Halloween enthusiasts are no longer satisfied with the simple ghoulish garb
Editor’s note: Laura Crooks passed away Saturday morning.
From a princess and a bride to a scorpion and slasher-boy, kids’ favorite Halloween costumes truly are as unique as they are. One common thread we gleaned from their stories is how they came to be. In most cases (except Freddy Krueger), credit was given to a mom or a grandmother who made the costume. So kudos to the creative women behind so many costumes.
Elijah Hiler, a Spokane 10-year-old, sent along a snapshot of his scorpion costume. “My mom made it for me when I was in first grade,” he wrote. “My costume originally had a tail able to come up and down but the strings broke so my mom quickly sewed the tail to the back. One funny thing that happened while my mom was making the costume was that she made 10 legs, but scorpions are arachnids (bugs with 8 legs).”
Eight-year-old Kasey Morgan Thomas, of Dalton Gardens, Idaho, passed along a photo of her in her favorite pig costume and wrote: “I wanted to be a pig last Halloween because it is my favorite animal. I loved pigs since I was 3 years old. I hope to get a real live pig of my very own one day. My grandma helped me make my pig costume that I wore to school. … I was the only pig in the whole school. I love Halloween!”
A little girl’s dream of becoming a princess came true for 7-year-old Jade Hendrickson of Spokane last Halloween when she donned a princess dress, tiara and make-up and paired up with her little brother who was snuggled in a pea pod to be the Princess and the Pea.
Another princess dream became reality for 10-year-old Jennifer Haldeman of Spokane, who sent us a picture of her Snow White costume. “I absolutely love my Snow White costume because my grandma made it. It’s very comfortable and it’s light. … I always smile when I see it.”
Halloween several years ago was a day for Christine Quinlivan to feel as beautiful as a bride. In fact, the 12-year-old dressed in bridal white. “When I was 5, my mom decided to make me a bridal dress. She added flowers for decoration along with gloves and a veil to complete the outfit. … It was my favorite costume because it was handmade. I got a lot of compliments, and I felt pretty.”
But pretty is not at all the look Brandon Mullenix was going for when he worked on his Freddy Krueger costume when he was in the sixth grade. The now 19-year-old wrote. “I had to paint the mask myself and apply liquid latex in the area of my jaw, ripped and torn for that real Freddy look that I was trying for … I threw on some old clothes from the closet and a hat and Freddy’s gloves I bought … and my costume was done. I got a lot of compliments on the mask, and have always been proud of the work I put into it.”
Other photos, submitted by proud grandmothers, include cute little leopard kitty Ellie Hatfield, clown Mariah Hanley and chicken Charlie Herrmann.
For sharing their costumes with us, each receives a gift certificate for ice cream (or, in the spirit of Halloween shall we say, ice scream).
Looking for a last-minute Halloween costume? We asked members of The Spokesman-Review’s Parents’ Council for their ideas, here are a few they came up with:
“A bug. Dollie Robin told us that if you cut those foam swimming noodles in half and glue the ends to a hard hat, they look like antennae. A yellow rain coat or a black leotard works for the body. Wings can be made easily out of cardboard, and goggles or a swimming mask work nicely for bug eyes.
“”One costume that I wore growing up was a lot of fun. I was a bag of jelly beans, wearing a clear plastic garbage bag filled with mini balloons, and I carried a real bag of jelly beans to hand out to my friends. Probably better for girls, but cute and easy,” wrote Callie Bendickson.
“Trudy Rogers offered this: “Big D and Bubba said how one of them taped a string with a leaf at the end to a baseball hat and when someone asked what he was he replied, ‘a Leaf Blower.’ I thought this was clever.”
“Lisa Paolino suggested burning the end of a cork and, after it cools, using it to color whatever you need black, such as the lines under the eyes of a football player. She also passed along a suggestion she saw at FamilyFun.com: Smartie Pants. Using clear plastic tape, attach rolls of the candy Smarties to pants.
“Laurie Rogers wrote, “My daughter is going to be a spider. We won’t have four extra legs dangling from her, because I don’t have time to make them, and they would get in the way (and how do you fit them in a coat?). She will dress in black pants and a black top. Her pants have silver spider webs on them. Her top has a red embroidered decoration that, when turned to the back, looks a bit like a black widow’s hour-glass. … We will temporarily dye her hair black, with silver glitter up the sides. Her face make-up will be white, with black around the eyes and on the lips. She’ll have black nail polish. It will be a cool costume, easy to put together, safe, inexpensive, wearable both at school and outside, and coverable with a coat. And most of the costume is wearable outside of Halloween. What’s not to like?
“Unless, of course, that temporary dye isn’t actually temporary…”