Boo humbug

Halloween is a big deal around here.  My husband loves Halloween.  My seven year old loves Halloween.  My in-laws love Halloween.  My side of the family is more of the Scrooge persuasion.  I remember my mom hating Halloween...primarily the trouble involved in coordinating costumes for four kids.  My brothers and I have always managed to get our kids in costume and take them trick-or-treating, but the holiday has always seemed like more work than magic.

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A sister-in-law and her family channelling GI Joe.
I knew what I was getting into when I married this man.  As long as I've known him, he's thrown a big family Halloween party.  When we were first dating, he and his sister lived next door to each other and coordinated an elaborate (and creepy!) haunted house set up in and between their houses. 

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Friends

While that particular tradition went away when he moved in with me and we no longer had space (or time, or in my case the willingness) to set up gory scenes in the dining room, but one custom that has remained is the family costumes. 

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My sister-in-law's family as Willy Wonka characters...their costumes are always AMAZING.
Everyone dresses up.  Kids and adults.  Usually families try to coordinate costumes.  While I could never really get behind the decorations and such, this was one area I embraced.  I'm not much of a seamstress, but I can sew well enough to make a costume.  There were years when I was sewing 3 or 4 costumes.

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Sister-in-law's family and a good friend
Last year I posted a sampling of past costumes I've made, so I won't go there again, but suffice it to say that making your own costumes is neither time-saving nor cost-effective.  And it's a bit stressful when you leave all the work until the last week.

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??, Heat Miser, Cold Miser (from the movie The Year Without a Santa Claus (I think)
Every year I swear off making costumes.  This year I really meant it.  Between work and N's club volleyball schedule and trying to fit in some training, I just didn't want to put in the time.  Failing in my anti-costume campaign, I then cast my vote for one of our lamer (in my opinion) costumes, simply because it would be relatively easy to make. 

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D (the Invisible Man) and N (a statue) opted not to participate in the Pac-Man theme
Turned out it was fairly easy, relatively cheap, and I was finished making them before our guests rang our bell (a first). If I can make that a tradition, maybe next year I'll even help decorate.

Yeah...probably not. 

Comments

  1. Loved ALL the pictures. There's some GREAT costumes there! I am so bad at Halloween, so I guess it's lucky that the husband takes charge!

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  2. I am of the "Halloween, bah Humbug" variety. It makes my husband nuts.

    You are inspiring me to try a little harder :)

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  3. Boy, hubby sure seems to be into the Pac-Man thing. :) Invisible Man looks amazing!

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  4. These costumes are awesome! But I had to laugh, b/c that is what goes on here. Him--into it; me--scrooge!

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  5. The husband and I are both huge halloween fans. We devote far too much time to making our costumes. I'm not sure how well this will translate once we have kids, though.

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  6. OMG if I had the costume expertise as you do in your pinky toe, I'd be the queen of the Halloween extravaganza here.
    I've had a party every year for at least a dozen years now. My confession: I'm so busy with everything else, my costume either does not exist or sucks. Boo!

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  7. Great costumes! We always try to "make" costumes also - so much fun:)

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  8. Great pictures! I am the bah humbug. I don't like wearing costumes. I had one good Halloween with scoring with both kids' costumes but there were lots of misses!

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  9. Oh I love these!!!!
    wow!!!
    I love Halloween!
    when I was a kid I was NOT allowed to go trick or treat..no joke..I am not sure I have forgiven my parents for this just yet. Can I tell you my kids get to go? and they have costumes AND wait for it, I let them eat a candy..or 5 !

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  10. Ha ha ha! I have never been much into this holiday but if I lived near you guys I would most certainly have to get dressed up!

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  11. This post is just fantastic. I love Halloween, but haven't gotten to dress up in a few years. We have really fun traditions with our neighbors for giving out candy. Shoot - I just realized Halloween is only two weeks away! Time to go to the store to stock up!

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  12. LOL...we must be related somehow! I've never been that "into" halloween. Not sure if it was because my mom HATED it (at least the letting us go trick or treating because who only knew what people would put in the candy! remember the needle in the apples?) or because it was my brothers birthday and we always went out to dinner to HIS favorite diner and never MY favorite place! :O) I've tried unsuccessfully to get "into" halloween but fall short. It's one of my hubs fave holidays but he's more into Christmas.

    Anyhow...great costumes...a lot better than what I would of come up with (the one year I did dress up it was for work I dressed up as a tree: brown turtleneck, brown leggins, with a yellow ribbon around my waist, brown gook on my face and leaves in my hair).

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  13. These are incredibly awesome pictures! That sounds like so much fun.

    I love the Willy Wonka picture!

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  14. I am laughing so hard, and I have no idea why. Your husband's expression I think, he's like, "What the he!! did I marry this woman who made such lame costumes compared to my other family members...." I'm sorry, but he is cracking me up. Well, that and statue boy's gray undies. AWESOME!

    All these, SK, are awesome!! As one who sewed all my kids' costumes so they were all matchy-matchy, I feel your sewing, carpel tunnel, pain!! I can't even hem a pair of pants anymore. I bought some fabric to sew a tablecloth after I was at Meg's this summer in California (you know, after our trip up Mt. Whitney together) because it was so cute. Took 4 weeks to cut it out and there is sits. Maybe tomorrow - hahahah. you are very, creative and love how involved your family is in Halloween. It's always been a fun holiday for me when my kids were little....now I can't even muster up the strength to get the string of lights to hang outside. I'm pathetic!

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  15. Cute costumes! I can't even sew on a button so I am pretty impressed with your skills.

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  16. I'm always amazed at how big Halloween is in your country. Love all those costumes. I'm glad we don't do Halloween over here. I know people would have a battle to get me into a costume. Unless I can just go as a runner...:)

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  17. OH my goodness, I absoultely love all of those costuems. When my boys were little I was a decorating machine. My whole front yard had decoration all over it. It's funny because when the boys got older and I didnt do halloween anymore I quit decorating. One time they asked me why I didnt decorate anymore. I just said I thought you had growed out of that. They loved it when I did that stuff. They remember more than we give them credit for. All the little things you do for them you dont think they will remember,but down the road they say something and you are like I didnt think you ever noticed, but they do.

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  18. Love love this - How weird I have been reading you since before last year - time sure does fly. You are my caped costume hero!

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  19. These costumes had me laughing out loud! I love the invisible man. Ha! I also will always remember your statement that making your own costume does not save money!

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  20. Great costumes!!!! Here we don't celebrate again Halloween but I am sure that very soon it will be part of our celebrations.

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