It’s that time of year again: the leaves are falling and the shops are filling up with all sorts of costumes to celebrate Halloween. However, just because Halloween’s just around the corner doesn’t mean that you have to make a purchase with the holiday in mind. Whether you have a love for the dramatic flair or are thinking ahead to themed birthday parties; now is a great time to stock up on costumes from sites like Funidelia to wear throughout the year. My daughter puts on a play dress (Princess, Pop Star, or an old Bridesmaid dress of mine) every single day to play.
Do your kids love to play dress-up all year long?
While a pumpkin or witch costume might seem distinctly made for Halloween, you could look at these other costume ideas which could have uses at many other times.
Superhero Costumes
One of the most popular categories of costumes for little ones is the world of comics and superheroes. Spider, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, and Catwoman are just a few favorites to play dress-up as each year, but these types of costumes tend to be child favorites for the rest of the year too. Capes can be tossed into a dress-up basket for future use, or you could choose to throw a superhero-themed birthday party. My daughter just watched Wonder Woman for the first time and wants a Wonder Woman costume to wear year round.
Animal Costumes
If your child attends church or school, there’s a good chance that he or she will be part of a pageant at some point and many of these require wearing animal costumes. When my daughter was a baby she was a ladybug in a Noah’s Ark play for church. It was so fun to see her in costume! Even if you don’t need the animal costume for the stage, these costumes can be useful for dressing up on rainy days and sharing facts that they’ve learned about the animal.
Food Costumes
Like animals, food costumes tend to be in high demand for children’s drama productions, so you might want to set that apple costume aside for use in the school play about healthy eating. A good learning activity with these is to write your own play featuring a battle between the healthy and not-so-healthy treats!
Vintage-Themed Costumes
While your child can get plenty of use out of playing dress-up in animal or superhero costumes, you can look for costumes that you won’t mind wearing to a party or a nice dinner later on. Many vintage dresses can be used as part of a costume, such as when you’re dressing up as a specific person like Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn Monroe. That same Audrey Hepburn little black dress could see you through the next holiday party season. And basic vintage-themed items like poodle skirts or 50’s capri pants are always useful for themed parties over the years.
Historic Costumes
Finally, if your child chooses to dress up as a historical figure, they may be able to use bits and pieces of that costume for other uses later. Abraham Lincoln’s beard can be used in next year’s Grizzly Adams costume, while his hat can be used to recreate the look of Fred Astaire. Many historical costumes can be reused and turned into something else as needed.
As you can see, there are a great many uses for costumes beyond trick-or-treating. Rather than spending a load of money on a costume for just one use, splurge on costumes that you’ll be able to get multiple uses out of.
What is your child going to dress up this Halloween?
I have a great banana costume that I’ll put on just for grins.