Halloween Mashup

Since my daughter figured out the gist of Halloween, which I think occurred after we read Clifford’s Halloween for the zillionth time this July, she’s been obsessed with what she would like to dress up as. So far I’ve heard: witch, fairy, princess, monster, vampire, Scooby Doo, and ghost. She pretty much cycles through these options at random throughout the week.

Yesterday we were shopping at a local discount department store, and we came to a large display of Halloween items. Not costumes, but more of a costumer accessory display: witch hats, fairy wings, gross fake teeth, feather boas, plastic tiaras, and tattoo sleeves (which by the way I’m seriously considering buying for myself and dressing up as Amy Winehouse). Everything was priced at .99. Maggie gleefully dove in and emerged with a witch hat, and then asked for some wings too. Although this stuff was very cheap, I’m trying to reduce the amount of stuff in our house so I declined on this round. Suddenly it was though I could see the light bulb appear cartoon-like above Maggie’s head “I’m going to be a Witch Fairy!”  She exclaimed. “Can I?”

“Sure!” I replied. She spent much of the next few hours mashing together possible Halloween costume ideas.

“Can I be a vampire ghost, a princess witch, a Scooby Doo vampire?” To which I agreed in the affirmative each time.  Instead of going with a traditional costume this year, I hope that Maggie sticks to this more creative twist on trick or treating, it certainly makes for a more interesting costume and can certainly be more cost effective.

If you have multiple children or friends who would like to do a costume swap, get together and make some funky combinations. Encourage your child to think of a fun twist for an old costume, take last year’s ninja mask and combine it with some dirty ripped up clothes and be a ninja zombie! Costume mash-ups are a super easy, cheap and imaginative way to celebrate Halloween, and besides, the idea of a ninja zombie is infinitely more terrifying than either on their own!

photo credit: eyeliam

Kate Kastelein is a stay at home mom, freelance writer, and life long Mainer. When she’s not writing or chasing her daughter, she works on a farm part-time, cooks, scours yard-sales, knits, and tries unsuccessfully to keep her free range chicken flock off the porch. In order to keep up with everything she drinks way to much coffee.