some of my favorite costumes were the years my bestie Jennifer and I dressed up identically or nearly, wore our black wigs, put on lots of face paint, and went to parties together to confuse our friends. This year Ida Rose has the cutest costume - her mom found her an orange fleece NASA flight suit, so she's going as Mae Jemison, the first Black female astronaut (my adopted grandgirl is Black...)!
ReplyDeleteI should have mentioned Jennifer and I are the same size. Another year Katherine, who is nearly a foot taller than me, and I dressed up as vaguely European gentlemen in men's dress shirts and vests and neckties and our hair up in fedoras. I had a pillow under my shirt and Groucho glasses and a very weird accent. SO much fun.
DeleteLove the Mae Jemison costume idea!! — Pat S
DeleteFemale astronaut for the win!!!
DeleteHappy Halloween! My little sister was a huge Flying Nun fan, so I made her a Flying Nun costume out of old sheets and cardboard.
ReplyDeleteLOL - I love that!!!
DeleteOh, these are great! I once went as a teabag, very successful! But my best was when Jonathan and I went as the Arcs, Noah and Joan of.
ReplyDeleteYou two have done some fabulous couples costumes.
DeleteHiiiilarious, Hank!
DeleteAnd Jenn, your new book is SO GOOD!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you!!!!
DeleteFrom Celia: Happy Halloween to you Jenn and everyone in JRW Land. Costumes, such fun. I dressed as "the Scarsdale Diet" one year. Don't remember what I wore but I had the sign and carried a revolver.
ReplyDeleteI made 4 yr old Olivia a queen of hearts costume by sewing a circle skirt using silver and pink
Lured - silver section- BIG pink heart. The skirt had 4 sections so was quite a sight. She went as Barbie another year with a huge yellow wig. I usually made a costume as requested by her majesty. Hope you all have fun.
Hope your Halloween is lovely as well!
DeleteMy favorite costumes growing up were the Flying Nun and when my best friend and I went as Donald and Daisy Duck in 8th grade.
ReplyDeleteI made my kids a lot of great costumes over the years. The younger kids had to wear the hand me down that fit them some years and some costumes were repeated the next year. It started with a penguin. There was a firefighter, a cowboy/girl (I sewed faux leather vest and chaps for that one) Troll, hippie. Pirate, Harry Potter. Cat in the Hat and Thing One and Thing Two. My sister made them Scarecrow, Dorothy and Tin Man costumes.
They were Uncle Sam, Statue of Liberty and an army guy. Those were re-worn and won first prize in the JayCees July 4th parade. They entered that parade twice and won first prize both times. The first time they were much younger and we had a Wounded Minuteman pulling Betsy Ross sewing the flag and Baby Uncle Sam in a wagon.
The secret to success with any costume is all in the accessories!
Parting with the costume bin in the Great Purge of 2024 was the saddest thing for me.
Accessories are absolutely key!!! Ah, the purge, I was very sad when our costumes went bye-bye.
DeleteI love, love, love Halloween! And quite noticeably it seems so does everyone else...It has made quite the comeback on the "decorating the front lawn" scene. Residing in an HOA community I am limited as to what can adorn our front yard. I have to keep it to a minimum but inside our condominium I enjoy hauling up from the basement a slew of Halloween decorations. (Although as I get older the trips up and down have lessened and so haven't the "doodads".) But like Christmas/holiday baubles I have my favorites that are years old with sentimental memories attached to them and they will always have a place in our home...our bisque pumpkins purchased from The Christmas Dove forty years ago, our "speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil" and "yoga" skeletons, my witch gifted to me from a dear friend when we first moved here in 2014, two funky ravens from MacKenzie-Childs and some new additions this year added to the bat theme ~ a black metal flying bats wreath and six bat-themed cast iron tea light votives. [check these fun votives out on the Crate and Barrel website; they are on sale now for $3.97...Holy Batman! :-) ] Although you could not pay me enough to watch a horror film there is just something about this "holiday" that I love ~ perhaps it is the gateway to the upcoming holiday season as well as the enjoyment of Autumn.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in the 50's trick or treating usually meant being encased in those polyester/vinyl costumes with the plastic mask that had a thin elastic band in the back. Unless of course they were homemade; i.e., white pillowcases with eyeholes (Casper the ghost). I was fortunate that I could recycle most of my dance costumes that I wore in dance recitals every year for a decade. Back then if you didn't know how to sew you had to find a seamstress who custom made these fabulous costumes for you. My favorite was a devil costume. A one-piece jumpsuit in fuchsia red with a matching fuchsia cape lined in silver metallic fabric. A fuchsia headpiece with horns and a matching pitchfork completed the look. I was a big hit that year while trick or treating in the neighborhood...haha!
HOA Communities...scarier than Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Freddie Krueger all rolled into one. :D
DeleteFabulous, Evelyn. Wish I could see that devil costume. And LOL, Jay, so true!
DeleteJENN: Love love love Halloween and love passing out candy. My local organic grocery store has allergy free candies, which I buy every year.
ReplyDeleteThere have been many costumes, which I wore over the years. Cannot pick a favorite costume, though.
Great Halloween costumes in your photos. All of your costumes are wonderful and so difficult to pick a favorite one. I am still thinking about the Cactus / Free Hugs costume, though.
The cactus cracked me up! How smart to buy the allergy free candy!!!
DeleteHappy Halloween! I'm at the ortho, and most of the staff is wearing costumes. I am wearing my skeleton earrings, natch.
ReplyDeleteSome brilliant couples costumes I have seen: Fred & Wilma Flintstone., Beauty and the Beast, two Pharoahs with spot-on eye makeup. My two oldest dressed as tequila and a taco, or "Robin's Tuesday Night".
Best group costumes: Killer Bees from SNL in the 1970s. The five Dionne quints, as babies. My daughter and her husband and son as characters from South Park. But the all-time best, inspired by a Christmas decoration we all saw years ago, was last year's herd of rainbow unicorns. My grandson wore the inflatable, and things devolved from there. Middle daughter's very game, then-new boyfriend wore a black tutu with his rainbow spike horn. Another guest also showed up in a similar costume, making it a herd of six. Best ever.
From Karen: I didn't wear any of these. And we disqualify ourselves from votes for best costume at our party!
DeleteThe unicorns....epic!!!
DeleteNot being a costume fan, I don't have favorites of my own. But one year, The Boy went as a construction cone. He made this huge cardboard cone, big enough to cover himself, covered it in orange plastic, and wrote caution in black on both sides. Then he cut armholes so he could wear it. In between classes, he stationed himself at the corridor intersection and crouched inside.
ReplyDeleteMy other favorite costume from him is not from Halloween but a school spirit week. He was supposed to dress as a "day in the year." He came down wearing the exact same outfit as the day before and announced he was "yesterday." Sadly, no one at school got the joke. Not even the teachers.
Liz, I think the "Yesterday" costume is freaking brilliant for the theme.
DeleteThat is HILARIOUS. (once Jonathan and I came as Tracy and Hepburn. I was Katharine Hepburn but he was DICK Tracy. And no one--no one!--got it. SO frustrating! :-)
DeleteJay, I thought so too. It was even better given that The Boy was only 7 or 8 at the time. I thought that displayed a very mature sense of humor.
DeleteHank, it's it the worst when you come up with a brilliant idea and no one can figure it out?
OMG - "Yesterday" is hiiiiiilarious!
DeleteOh, it's the 3rd most wonderful time of the year!
ReplyDeleteYep, it's Halloween and you know what that means. Indeed, it is the day I dress up as the same thing I do every October 31st. My costume is "Nice guy who gives away lots of free sh*t at his door."
I don't remember if I have a particular favorite costume but I remember the Batman costume from the Bert Cooper Company I wore one year. Or the year my sister and I went as a pair of dice. Or the other year we went as Rubik's Cubes. One year I did a space alien costume that won a prize at some judged event. But I don't really remember any other ones off hand.
Favorites I've seen are varied. Once there was a girl who couldn't walk (medical issue of some sort). So her parents were pulling her around in a wagon. But they had her done up in what was a doll clothes outfit and the wagon had been surrounded by a box that had been painted like a Cabbage Patch Doll package. Or the kid who came dressed as a Weather Channel reporter...on a Halloween where the weather was rainy, windy and otherwise blustery. Or the kid who came dressed as the guy in that Time Life Music infomercial for some 60s hippie music compilation.
I like costumes that show they put some thought and/or effort into their costumes. Lazy costumes that just are a half-assed cover for them getting free candy annoy me. And while I get that not everyone can afford to go buy a costume, you can get creative with MAKING one. Hello, a box painted as dice or a Rubik's Cube?
My favorite costume was a simple one, of sorts. Kid came to the door. He was dressed in an all black outfit, meant to simulate the leather jacket outfit worn by Christopher Eccleston when he portrayed The Ninth Doctor on "Doctor Who". I asked, "Who are you dressed as?" He said, "The Doctor from Doctor Who." As David Tennant was portraying The Tenth Doctor at the time of this particular Halloween, I responded by saying, "Oh, The Tenth Doctor?" The kid came back with "No, I"M THE NINTH DOCTOR".
Hell yeah kid, not only putting the effort into the costume but doing the research to know exactly who you are dressed as...guess who got extra candy?
My house has been known as "The Comic Book House" for years now. Not only do I give out candy, but I give out comic books too. And if you are wearing a costume that I have a comic book for, I make sure to give you that one.
But I also give out special prizes for good costumes. I've got action figures from superheroes to Star Wars, Marvel to DC. There's special Pez dispensers, fake vampire teeth, some BIG 1,000 page Archie comic collections and this year I even managed to come up with some American Girl mini figures for the girls that come to the door. Because sadly, not everyone is into Star Wars and comic superheroes. By the way, these are only available for the younger ones that come to the door. The older kids get candy and comics but once they get old enough to bag groceries at the local Shaw's, for my money they should buy their own damn candy.
Unfortunately, this will likely be the last year I give out comic books. I got them through the Free Comic Book Day event held the first weekend in May each year. This year, my local comic shop didn't even participate in the event. Luckily, my Buffalo, NY comics consiglieri Justin works at the Queen City Comic Books store and he sent me a bunch of stuff. However, the main sponsor for the event was Diamond Comics, who was the main distributor for most of the comics published in the US. Unfortunately, they have gone belly up to the point they barely exist anymore. And with no one even rumored to step in as the new sponsor, Free Comic Book Day is likely over and done with now. So comics will likely not be on the list of offerings for me next year.
But if I'm going out this year, it is going to be with a bang! So Happy Halloween everyone, here's to me rotting the teeth and minds of the local youth with plenty of sugary sweets and reading treats.
Jay, I aspire to your level of generosity. And I am gutted about Free Comic Book Day. Gutted.
DeleteThis year the staff in the youth services dept of my local library dressed up as fairies from the rainbow fairies series. Each person is a different color representing one of the series characters. One member of the staff made the wings for all of them. It had been a work in progress for the last year.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago a friend of mine, his partner and their dog wore pumpkin costumes complete with pumpkin stem hats.
Anonymous, I have long wanted to dress Koda up as a Greyhound bus, but sadly I lack the skills to make such a costume and they are horribly expensive to buy. But he'd wear it!
DeleteI bet they look specatcular.
DeleteFirst, love the pics and the creativity they display. One year I went to a Halloween party at a local pub I frequented. It should be noted I was drinking hot tea - yep, I'm a literal teAtotaler. I didn't want to go, but friends prodded me into it. I found a costume that was for a medieval princess. Slinky gown, long-haired wig, veil and all. I set aside my glasses for the night and really tried to get into the role which is not at all my norm. Well, long story short, nobody recognized me and I won the prize for best costume. Gotta love a non-drinker winning the costume prize at a pub! -- Victoria
ReplyDeleteHa ha! That's wonderful , Victoria.
DeleteOnce upon a time in Houston, a group of us got together every Monday night at a Greek tavern. We were all friends of the owner, Louie, a genuine Greek. He always had a Halloween party with a costume contest. Our group won one year. We all had on Louie masks that my husband had made from a photo he enlarged. All wore the Louie "uniform" of jeans and a black tee or polo shirt. We all lined up, nine of us, and danced into where the contest was held. Louie was speechless!
ReplyDeleteHiiiiilarious!
DeleteHalloween has always been my favorite holiday. It was also Kevin's, so it's become bittersweet, but this year I've actually put out some of my Halloween decorations in the house. I hope you all don't think it too morbid to talk about, but I decorate Kevin's grade in fun Halloween style, with lights on the flowers and lighted little pumpkins and ghosts on the ground. I find it quite comforting to still be sharing Halloween. Unfortunately, I don't get to see many Halloween costumes as the road we live on is not really conducive to foot traffic. However, today later I will have a special guest. One of Kevin's classmates from elementary school who has gotten back in touch with me over the last two years is going to stop by with her two teenage daughters. I'm not surprised that this girl got back in touch with me. When she came to the elementary school where Kevin attended and I was the writing portfolio aid, she was I guess what you'd call a bit different, and Kevin always gravitated towards those kids to make friends. She had been through some stuff that the other little darlings had been shielded from so far in life. I'm really glad she's gotten in touch with me and I'll get to see her.
ReplyDeleteDo those of you old enough remember the costumes that came in a box with the full plastic mask? They were mainly Ben Cooper and Collegeville brands. Of course, you had to wear something under the thin little costume that came with it. I remember the Casper one well, but I think it was because a friend of mine wore it, not me. I wish I could put up the picture of my mother's old black skinny dress that my daughter and granddaughter wore as a witch, with accesories, for years. I think it has finally been retired. A couple of other costumes from family sources was the clown costume my sister made, and Ashley wore that, and then the angel costume I wore as a kid and Kevin wore, too. It's my FB cover photo.
Now, I have to go buy some more Halloween candy, as Philip is ever the optimist thinking that this will be the year we have trick-or-treaters.
I love that you still share Halloween with Kevin and I'm so glad you'll get to see one of his friends. Happy Halloween! I hope Philip is right!
DeleteI love Halloween costumes… On other people. I’ve got no imagination for it. My kids are great at making costumes and my grandkids are going out into the wilds of Brooklyn to trick-or-treat tonight dressed as a Man in Black and a Disney prison. I’ll be at home answering the door and oo-ing and ah-ing Over the costumes on other People’s kids
ReplyDeleteI genuinely love the passing out of candy the most. Trick-or-treaters are the perfect guests. They show up, entertain, get a treat, skedaddle before it's too late.
Delete