Making sure that your kid has a great Halloween costume every year is important for their self-esteem and to truly have fun on this holiday. Although store-bought costumes are the fastest solution, they tend to be expensive. Luckily, with a bit of creativity and a few regular household items, a world of DIY costume possibilities will open up. Here are five great examples:
Frankenstein’s Monster or the Bride of Frankenstein
A Halloween classic! To make a believable Frankenstein’s monster, all you need is to cut open a milk carton and paint it green to make the shape of his head. Use a burlap potato sack for the shirt and green gardening gloves to complete the outfit. The rest is just a bit of green makeup.
For the Bride of Frankenstein, dress your child in a white long-sleeved shirt, white pants, and craft the overdress using a white curtain panel. The bride’s wig is easily made using polyester fiberfill stuffing, spray adhesive, and black spray paint.
An Adorable Halloween Goldfish
This is a great costume idea for toddlers! It’s cute as a button and incredibly easy to make. Get an orange hoodie that’s oversized for the toddler. Take coffee filters and dye them orange using either spray paint or other effective dyeing options. Attach the filters to the sweatshirt to create scales and add two googly eyes to the hood!
Salt and Pepper Shakers
If you have two kids, this is a fun Halloween costume idea for them to enjoy together. Make two piles of packing popcorn and dye one of them black. Dress the kids in a white and a black outfit and cover that with large, seethrough plastic garbage bags. Fill the bags with the packing popcorn. If you have two metal colanders, use those as hats!
A Mad Scientist Costume
For this simple but effective costume, start with one of dad’s white button-down shirts to represent the lab coat. If you have plastic worms, spiders, frogs, and similar creatures, attach them to the lab coat with hot glue so it looks like they’re crawling out of pockets. A measuring cup and a toy doctor kit with a stethoscope and headband can be excellent props!
A Mesmerizing Jellyfish Costume
Simple but elegant, a jellyfish Halloween costume is sure to earn many candy bars. Start by attaching long strings of ribbon and bubble wrap to the edges of a clear umbrella. A white top and white pants will complement this costume perfectly. If you have some mesh fabric or tulle, bunch it up between umbrella cords and hot glue it to secure.