Before we had kids, my husband and I hosted an annual Halloween costume party.
(The year was 2004; we were footloose and fancy free)
It was so fun! Our friends would come in droves to carve pumpkins, eat their collective body weight in chocolate, and take lots of funny photos in their creative outfits. People got so into it and we loved the event.
(This photo was taken moments before a tea light lit his costume on fire. Crazy!)
Then we, and all of our guests, starting having kids and the Halloween festivities shifted from being about us to about the kids. The grown-up party fizzled out we focused on taking our kids trick-or-treating and dreaming up toddler costumes. It IS really fun to dress your kid up, I know:
(Avelyn’s first Halloween, circa 2006)
We have made a new tradition of having an early pizza party dinner with a family we love, then heading down to the grandparents’ block to go trick-or-treating. It’s a lot of fun, but I have been craving the good ol’ days a bit, too. I miss dreaming up a costume, scouring the local thrift stores for essential pieces, decorating the house (aka: not dusting my chandelier all year long so it hosts genuine cobwebs…take that, MARTHA) and having a night to remember with people over the age of five.
Do you dress up and go to any parties to celebrate Halloween, or is it all about the kiddos? Can you share any really great or memorable costumes that you or your kids went as?
This year my kids want to be characters from veggie tales. I’m trying to figure out how to attach suction cups to my son’s helmet/hat thingy so he can be Larry Boy. My 1 year old is going to be the Rumour Weed since I lucked out and found a flower costume for her that I don’t have to sew (a prerequisite in my books). My 4 year old daughter wants to be Petunia Rhubarb, so I’m planning to just wrap her in a swath of green fabric throw a red wig on her head and let her hop down the street. Me, I think I shall paint my big prego belly red and call it Bob the Tomato. There done, and done! My hubby stays away from all the hullabaloo of Halloween, but keeps close to the candy dish. We hang out with the same families each year pretty much, and try to keep expectations low, but the fun high. Good times and memories every year so far in spite of the growing chaos dozens of young children add to the festivities.
I actually don’t love dressing up much either, but I’m doing it more for the kids these days. Last year, I went as Antoine Dodson (Intruder Song) which was eight shades of hilarious, if I do say so myself.
More often, I just end up sporting devil’s horns and some bat wings or something – for me, it’s all about pumpkins…
I LOVE dressing up! I wish we had a bigger house so that we could host Halloween parties. This year we are trying a new bar in Regina, but as I get older I find that I would rather be at someone’s house. This year maybe the last bar one for me.
I think you could still do both, especially the years that Halloween isn’t on a weekend. I would like to throw my kids halloween parties when they are older but we’ll see how much energy I have!
I’m not a dressing up fan either…like I can’t stand it. But I’m trying to get into it for Will. YOur pictures are awesome. I have a friend and they have an annual hallowe’en thing with families, kids etc and they pick a theme every year and they all dress up – I think it’s an awesome idea.
i focus all my dressing up energies on my girls. they love it and i love helping them. i have also started (okay, trying to start one!) a tradition of jello shots for the parents since they did do a lot of work for not much in the way of goodies!
I HATE dressing up. It makes me want to barf all the pre-Halloween candy I’ve eaten up and since that would be a waste I don’t do it. We also haven’t taken our kids out trick-or-treating as of yet. We aren’t huge fans of the scary portion of Halloween, and while we don’t believe in the evil/Satan portion of Halloween, I’m not against it. Just the scare factor. It’s gotten more intense over the years and I don’t want to let Bethy knock on someones door and have it opened by a dude who looks like his head’s been severed.
That being said, I don’t want to deprive them of the “fun” of dressing up. I don’t want them to be the only kid in their class who’s parents don’t let them enjoy the festivities, but we do want to make it a fit our family.
So we’re hosting a Fall Family Costume Party on Halloween. It’s also my mom’s bday that day so we’re having a party. All our friends can dress their kids up (and themselves if they’re so insane) and come over for games and fun. the kids can decorate a treat bag and we’ll have a trick or treat table where parents can fill the treat bags.
They still get to dress up, they still get candy, there are still photos and i still sleep at night because nobody is screaming bloody murder from the nightmares.