Help your son choose his Halloween costume before setting out to make or purchase one. Narrow down the choices if he’s indecisive. The costume doesn’t necessarily have to reflect his personality, since one perk of Halloween is pretending to be anyone or anything you’d like to be for a day. His comfort and safety should outweigh everything else.
Superheroes
Many boys fantasize about being a superhero as they read their favorite comic books or watch cartoons and movies starring superheroes. If your son is a superhero fanatic, allow him to choose his favorite superhero or make up his own. Common superheroes include Batman, Superman, Spiderman or any of the X-Men. Alternatively, let him dress up as a villain if he enjoys playing the devil’s advocate. Common villains are Penguin, Two-Face, Joker, Lex Luthor, The Green Goblin or Magneto.
Make a comic-book costume, whether it’s fashioned after his favorite or a one-of-a-kind comic book that features him as the superhero. Use iron transfers, pin real comic book pages to a white sweatsuit or sew a costume using fabric that looks like a comic book. If you’re handy, draw your own with fabric markers or turn a large cardboard box into a comic book cover that he can wear over plain sweats.
Characters
Dressing up as a character from his favorite movie or cartoon may excite your son. Consider the types of movies he enjoys and his favorite characters. For example, many little boys enjoy the Star Wars series and enjoy dressing up as their favorites. Common choices include Darth Vader, Mace Windu, Luke Skywalker, Yoda, Darth Maul, Obi Wan Kenobi, Jabba the Hutt, Jango Fett, Jar Jar Binks, R2D2 or general characters, such as storm troopers. Use the characters from your son’s favorite shows if he’s not into Star Wars.
Help your son create his own alien character using face paint, a wig and craft foam to fashion alien arms or extra body parts.
Animals
Encourage your son to dress up as his favorite animal if he has a love of the beasts. Younger children might do better with friendly, familiar animals such as dogs, cows or pigs. Lions, tigers, elephants, monkeys and other wild animals are ideal if he likes them. Alternatively, his favorite dinosaur would work. Bugs, such as spiders or bees, are other options.
Paint your son’s face, neck and arms green with face paint and use a temporary dye to dye his hair green (or use a green wig) to turn him into a green insect, such as a grasshopper. Create extra appendages out of foam swimming toys painted green, which he can tie around his waist, and make antennas out of a headband with black chenille stems (pipe cleaners).
People
Children often have active imaginations and dream of being many things. Use this as the inspiration for your son’s costume. Professions provide easy ideas, such as a doctor, lawyer, cowboy, farmer, scarecrow, clown, fireman, policeman, military personnel, ninja, pirate or athlete. Help him dress up as a particular type of person if he chooses. For example, an old man, a baby or a nerd.
Some boys find it amusing to dress up as a girl for Halloween. Give him an old dress or outfit that belongs to his mom or a big sister. Put a wig on him and do his makeup. If he’s really adventurous, he may want to wear high heels or girl’s shoes. He could take it further by dressing as a specific girl, such as princess or beauty queen.
Inanimate Objects
Allow your child to choose an object he enjoys or finds amusing as his costume. For example, he can dress up as a food, such as grapes or a banana. Soda cans, boxes of cereal, a candy bar or cheese are other food-related ideas. Computers, TVs or his favorite hand-held video game might make an amusing costume. Alternatively, instruments, a mummy, ghost, tombstone or robot are other ideas.
Use a large box or two pieces of thick poster board and decorate them to look like a car. Use the front and rear view or a side view, depending on his preference. His outfit can be a simple sweatsuit the same color as his “car” costume with black pants and shoes to represent the tires. Finish the look with face paint and a hat in the same color as the car and, a rear-view charm–such as a car air freshener–hanging from his neck.
