How to Choose a Halloween Costume for Your Child {Or Not}

This will be Aiden’s third Halloween. His first Halloween costume was a cute little puppy. I went to the store at the last minute and found a costume that we both liked. He seemed to respond most positively to the puppy. There were few choices, but they were all on sale. I was pleased with the choice.

Last year, he chose to be a ninja. We went to the first store and browsed the costume aisles up and down. We found a few possible options. I like to comparison shop, so we went to another store. The second store had more Halloween costume options. We perused the choices for a long while. We found a couple costumes. Aiden (an almost 2 year old) didn’t seem to care about them at all. He just wanted to run around. Then, we happened upon a toy sword. Aiden’s eyes lit up. He liked the toy sword. We found a ninja costume. He liked the snake on the costume. Finally, we found something that would work.

This year I am planning for Halloween costumes earlier than I have in the past. I am considering making my own. I also thought I would let Aiden completely choose what he wants to be. At almost 3 years old, he has a grand imagination, good verbal skills, and decent decision-making skills {most of the time}.

I was reading Red Ted Art’s post about an upcycled Batman costume. Aiden saw the picture of Red Ted and BatBunny and asked what it was. I told him Red Ted was dressed up as Batman – a super hero like Spiderman. {I’m still not exactly sure why he knows who Spiderman is. I’m thinking it’s because my brother wears Spiderman t-shirts, has a Spiderman on his key chain, and has a Spiderman poster. Yes, that’s why.} I asked Aiden if he wanted to dress up like Batman. He said no. I asked if he would like to dress up like Spiderman. Again, he said no. I started naming animals {dinosaurs, dogs, etc.} and asked if he wanted to dress up like those. He said no to all of them. I said, “What would you like to be then?” Aiden replied, “A man.” “Do you want to be Batman or Spiderman?” I asked thinking that’s what he meant. Aiden said, “No, just a man.” I gave up on the discussion for the time being. We weren’t getting anywhere.

On another day, Aiden said he wanted to be a horse. I don’t even think we were talking about costumes. He was riding his toy horse around the house {that he is really too big for btw} and just blurted out that he wanted to dress up like a horse. I asked him if he wanted to be a cowboy. He replied, “No, I want to be a horse. Or a man.” Where is this coming from? What kind of man? He doesn’t know. Fireman? Policeman? No.

I finally showed him pictures of lots of costumes. We went through each one, and I asked him if he wanted to be ____. I got lots of no’s at first. Then, an occasional yes. I wrote down all of the yes’s so we could come back to them another day.

Here’s the funniest response I got: When asked if he wanted to be a bird, Aiden said, “No, I don’t want to fall.” I was really hoping for a yes to the bird. I have a cool idea for a costume. Maybe I’ll just have to make it for me.

My husband thought it would be a cool idea for Aiden to dress up like a deep sea anglerfish. He asked if it would be too scary for other kids. I have no idea. Giant, sharp teeth and an overhead, bioluminescent lure? You be the judge. He showed Aiden a picture of the fish. Aiden thought it was the coolest thing he saw all night. The deep sea angler was added to the list although I have no idea how I would pull that one off without it looking horrid and awful.

So here is Aiden’s current list of Halloween costume choices in no particular order:

• A man
• horse {Removed from the list by Aiden. No reason given.}
• alligator
• dinosaur
• spider
• purple crayon {changed from orange crayon}
• Piglet
• mouse
• fire {A fire fighter? No. Fire. Umm…okay…}
• deep sea anglerfish
• porcupine
• tree {random suggestion from Patrick aka Daddy}
• flashlight {A random suggestion from me as we were starting to think he was saying yes to everything. I then suggested something else and he said no.}
• pumpkin {Removed from the list because he already has a pumpkin costume and dresses up in it often.}
• bat

Now we have to narrow this list down. Any suggestions? Please share.

How do you choose your Halloween costumes?

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