I love the excitement the kids get from dressing up, but I don't love spending $50 for costumes. Now, Ben owns every costume practically ever made. I'm not kidding...he has Batman (both a blue and black costume), Robin, Buzz Lightyear, 3 Spiderman (1 red with muscles, 1 red without muscles, one black), Captain America, Superman, Mr. Incredible, cowboy, firefighter, clown, witch, power ranger, pirate and I'm sure I'm missing a few. And Emily has several as well.
One part of me says: It's Halloween. Don't be a Scrooge. Let them get what they want and who cares? It's once a year.
The other part of me says: If you thought like that all the time, you'd be $100,000 in debt. How can I justify spending $50 on more costumes? Do you know how many coupons I have to clip to save $50?
We didn't buy costumes when we were kids. We had to find whatever was in our closet and come up with something. This was 1977. Dance recital costumes were expensive, so we had to use them as much as possible. I was a can-can girl in my sister's old costume. My sister next to me also went in a dance costume. I think she was a fancy duck with that hat. My brother (making the peace sign) was a robot that my dad made with a box, tubes and aluminum foil. My friend Liz, who passed away, is a ghost. Now, I question the mobility of the robot and the safety of the ghost since she had no peripheral vision, but they were awesome costumes.
And this was 1979. Again, another dance recital costume, paired with a crazy pony tail and some lipstick all over my face and I'm a clown...I think. My brother is my mother complete with a wig and breasts.
When did buying costumes become the thing to do?
When did it all become so commercial?
I'm blaming it on Star Wars. As soon as kids could dress up as Chubaka, Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker complete with a light saber, who wants to wear your mother's blouse?
If it were 1977, the kids would go as soccer players, because we have uniforms from last year, or karate kids because they currently have karate uniforms. That's how we rolled in the 70's and it was just fine.
I told the kids we had to wear something that we already have and they'd get the same amount of candy no matter what they wore. I was prepared for a total meltdown. I was ready to cut holes in my old sheets (even if they are 500 thread count), and (gulp) break out the sewing machine if I had to. But you know what? They didn't even care. They ran in their rooms and put on costumes and were excited to be a cheerleader and Black Spiderman.
But, I still miss the creativity of 1977.
3 comments:
I totally agree!! It was the same for me, going trick-or-treating in the late 60s and the 70s. At least you have some really cool photos too - there's not one photo of me in a Halloween costume. My parents were not big on photos. :P But I remember the costumes well and they were pretty much as you said, though I do remember plastic costumes (masks that stayed on with elastic) that my parents bought at the dime store for probably a couple of bucks. More frequently though, we were as you wrote - I remember being a ghost under a sheet as well.
Since Sarah is my only one - she pretty much gets everything - she's still trick-or-treating even though she's a freshman. I thought it was over with by now, but now she wants to go with a group of her friends.
Thanks for the fun memories. :)
Amanda announced that she was tired of wearing the cow costume (recycled every year since Alex was 2), she wants to be a ghost. "a white sheet ghost" Lucky me! And Alex wants to be a waitor. Awesome!
i couldn't agree more. the over-commercialization is exactly why i hate halloween.
seriously- what happened to the fun, creative costumes of the 80's??
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