1. MOOSE
At my elementary school, they let us to dress up for Halloween, under ONE EDUCATIONAL CONDITION: We could only dress up as a character from a book we had read that year. It was called Cast of Characters, and the day ended with the students putting on a parade through all the other classrooms and up onto the cafeteria stage, showing of their literary costumes.
Now, the “only characters from books that you read this year” rule was pretty clearly meant to encourage kids to stick to their reading level for costume ideas. When I was a 6th grader, however, I took it to mean instead that picture books were totally fair game, since I could read one of those the morning of Halloween and still meet the “read this year” requirement. So I decided I was going to be the moose from If You Give A Moose A Muffin, written by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond (the reading level of which, by the way, is ages 4 to 8).
So I found some brown pants and a brown shirt, dug reindeer antlers out of the Christmas box at home, and I was all set for the Cast of Characters parade.
My teacher actually didn’t say anything about my almost junior high school self wearing a costume ripped from the pages of a children’s book, somewhat surprisingly. I suspect that since I was a pretty avid reader, and he knew that I had read plenty of age-appropriate books that year that I could have chosen from, he didn’t really care if I wanted to be a weirdo and dress up as a picture book moose.
The other kids, though, were a little bit confused. First, they all thought that I had dressed up as a reindeer (I’m just speculating here, but that might be because I was wearing reindeer antlers. It’s admittedly just a guess, and I might be completely off base, so don’t quote me or anything, but it's a definite possibility), and were concerned that I didn’t understand that Halloween and Christmas were two separate holidays. Once I showed them my book and explained that I was a moose, the confusion lessened, but I think they still thought I was a little bit crazy for bringing a 32-page book to the Cast of Characters parade, when they all had books hundreds of pages long.
Whatever. Moose are supercool.
2. SNOWMAN
Some of my very best costumes were last-minute ideas that I threw together right before leaving for my church’s Harvest Festival (a carnival-like event with games and candy that was meant to provide kids with a safe place to go on Halloween). One of these last-minute costumes was when I opted for season-inappropriate confusion and dressed up as a snowman (the kids from my elementary school would not have approved, considering their reaction to my possible reindeer outfit).
I was running around the house, trying to think of something to wear. I started digging through our dress up box (which mainly held old costumes from dance recitals) and I found a karate outfit. I have no idea where this outfit came from, since neither my sisters nor I ever took karate, and I don’t know why we would have some other kid’s clothes in that box. Anyway, I found these white pants and shirt and my brain made the (MOST LOGICAL EVER) leap to SNOWMAN.
Next I dug through our linen closet and found an old white sheet to put over my head. I don’t know why I didn’t just use a pillow case, since I ended up tucking most of the fabric into my shirt anyway. Maybe I had ghost costumes in mind, so the giant piece of fabric seemed more holiday-appropriate than the more wieldy pillowcase option. Incidentally, this was the same year my older sister made her costume out of bed linens as well. She made a Tinker Bell costume out of a pillowcase. Specifically, she made a Tinker Bell costume out of my flannel winter pillowcase. I remember being a little bit upset that she had decided to cut up my sheets, but she explained with unshakeable logic that they were the only green linens in the closet, and so I had to accept that she had clearly made the best decision for us all.
Anyway, I cut eye holes out of my sheet, drew a coal mouth and a carrot nose (I remember drawing the orange nose while the sheet was already on my head, because when I took the costume off, I still had an orange nose where the marker had bled through the sheet). I put the sheet over my head, tucked all the extra fabric into my karate shirt (which actually made for some nice snowman padding), donned a scarf, snowboots, and a plastic top hat that I’m pretty sure was left over from a New Year Party, and my costume was complete.
I strutted into my church for the Harvest Festival, saying hello to everyone I knew. I must have greeted 5 or 6 people before someone asked somewhat tentatively, “Who are you?” I hardly ever wear masks for Halloween, since masks are creepy and I've seen that Goosebumps movie so I knew better, and so it hadn’t even occurred to me that people wouldn’t be able to recognize me. That was when I realized that I had inadvertently made probably my scariest ever Halloween costume, with my hidden face, creepy peering eyes, and frozen snowman grin.
3. UNCREATIVE PAJAMA-CLAD CHILD
One year I was similarly rushed for a costume, and I decided to just wear pajamas, forgetting that you’re actually supposed to BE something for Halloween. The first time someone asked me what my costume was, I faltered, then answered, “I’m...wearing pajamas.”
“Yes, but what are you?”
“...tired?”
I didn’t get much candy that year.
EVERYONE HAVE A HAPPY SAFE HALLOWEEN AND EAT TONS OF PUMPKIN TREATS AND CANDY!
3. UNCREATIVE PAJAMA-CLAD CHILD
One year I was similarly rushed for a costume, and I decided to just wear pajamas, forgetting that you’re actually supposed to BE something for Halloween. The first time someone asked me what my costume was, I faltered, then answered, “I’m...wearing pajamas.”
“Yes, but what are you?”
“...tired?”
I didn’t get much candy that year.
EVERYONE HAVE A HAPPY SAFE HALLOWEEN AND EAT TONS OF PUMPKIN TREATS AND CANDY!
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