My top 5 Halloween costumes of all time:
1) The Pillsbury Dough Boy. I wore a white sweatsuit, a chef’s hat with the signature blue dot in front, and carried a wooden spoon. If you pressed my belly I said “tee hee!” Everyone thought I was a ghost. WHY WOULD A GHOST WEAR A CHEF’S HAT, PEOPLE?!
2) Clothesline. In seventh grade my friend Shannon and I went as a clothesline – we stuck leaves all over ourselves to make ourselves into trees, and tied a rope between us and hung clothes from it. Of course as soon as we got to school we had to take it apart since we were in different classes. But I think we won an award of some sort.
3) Mary from “There’s Something About Mary.” I used gel to make my bangs stick up straight. Hilarious.
4) Insolent record store clerk. I wore a homemade button that said “I heard them first.” (This wins in the “minimalist” category.)
5) Miss Piggy. I wore my mom’s huge white coat that looked like a fur but was really made of string, and pig ears, and probably something made of rhinestones.
It was a stretch to come up with these 5 because generally, growing up, my costumes weren’t all that exciting. I didn’t have one of those “let me make you a Halloween costume, darling” moms – instead, we’d scrounge through her closet the night before and make something up. One year I wore my dad’s flannel shirt and took some hay from our dog’s outside dog house and called myself a scarecrow. It worked.
What are some of the best costumes you’ve worn, or seen on someone else? Was Halloween a big deal in your house growing up? Do tell.
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I was an outhouse for Halloween when I was 10. My mom and I painted a refrigerator box to look like wood, made a roof (somehow), cut a quarter moon for me to see through, and holes for arms.
Somehow, I lost the costume competition for a kid wearing a fake head on his shoulder (he was the two headed man! how flippin creative). I’m still bitter.
When I was 6 my mother made me a loaf of Wonderbread. It was made from a pillowcase. Classic.
Ok, these both rock. I remembered I was also Buffy the Vampire Slayer once – that was pretty cool. I wore a platinum blond wig and carried a stick.
i’ve never had great costumes per se, but my favorite was from 1998. i dyed my hair red, i put some stubble make up on Matt (then clean-shaven). we both wore blue suits and he made FBI badges for us. we were Mulder and Scully. we spent the night sober-faced. he’d refuse to kiss me no matter how much tension built up, and we talked to each other on cell phones though we were walking shoulder to shoulder, etc. the best part was, we were participating in a halloween candy handout at a shopping mall in Fort Worth, so people actually thought we were FBI agents. “did some kid go missing?” they’d ask.
I did not have a costume-making mom, either. For the first few Halloweens, I dressed in those vinyl costumes with the plastic masks that I’m sure are now outlawed for too much CFC off-gassing or something. I remember I was Happy – of the seven dwarfs. The beard on the costume was like a Santa beard & quite itchy. The other store-bought costume I remember was this giant, inflatable plastic alien-type head that you wore on top of a little hat that tied around your chin. Those were incredibly popular at the time. It was probably the same year “Freezy Freakies” gloves came out. They changed color when it got colder. Oh, the 80’s!
In early high school (yes, I still trick or treated then), my friend Susan and I went as Cool Beans one year. We dressed in head to toe green and put little ribbons on the top of our hoodies to signify green bean nubbins. This costume required some explanation to several of the adult candy givers.
Later in high school, as I fully embraced my alternative, maudlin nature, I went as “The Executioner of Love.” This is a title from a song by Robyn Hitchcock. I loved RH and his crazy cryptic lyrics. I also pined away for a boy who refused to requite my bountiful love. So I dressed in an executioner hood, cape, and black ensemble. Then I cut out a paper heart and drew a dagger that stabbed through it.
Once a drama queen, always a drama queen.
As an adult, I’m known for making my long-suffering, good-natured husband wear ridiculous outfits. Our biggest hit was Siegfried & Roy & a White Tiger. I was the tiger, he was Siegfried with a spray tan, blond wig, and sparkly jumpsuit. We carried Roy’s head on a stick. The children at the party we attended were not suitably horrified at this, and instead spent the evening trying to hug me because I was a “big kitty.”