It seems as though the Halloween Season is already upon us. Yes, I am hereby declaring that Halloween is, in fact, now officially A Season. After all, there are stores at the mall entirely devoted to Halloween costumes, there are Halloween lawn ornaments, Halloween lights, and Dept. 56 now even has Halloween lighted houses. You heard it here first. Halloween is the new Christmas.
So. Now that we’ve established Halloween’s new status, the question is, what will YOU be for Halloween? (Actually, in Christian circles, the question is, do you celebrate Halloween? But we’re just gonna bypass that touchy subject and move on to the fun stuff.)
Back when I was an ambitious hostess with only once child, I used to have Halloween parties every year and everyone would dress up, even the adults. We would have a big contest for the best costume, and it got to be quite competitive. That was SO much fun. I’ll be posting pictures from these parties for Wordless Wednesdays in October.
But now that I’m old and tired and have three kids to outfit for Halloween, the parties and adult costumes have gone by the wayside. And have I mentioned that all three of my kids have birthdays in the fall? Plus Christmas is looming? So it’s easy for Halloween to get lost in the shuffle. And with so many presents to buy this time of year, I’m not all that excited about breaking the bank to buy Halloween costumes.
So here is my conundrum.
C has a gorgeous Cinderella dress that she got for her birthday last year, complete with shoes and a wand and a crown.
My mom bought it, and I don’t even dare guess what she spent on it. It was for playing dress-up, but it has hardly been used and is in pristine condition. So of course I’m all, What a perfect Halloween costume! We’re set! YAY!
I’m sure you know where this is going.
C does NOT want to wear the Cinderella costume for Halloween. She wants to be Ariel. Or Hannah Montana. In other words, ANYONE but Cinderella. Cinderella is SO last year.
So here’s my question. Is it mean to make her wear it? I’ve explained to her my reasons. But she’s not buying it. Should I just suck it up and buy her another costume? Or am I well within my Mommy rights to insist she wear something she has in he closet?
Her fate lies in YOUR hands, Internets. I hope you realize what a weighty responsibility this is.
19 Responses
I have the EXACT SAME dilemma at my house. My girls have a huge box full of princess dresses, but they want new ones for Halloween. I decided to make HipChick (6) save up her allowance and pay half. What am I going to do with another princess dress!
PS I used to be in the “don’t celebrate Halloween” camp, but once I had kids I changed my mind. We go to the church fall festival. Not to open that can of worms…
I like the birthday idea. We also enjoy the fall/Halloween celebration (and we are CHRISTIANS! Oh, the travesty!) and I did a wonderful job of making costumes … until I had children, of course. Now we just buy them, but Ebay always has a pretty good selection, thrift stores and consignment stores are great, too. Then there is Family Fun’s website – they have a ton of really cute, but create-able costumes (not always cheap, however).
Since she is insisting on being Ariel, you can find a cheap version of dress up usually at Target or somewhere ($15 or less). We also found a set of all the princess costumes for our daughter for Christmas this year at BIG LOTS for less than $10 a piece (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, etc.).
If it is any consolation, I am fighting the same battle with my daughter. I thought, since she is still less than three years old, that I would be able to CHOOSE her costume one more year before the “I WANNA BE….!” set in. Boy, was I wrong. I quickly decided that I wanted her to be an adorable chef (I even found a polka-dot costume!) and her brother a lobster. As soon as I ordered the costumes, she has begun demanding to be a PRINCESS. Of course.
Good Luck!
That is really a tought one. I am a huge Halloween person, I always have been. I hate to say it, but I would buy the costume that C wants. Miss Peach is going to be a princess (40$) The Little Man is a bunny ($50), not cheap! I save money elsewhere in the budget (belt tightening). Is she old enought to earn her costume??? (chores)
Just let me know where you find a Hannah Montana costume… looks like I’m going to be in the market for one soon!
Up until about a week ago, my daughter wanted to be an acorn for Halloween. How cute (and strange) is that? Now it’s Hannah Montana or High School Musical 2 (apparently the whole musical). Ugh. I am not thrilled with this turn of events, but…
Like I said, let me know where you find the HM costume! 🙂
Oh. My. word.
Do I even need to give my two-cents worth?
I would say that she either has to wear that or something that you can easily make at home.
That’s just from my perspective.
Perhaps you can make a deal that a new Halloween costume would be part of her birthday this year? I’m thinking of instituting that at our house, as all 3 big kids have October birthdays and all want new costumes. If she wants to be Ariel, the costume will be a great dress-up addition too, so it could be a justifiable b-day present.
I have always gone the cheap route on costumes, but now I’m kind of wanting to go all out with the kids. I have no idea why.
Awww, come on Mom. Halloween is once a year. In the grand scheme of things, what is another $30 for a new costume? Every year at Halloween, I always cringe when I think of spending $100 on costumes when we have ones from past years begging to be used. But then I always think…if I were them, would I want to wear the old ones? I’d say give in…but I can’t blame you for trying. I try to get away with the same thing, too. Never works.
find a friend with a princess-obsessed daughter (like me) and SWITCH DRESSES for just for halloween.
problem solved.
cost to you: $0
I am gonna go with make her wear it. But I am mean and hateful and I am sure my future children will end up on Oprah. Sigh.
i do not think it is mean to make her wear it… Under the guise of weather, isn’t it slightly warmer than ariel or hannah would be?
can you balance out the special by having her hair or make up done somewhere affordable (like a beauty school) so she has something new AND feels like a princess?
JL,
I’m chucking as I write this. I can just see the adorable little pouty face shaking her head as you two are ‘talking’ about it!!
IF you do in fact, get her to, can you please share what bribe, treat or other means in which you had to completely sell for her to wear it!!! I haven’t found that perfect trick yet!!!!!
We have yet to experience the joy of denying our son the perfect Halloween experience. I will do my best not to disappoint him…as long as when he gets older he doesn’t do what we use to do on Halloween…shaving cream, toilet paper, and eggs were our way of having Halloween fun!
Bradley
The Egel Nest
I am not a huge fan of Halloween, but I do it because the kids love it. My fear for you is this: if you make her wear a costume she doesn’t want to wear there may be a very big meltdown come trick-or-treat time. It may be worth spending the money on another costume to avoid any potential problems.
I’ve been lucky where my kids will wear costumes more than once. Nine got a zombie costume and this is the third time he’s worn it – but he gets different masks ($15 or so) and changes “what he is”. Oh and sometimes we get him a walking stick or a broom or an axe (!) to go with it).
Five has a Pikachu costume we spent about $40 on, but he wore it two years in a row and it’s a really nice costume. I didn’t want to buy it but he had his heart set and it worked out great on the two year use plan.
I would see if you have friends you can trade costumes with – that way, everyone wins!
you send the cinderella dress to me for when we go meet her at christmas!! LOL
in all seriousness, though… if I could get an acceptable costume for under $20, i’d probably do that. thankfully my kids have not really realized they can assert their opinions yet, so I got their costumes on clearance last year – a knight & a renaissance princess!! 🙂
I think Hannah Montana (whom I LOVE, and tickets in our state sold out in 14 MINUTES, meaning my SIL and I can’t take my niece, and wea re sad) would be an easy costume – she already has blonde hair, so just some cute jeans, a cute shirt, a cute jacket over the cute shirt, some cute (Target or Payless) boots, and a fake guitar, and she’s good to go!
I made Megan wear the same costume twice. She didn’t mind, but geez! I felt horrible! We always made ours when we were kids, but, I work full-time and don’t sew, so I have to purchase. Check consignments shops and thrift stores for cheap “new” costumes. Friends may have some to hand down as well.
Well… since I don’t have kids, I don’t think I should really weigh in on this. Personally, as a non-mom, I would try to make her wear it. Make her appreciate what she has and live with the fact that we can’t always have what we want. (I’m saying it bluntly so I don’t ramble on for forty paragraphs.)
I just want to share 2 stories with you. 1) I used to cry all the time during Halloween because we would always get our first snow on that day. And so I always had to wear snow clothes over my costumes. 🙁 That always made me so sad.
2) One of my favorite costumes was Big Bird. (and I had to cover it all up *tear*) and my husband was Big Bird too as a kid. It’s neat seeing his photo and mine, taken as we were kids in the same costume. Awwww. (too bad his dragon of a mother won’t let me have any pictures of him as a kid.)