Stacy Conradt
We Want Your Best (and most embarrassing) Halloween Costume Photos!
by Stacy Conradt - October 14, 2009 - 5:00 PM

MOUSEIs it just me, or was Halloween way more fun when you were a kid? You could trick-or-treat to your heart’s desire (on HALLOWEEN, not the night before – pet peeve of mine) while wearing a sweet, mom-made costume (or that plastic mask from the store that you had to have or you would die) and then go home to watch movies that you probably shouldn’t have been watching while gorging on far too much candy. It was the best, especially when it was on a Friday or Saturday.
We might not be able to go back and do Halloween the way we used to, but we can at least revisit it – send your favorite (or most embarrassing) costume-of-old to flossypics@gmail.com. If your favorite costume was just a couple of years ago, that’s OK too. One of my favorites was last year’s Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett getup, but the picture you’re looking at is me when I was a tot. Halloween in Iowa can be notoriously cold (I’ve definitely trick-or-treated in the snow more than once), so my mom wanted me to wear something warm – thus, a mouse costume made out of cozy grey flannel. I had a nose and whiskers painted on later.

Watch for a gallery of reader costumes in the coming weeks! Extra points for anyone who submits a Jem costume from the ‘80s… I know there’s one out there.

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Comments (12)

  1. Wow, that’s a mouse? I was going to go for Eeyore…

    posted by Richard DIxon on 10-14-2009 at 6:54 pm

  2. I have a friend who was Jem last year, never mind the 80s!

    posted by Kristine on 10-14-2009 at 8:06 pm

  3. I had the same costume and everyone called me a bunny and I was maaaad, haha. “I’m not a bunny!”

    posted by Erica on 10-14-2009 at 8:41 pm

  4. Haha Stacy, that’s too cute!
    I would’ve given you an extra handful of loot.

    posted by holly on 10-14-2009 at 9:18 pm

  5. My mom, or us kids, always made our costumes. I thought I wanted a store bought one, and never got one. Now I am glad. My mom sure was smart!

    posted by Hyacinth on 10-15-2009 at 9:11 am

  6. I’ve got a Crayola Crayon costume I wore at age 3 somewhere, and a jailbird costume too. Hmm..I’ll find them eventually.

    posted by Steven on 10-15-2009 at 10:26 am

  7. My mom handmade our costumes for years.
    The best and most unique were:
    Buck Rogers (my brother)
    Raggedy Ann (me as a baby)
    Ewok (me)
    Lion (me) and Lion Tamer (my brother)

    Going to have to hunt those pics down.

    This year I decided to make my daughter’s costume: a Gypsy. Cheaper, more fun, and more original than store bought.

    posted by Nerak on 10-15-2009 at 12:37 pm

  8. One year my friends and I dressed up as a set of dice using cardboard boxes. We cut holes for our heads and arms that would match the spots (i.e., the head was 1 and we wore a polka dot hat, then one side was 3 and the other was 5, etc) I even got the colors on my braces to match. Personally I think we did a great job, but I don’t think I have a picture! :(

    posted by Hastings on 10-15-2009 at 12:40 pm

  9. My dad made me a Pepsi can (mid 80s) out of a bulk flower drum after my mom used it all up. His art skills made it look perfect, but walking in that thing was difficult. Walking on a flat surface was pretty easy, but as you had to lift your knees for stairs it wasn’t so good. I wish I had a picture!

    posted by JW on 10-15-2009 at 12:46 pm

  10. When I was about six, I found the coolest Jaws mask at a store. Lots of teeth and blood. I begged my mother to buy it for me and make me a shark suit. She agreed and proceeded to make me the coolest shark suit I as a young child had ever seen. It had the requisite ominous dorsal fin and JAWS written in the chest is six inch high blue glitter block letters. We went to the mall that Halloween to trick or treat. I was king of all I surveyed.

    Until that old lady came up to me looked at my costume and said “Are you a ghost?”

    posted by Anthony on 10-15-2009 at 12:51 pm

  11. @ Anthony – I know your pain

    A few years ago I worked at a store in the mall and we wore costumes on Halloween. I wore a beautiful 18th century sack back complete with wide pocket hoops (think Marie Antoinette or The Duchess for inspiration). I participate in 18th century living history, so this was an accurate gown. MONTHS later, my fellow co-workers and I came out of Fridays after work and we had some guys stop us and ask us where we worked. We told them, and one guy looked at me and said YOU WERE BO-PEEP!

    At least it was memorable!

    posted by Hastings on 10-15-2009 at 1:25 pm

  12. i’m on cute overload……..

    posted by the lorackian idiot on 1-25-2010 at 10:18 pm

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