Comments on: Friday Fluff: Let’s Talk Hallowe’en

By: Lady Lately

Lady Lately — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:48:12 +0000

I was a princess last year, since I had a custom-made princess costume from the school musical! Add a shit-ton of red eyeshadow, a cheap tiara and some fangs: presto, evil princess.

By: Nomie

Nomie — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:47:44 +0000

I used to hate Halloween because my dad loved it. His costumes have included Fidel Castro (he’s a dead ringer), a Christmas tree (ornaments in his beard, a spire tied to the top of his head, and a walkman with tiny speakers playing carols), the Ox King from Dragon Ball Z, and Britney Spears in her schoolgirl phase. That last one was especially humiliating because I was in high school at that point, and the “cool kids” were trick-or-treating… and there’s my dad, answering the door with a belly shirt and his beard in pink ponytail holders. Now I’m old enough to appreciate it and think his love of costuming is great, but as a kid I hated being upstaged.

Personal favorite costumes: pregnant bride (for a Rocky Horror showing), Clara from the Nutcracker, and Kaylee from Firefly. Kaylee was actually fun because I was part of a group; my friend knit her own hat for her Jayne costume, and our friend Jeff was Inara. Good times.

By: Pippa

Pippa — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 05:37:30 +0000

One year I saw a girl all dressed in bright red, even with face paint and sprayed red hair riding around on a child-size bike. Guesses?

Menstrual cycle. 1-2-3 Groooooaaaaaan.

By: OlderThanDirt

OlderThanDirt — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 20:46:55 +0000

The costume I love best is not from Halloween but from those showings of The Sound of Music where people dress up.

It was a tall skinny guy in a bright yellow body suit that included a very tight hood. He was Ray, a Drop of Golden Sun.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:19:32 +0000

I think the jellybean one was popular — someone mentioned it upthread, and I remember one or two from childhood too. Most impractical costume I ever had was a birthday present — it was an awesome costume, but it was basically a wrapped box with holes, so impossible to sit in. My dad had the same trouble when he went as a “straw poll” — a barber pole with straw coming out of the top and sides. My mom was a “show of hands.” My parents are nerds.

I remember someone in elementary school going as a shower. I don’t recall quite how it worked but it was very impractical and utterly awesome. Could be even cooler if you were an adult and allowed to go topless (as in, a guy or a woman in certain contexts!) — you could have the bath around your middle, a translucent curtain around that (maybe suspended from a ring that’s supported on your shoulders), and a showercap… and I’m not sure how you’d deal with the showerhead. Actually, just the tup, toplessness, cap, and a loofah would be pretty great.

By: car

car — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:15:39 +0000

Two favorite costumes when I was a kid, one born of sheer desperation on the part of my mother, I think.
The one she went all out on was to make me Rapunzel, complete with tower. I had a huge cardboard box with the top and bottom gone held up with suspenders around me, painted to look like brickwork.
In the desperate year, (I recall this happening about an hour before the party I was supposed to go to) she took a clear plastic trash bag, cut two leg holes in the bottom, had me put on my leotard and tights, then filled the trash bag with small balloons and stapled it shut over my shoulders with a big rectangle of posterboard labeled “Brachs”. I was a bag of jellybeans. It was weirdly fun to walk around in a bag full of balloons, although I couldn’t sit down.

By: vesta44

vesta44 — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:55:42 +0000

I don’t do Halloween anymore, but a couple of years ago, one of my leads came as a desk. She used a cardboard box painted like wood with drawers and all drawn on it, her head came out of the top on one side with a picture frame around it and a cardboard computer monitor next to that. She drew a keyboard in front of the monitor and taped pen and paper off to one side. It was really cute (and since we worked with computers all day long keying in rebates, very appropriate).

By: Dorianne

Dorianne — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:32:28 +0000

A long time ago, in the land where I still had roommates, drank like I lived in an oil town (which I did!), and regularly attended house parties, roomie and I hosted a Hallowe’en party, with a booze prize for the best costume.

We decided on the moment that we had to give an alternate prize to the “most creative last minute costume” when it arrived – one of our friends wore black head-to-toe, and had safety-pinned white socks and fabric softener sheets all over her clothes.

She was a Dryer Goblin.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:21:34 +0000

Jackie O’Lantern = hilarious. Simultaneously elegant, Hallowe’eny, and a pretty decent pun.

No guesses on the red kid, though I’m sure there’s a big *facepalm* coming my way when you tell us.

By: Pippa

Pippa — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:19:31 +0000

I didn’t grow up with Halloween so when I lived in Nth America I went for it. One year I went as Jackie O’ Lantern – think Onassis/Chanel style pink suit with big black round sunnies, frame handbag and heels with a pumpkin mask. Simple.

One year I saw a girl all dressed in bright red, even with face paint and sprayed red hair riding around on a child-size bike. Guesses?