My nephew wore a full plastic superhero costume two years ago that looked incredible in the driveway photo and was completely unwearable by the second house — the mask fogged up, the cape kept catching on the stroller, and he was done within fifteen minutes. That’s the thing nobody tells you about kids Halloween costumes:…
There’s a difference between a cute family costume and a genuinely fun one, and I didn’t fully clock that distinction until my neighbor Renata’s family showed up to our block party as a full breakfast spread — dad as a fried egg, mom as bacon, and their two kids as a waffle and a glass…
Getting my family into matching costumes used to feel like a small negotiation every single year — my husband hates anything that involves face paint, my daughter changes her mind about her “favorite thing” roughly every six weeks, and my toddler will only tolerate a costume for about ninety minutes before he wants it off….
My freshman year, I spent forty dollars on a costume I saw exactly zero other people wearing that night, and I remember standing in the middle of a packed apartment party feeling like I’d shown up to the wrong event. My roommate Jada, on the other hand, threw together a costume in twenty minutes using…
Trio costumes are genuinely harder to plan than couples or full group costumes, and I don’t think enough posts admit that. With two people, you just need one clean concept. With a big group, you’ve got enough bodies to fudge an uneven number or let one person be “background.” Three people is this specific, awkward…
I have a running list on my phone called “costumes that were a mistake,” and it has entries going back six years. The inflatable T-Rex that made it impossible to sit in a car. The face paint that took three days and two different makeup removers to fully come off. The “one size fits most”…
I made the mistake two years ago of committing to a costume idea in early September, only to watch three different friends show up to the same party with a version of the exact same thing by the time Halloween actually rolled around. That’s the real risk with “trendy” costumes — if you’re not paying…
My freshman year Halloween, I wore a costume I’d bought online that looked amazing in the product photo and turned into an actual safety issue by the time I was walking the six blocks between my dorm and the second party of the night — too short to sit down in, no pockets for my…
My husband and I did matching red-and-blue superhero costumes our first Halloween together, and looking back at the photos now, we mostly just look like two people who bought whatever was on sale at the same store. It wasn’t bad, exactly — it just wasn’t “us.” The couple costumes that have actually worked for us…
My friend Nadia and I spent an entire group chat thread three years ago debating “salt and pepper” versus “peanut butter and jelly” for our duo costume, and we landed on PB&J mostly because neither of us wanted to be the black-and-white one standing next to someone in color for every photo. That’s the part…