Halloween Costumes

In this installment of Tuesday’s Timely Tip, we look ahead and give you the Tip Trifecta… You’re welcome, Friends!

Halloween will be here before you know it and for our kids with sensory issues, kids in a wheelchair, and lots of other kids, getting used to their Halloween costume may take them a little time and practice.

Here’s My #1 Tip

Order a costume now.  Give your child time to try it out a little bit at a time each week so they can see how it feels, figure out how to use the bathroom in it, see if they will be comfortable wearing it to the party at school and out trick-or-treating or whatever Halloween activities you’ll be attending.

Tip #2! 

Keep it simple.  The giraffe costume was Michael’s 2^nd Halloween and it was before his diagnosis. I just got it at Babies R Us because he loved giraffes (still does) and it looked cute and comfy. Now, they sell costumes like this in every size through adult and we have used A LOT of them. With a costume, exactly like this, Michael has been everything from Tigger to a lion to Winnie the Pooh to Cookie Monster.   I give myself extra points for the Cookie Monster costume since he went around saying, “Nom, nom, nom, nom” all day…it was pretty funny!

Even if your child doen’t like these fleece costumes, there are tons of really simple ones you can try. Michael loved being Waldo from the Where’s Waldo books and Steve from Blues Clues, both of which were essentially regular clothes with one or two props. A couple of years, Mikey stepped it up and did something closer to a full costume: one year he was a football player and one year he was a ghostbuster. These were slightly more involved but also super comfortable and easy to wear.

Tip #3!

Have a back-up plan. For about 10 years, we have had an adult XL blue m&m tee shirt in Mikey’s closet. We have never had to use it, but I always knew that he could still participate in Halloween festivities even if he didn’t want to wear his costume on the actual day…it was probaby $15 and it gave me the peace of mind to know that he had a ‘costume’ no matter what.  They have these tee-shirt costumes in a million different styles so your child could really do this every year and be in costume while just wearing their normal clothes and a fun tee shirt…cool! And if you buy a big size, you can keep it for years. 

Let’s be honest, I’ll probably be old and grey, handing out Halloween candy to trick-or-treaters wearing that blue m&m tee shirt.