Handmade Halloween Costumes and a New Tradition

Handmade Halloween costumes kick the fun factor of trick-or-treating up a few notches!

Some of my favorite memories growing up are from trick-or-treating with my dad.  It was so much fun to dress-up {thank you for the handmade Halloween costumes, Mom!} and collect candy from the neighbors.

Besides “the witch’s house” we had a great time.  She was someone my dad knew through work and he would drive us down to her house every year.  I was terrified, but she always gave out the best candy.  Never mind the fog machine, wart on her nose, or the kids screaming in the basement {while shaking chains} I just knew that I could get through it because then…

We’d go home and count our candy!

Except that one year where the rumors went wild about people injecting candy with poison.  Lucky for us, my dad was willing to taste test a lot of the candy…

When my firstborn was finally old enough to trick-or-treat, I was absolutely giddy.  That first year didn’t go so well, but it’s been a blast ever since.

Some years, life was just too crazy to make a costume and I was thankful for store-bought costumes.  But whenever possible, we handmade Halloween costumes according to what they wanted to dress up as…except that one year.  I’ll let you figure out which one that was…

Now, I want you to remember this pumpkin costume because I promise you’ll see it again…and again.

And…there it is…

But, wait!  Apparently it had been a rough year because…he wore it again.  With a pumpkin face just to change things up.  Poor kid!

Don’t worry, my youngest had a chance to wear the pumpkin costume too!

And then some years, all costumes were store-bought because, well, I was probably still in survival mode.

I definitely redeemed myself the year we created their very own superhero costumes…

And then we were back to random costumes.  Yep, a Lego block, bag ‘o jelly beans and…

Kleenex.  I am not even kidding that he was dead set on being a tissue box.

But this was one of my favorite years.  They each dressed up as a favorite book character:

As they got older, I let them design and put together costumes on their own.

And so, we had an artist one year…

And a gypsy, army guy, and a glow in the dark stick figure the next year.

Oh and that year that Santa went trick-or-treating was hilarious!

This girl designed and sewed her very own monarch butterfly wings.  It was absolutely beautiful!

Last year, she created costumes for all 3 of them.  They were fictitious futuristic warriors.

Now the big question: what will they dress up as this year?

Here it is!  A superhero {it’s actually James’ made-up comic character…more on that another time}, a fairy, and a mailman.  My kids are officially as random as I am.  And I love it!  They designed and created their own costumes and I so enjoyed watching the process.

Before I get my bags of candy ready to give out to the neighborhood children, let’s chat about something:

“Celebrating Halloween” as a Christian.

This topic has become a source of great divisiveness online.  For years, I have had friends on either side of this decision and guess what?  We respect each other’s decisions and it does not affect our friendship.  We need more of that on social media because, really…no one has ever changed their mind after arguing with a stranger online.

For our family, we just have fun with Halloween.  I don’t necessarily decorate for Halloween, besides my kids carving jack ‘o lanterns.  And we don’t ever watch horror movies.  We aren’t ignorant about the origins of Halloween and the evil that is in our world.  Regular conversations about those things happen in our home.

But we have chosen to use this as an opportunity to create some fun memories with our children.  And allow them to use their creativity when it comes to a costume.

This year, we are beginning a new tradition.  We’ve given invitations to the neighbors that we have made some type of connection with in our first year here.  They are invited to an open house prior to trick-or-treating to fill their bellies with chili.  I will have a few crock-pots and all the fixings ready for whomever comes by.  To me, it’s a way to establish more of a connection.  In turn, I hope it leads to more than just a wave and hello when we see each other.

Have a fun Halloween…and don’t eat too much candy.

I can’t promise I won’t though…

One Year Update: Our first trick-or-treat open house went amazing!  We had a half dozen or so households come over.  And guess what?  Those are the people that we have gotten to know the best since last Halloween.  There have been multiple get togethers and countless conversations ever since.  We plan to make this an annual tradition!

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