The Worst Halloween Costumes for Kids

As we all know, Halloween costumes for kids have really deteriorated - in every sense of the word - in recent years.

Just look at what my Native American girl costume of the 1970s has morphed into over the past thirty years:

I've complained about the sexualizing of costumes for girls ever since I bought my then 3-year-old a scarecrow outfit in a bag from Wal-Mart only to get it home and find out it was pageant-worthy (and I don't mean that in the good way).

Not to be outdone by the inappropriateness of the scarecrow choice, her older sister chose to be a Blood Ninja that year.



My 2009 blog rant about girls costumes got me an email from a reporter at The New York Post when Halloween came around the next year. She interviewed me and used my quotes in her article  Would you let your child trick or treat in this? In addition to getting the chance to share my thoughts on the inappropriate scarecrow costume it was also the welcome first evidence that anyone ever read my blog.

Last year I was happy to see others also sharing my disdain for the costume options for us ladies. The Bloggess shared some seriously scary stuff for grown-ups at Skanky-Ween. and Scary Mommy got right to the point with Dress Your Daughter Like a Whore Day!

I would like to add the following costumes to ever growing list of The Worst Halloween Costumes for Kids:

The entire Monster High collection, shown below with the also hideously wrong Gothic "Cheerless" Cheerleader and the Zombie Cheerleader:

A big no also to this witch:

And this cowgirl, look at her! Is nothing sacred, Sears?

And boys? Ick and double-ick to so many of their choices, too. And why do so many options emphasize the "bloody skull?" Or, pictured here, the bleeding ghost:

The thought of my son wearing these costumes sends the same chills down my spine as does the thought of my daughter choosing from one of the crappy options for girls.

So tell me if these are the worst ideas for kids Halloween costumes, what are some of the best ideas?

This is the fourth post in my Week of Halloween, for all the posts click here.

Halloween Redux?

Update: Starting tomorrow, I'll do a week of Halloween from October 7 to October 13, and then on to non-Halloweeny stuff.

Last year I went heavy on the Halloween posts with "31 Days of Halloween."

I'm feeling sorta over Halloween this year - perhaps because due to nasty and ridiculous weather my kids haven't even really celebrated Halloween the last two years -- but I could be inspired to go all Halloween-y again.

What do the people want? Countdown to Halloween or move on to some other nonsense?

 

Also, what do we think about Halloween countdown calendars?

31 Days of Halloween - Day 31: November 5 is the New October 31 (at least it is here in New Jersey)

"Fear not, children of New Jersey. Chris Christie has got your back."

 

 

Here in New Jersey, October 31 was about as far from being the festive night of Halloween as it possibly could be.

And understandably so, the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy is pretty terrible, and I'm not even in one of the worst hit communities by the shore.

But when two-thirds of your town is without power, and many have substantial property damage, Halloween is really the last thing on your mind even if you've been writing about it for the past 30 days.

The governor has rescheduled Halloween here in New Jersey via Executive Order 105 for Monday, November 5.

I'll be happy to be back then with one final day of Halloween, even if it is five days after the fact.

My kids, of course, will be even happier.

Quote and image are from ABC News, read the full story here.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 29 and 30 Cancelled Due to Hurricane Sandy

For the second year in a row (how can that be?!) my kids are off from school on Halloween, and trick-or-treating has been cancelled.

Now don't get me wrong, I live in New Jersey and there are too many people who have been devestated by this storm to even think a few kids missing Halloween is anything. But of course, as we were not personally devestated by the storm, I feel for those kids. They are, afterall, only kids.

The hurricane has left me wondering how all the people affected will re-build, when we'll have power back ourselves, when my kids will go back to school, and of course when my mom will be able to return to her home in Lower Manhattan.

But it hasn't left me wondering what to write about Halloween.

Photo from Hurricane Irene. I wasn't up to taking photos of the destruction in my town again just a year later.

Thinking of all in Hurricane Sandy's path, to quote Governor Christie: The clouds haven't parted yet to see the sun.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 28 - Interrupted by Hurricane Sandy

Today I have no choice but to take a break from my Halloween-ing, and to focus on the Frankenstorm - Hurricane Sandy instead.

Because if you live in New Jersey as I do, Hurricane Sandy is all you're thinking about. I have done what I can today -gas in the car, clothes washed and dried, devices charged, food and water stockpiled. I even found our flashlights and battery reserves. And I have worried, I have worried enough for all of us.

And, I was very happy to remember that over the summer the good folks at the New York Office of Emergency Management (NYC OEM) had sent me a Go Bag fully stocked with first aid kit, work gloves and other necessary items. So now I'm totally prepared, even if a lot of that preparedness was done for me by someone else.

In general, every family (and business) should have a hurricane disaster plan in place before a potential storm. To help, the NYC OEM even has a free guide: Ready New York: Hurricanes and New York City with tips on how to prepare for any emergency, instructions on how to develop a hurricane disaster plan and secure your home before a storm, as well as a map with New York City hurricane evacuation zones. A map I'm familiar with as my mom who lives in lower Manhattan just got evacuated for the second time - not that she's keeping count. Or complaining.

So yes, all of this is last minute for the Frankenstorm that is Hurricane Sandy, but at least it's an important reminder that these things do happen - even in New York City - and that we all need to be prepared.

If you're in New York City, you can find your zone and the location of your nearest evacuation center/shelter here.

And no matter where you live, the NYC OEM has a helpful list of Hurricane Safety Tips. And if you do live in NYC, follow the NYC OEM on Twitter @NotifyNYC for the latest storm updates and coverage.

Now if I can just find where I stashed the hidden candy.

Be safe, all.

 

31 Days of Halloween: Day 27 - Hurricane Sandy Don't be Another Snow-tober

Last year, my kids didn't really get Halloween because of the Snow-tober snowstorm we got here in Jersey

that left our roads essentially impassable, our schools closed, and mothers like myself forced to eat the trick-or-treaters candy all by ourselves.

We all do what we can do.

Last year we were able to make the most of our Halloween day at home, dressing-up the stuffed animals in homemade Halloween costumes:

and turning clementines into Jack-O-Lanterns with Duck Tape.

But the reality outside was that Halloween really wasn't gonna happen.

So this year, call me first-world, but I am really hoping my kids get a good Halloween.

Even if that means I get less candy.

Because us mothers? We're selfless like that.

Happy Halloween and wishing safety to all riding out the storm.



.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 26 - The Most Spooktacularly Decorated Houses in New Jersey

I had really wanted to share some houses in New Jersey that are spooktaculary decorated for Halloween, but honestly with the Frankenstorm coming I can only guess all the holiday awesomeness is gonna have to be taken inside.

So, it may need to just be a virtual tour this year, but these homeowners really put on amazing displays.

Just look at this house in Denville, how incredible are all those decorations?

Photo credit: Allison Alerine



There's another house in New Jersey also known for his Halloween over-kill, Dr. Wayne Gangi's house in Clifton. I've never been but let's just say he has not one, not two, but ten smoke machines.

 Or check out the video of these crazy geniuses in Central New Jersey.

 

Just incredible.

If all these houses leave you inspired to add a little additional Halloween decorating to your own home, I'm sharing lots of Crafty DIY Halloween Decorations at NJFamily.com.

One of the ideas is this fantastic DIY Halloween Door from My Life and Kids:

Happy Halloween!

31 Days of Hallowen: Day 25 - "Photos" from our family trip to the pumpkin patch

Oh, my dear husband.

Who can't use his iPhone.

We made the annual family trip to the pumpkin patch, and I realized I had forgotten my camera.

But I remembered the huz had a new iPhone, and could... save the day!

So he dutifully took a pic of each kid and a pumpkin, and today I asked him to email them to me, and he did.

Each adorable, 1-second video.

On the plus-side, they downloaded really quickly.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 24: Halloween Math Activities

 

 

Want to teach a little math with your Halloween fun? Laura from Bedtime Math, shares some of her favorite Halloween math activities for kids:

1. Make counting fun with candy: Halloween candy is perfect for practicing counting. When you get home from trick-or-treating, your kids will love to count all their candy to see how many treats they picked up. You can also count by specific candy type (Candy Corn, Gummy Worms, etc.) or by general category (chocolate candies, gummy candies, etc.). If you want to get fancy, older kids can count the number of little candies in a packet, then multiply out over several packets to guess the total number of candies they scored.

2. Learn about geometric shapes with a jack-o-lantern: Everyone likes to carve pumpkins for Halloween. As you and your little ones work on your jack-o-lanterns, introduce them to different geometric shapes. A pumpkin is round, of course, and you can carve triangles as eyes, squares as teeth, and countless other shapes to make your pumpkin unique.

3. Trick-or-treat distances: While walking from house to house to trick-or-treat, have your kids count how many steps it takes to get from one house to the next. Compare these numbers to introduce them to the concept of ‘distance’ – if it takes twenty steps to get to one house and forty steps to get to the next, which one is further away?

 

Math and Halloween, the perfect combination!

 

To learn more about Bedtime Math, visit BedtimeMath.org, follow them on Twitter @BedtimeMath or like them on Facebook /BedtimeMath.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 23: The Worst Children's Book for Halloween - Or Any Time

On Day 8 of 31 Days of Halloween, I was so happy to share one of my favorite children's books for Halloween - or any time - The Very Brave Witch.

Today, I share possibility the worst book ever for Halloween - or any time. It's called My Working Mom, and it depicts a working mom as a witch - and not in a good way. I wouldn't even link to the Amazon page, but the comments there are pretty great. This trashy piece of crap is referenced in Tina Fey's opposite-of-a-trashy-piece-of-crap Bossypants, so there are a lot of comments from people who came to see if the book really did indeed exist.

Sadly, it does. Behold:

The writer -  Peter Glassman - is the owner of Books of Wonder, a bookstore in NYC that is beloved by many and is currently raising funds through Indigogo for a "revitalization."

I sincerely hope none of the $25,000 raised so far (his goal is $100,000) came from one of those witchy working moms.

You can see the book in much more detail on this post on Mommin' It Up: Mommy Wars: Storytime Edition, which was also the inspiration for this post.

And there's more at The Mommy Paradox: The Mommy Wars: Now in Children's book form!

Both posts are well-researched, well-reasoned and well-written which, well, Mr. Glassman's book is not.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 22 - Halloween House Decorations

We are spooking-up our house with Halloween deocrations this year, which to be honest is not really my thing. But it is our neighborhood's thing. And my kids thing. And based on the purchases he made of light-up spiders and glowing ghosts, apparently decorating for Halloween is also my husband's thing.  Who knew.

And while there are tons of store-bought options for Halloween decor, I of course am trying craft-fail style to make our own decorations.

Here's what I'm hoping to make (and share!) by the weekend:

- Cheesecloth Ghosts - I have all the materials, and hope. And directions for three versions. Like this one. And this one. They all have slightly different tutorials, so I'm not sure if one will work better less badly than the others. If none of those turn out, I may try this variation - Tulle Ghosts, made with tulle and balloons. Or, when these all are super-fails, I might just tell the kids to take a sharpie to an orange balloon (thanks for the idea, Martha!) and call it a day.

- Kiryagmi Spider Webs - Just paper and scissors, I feel like this, this we can do. I imagine a big spider web banner above the front door.

- Spider-fied Front Door - Creepy, creepy. But again, chosen because actual execution seems within the realm of possible possibility.

From MarthaStewart.com

And last, we are going to make a pumpkin man. We already have three pumpkins in descending size, so really making any of these should be no problem.

Image from KidsKubby.com

No problem at all.

Happy Halloween!

For more Halloween ideas from costumes to eats to crafts to sh*t you will never make, and wonder why anyone else ever did, check out my Halloween Pinterest Board (over 100 pins, because I'm pin-sane)

31 Days of Halloween: Day 21 - Scary Witch Handprints {Guest Post!}

I am thrilled to share this Halloween handprint craft from Amanda of Handprint and Footprint Art. She always has the most amazingly creative ideas, and I can't thank her enough for sharing the how-to for these wicked witch handprints.

Hi! I'm Amanda, a.k.a. artsy_momma, and I am excited to share a fun Halloween craft with you today- scary witch handprints. Like Anna, I love handprint crafts and even have a whole blog dedicated to them.... over 350 posts!!!

If you have a sweet spot for crafts made with hands and feet like we do, I would love to have you join us over on my blog Handprint and Footprint Art. I mostly share our own crafts, but also do themed round up posts of other crafty people's projects and an occasional reader submission.

How to make the scary witch handprints:

Start by making green handprints or in a color of choice. Add creepy, black nails with either a marker or paint. Draw wrinkles/indentations on the fingers. Decorate the rest as you wish. We wrote "A Haunting We Will Go!" on ours. Pretty simple, huh?

We also made cute, not-so-scary monster handprints and have tons of Halloween handprint & footprint art over on our blog. If you are looking for ideas that are fun for all the holidays throughout the year, I would love to recommend our Handprint Holidays group board on Pinterest. It features bloggers from around the world, including Anna from Random Handprints... hope to "see you" over there!

Thank you Amanda for this awesome and spooky Halloween craft!

And make sure to follow Amanda on Pinterest at @Artsy_Momma - she has an incredible collection of crafts there -- over 6,000 including more than 300 on the Spook-tacular Halloween Board.

Happy Halloween!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 20 - Halloween Spooktails

I live in a town  that takes its Halloween celebrations very seriously. Houses are decorated from the giant spiders on the roofs to the fake cemetery yards - one house is even known for having a full haunted house for visiting trick-or-treaters.

We have wholehearted joined-in on the holiday over-kill, and this year I'm thinking I'll be one of those houses that not only has hand-outs  for the trick-or-treaters, but drinks for the grown-ups, too.

Here are three Halloween drinks I'd love to pour:

Boozy Blood Bath - Whisky and grape juice from Better Homes and Gardens:

Eyeball Martini - Thanks for the creepy idea, Martha Stewart.

Pumpkin Martini - Because Real Simple knows pumpkin-infused works for everything, even liquor.

 And of course, you can never go wrong with a nice, old-fashioned Bloody Mary.

Happy Halloween! What will you be drinking?

31 Days of Halloween: Day 19 - Halloween Today Vs. Halloween 1970s Style

Below I show you what passes today in 2012 as a Native American "Indian" Halloween costume for girls and tweens:

 

And below here, I show you how it looked when I rocked "Indian girl" back in the late 1970s... along with my creepy brother:

I think I liked Halloween better when things were old-school.

My, how the times have changed.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 18 - Creepy Tombstone

When I lived in Boston, I was intrigued by the historic cemeteries.

Especially the winged skulls that adorned many of the tombstones, like this one on Boston Common.

 

RIP William.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 17 - A Painted Witch Cauldron

My son is going as a witch this year for Halloween - and after last year's whole cat debacle.... I'll take it.

Since he is planning to wear his sister's hand-me-down witch outfit, I thought he should at least personalize some of the other elements of the costume. I'm not proud to say that one of the adjustments I hope he makes is to be a pants-wearing witch, but he's been adamant the dress part of being a witch is a positive, not a negative.

Today my lil witch and I went to the drug store and picked-up this cauldron in iron-tough black, and added a few festive purple touches.

He couldn't be happier.

Happy Halloween!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 16 - Scary Halloween Dolls

I'm loving looking at Halloween stuff every day, and I thank everyone who is reading along with me and joining the Halloween fun.

Today, I present some of the scariest, creepiest, eeriest Halloween dolls:

From Madame Alexander, The Apprentice Witch ($89.95) -with her very own Beginner's Book of Spells:

From Target, a whole collection of Halloween nutcrackers (mummy, skeleton, vampires) - a holiday fusion I'm not sure we need. Pictured below, the Frankenstein Nutcracker ($12.99):

Mattel has its Monster High Ghouls Rule collection. Pictured below, Draculaura ($24.99):

And last the most fantastical Vampire Doll ever, this stunning creation:

The only doll I'd like to take home with me, and sadly she is unavailable. Absolutely worth a click to see the amazing details:

Happy Halloween!

If there's anything Halloween-y you would like to see, lemme know. And if you have a Halloween post you'd like to scare, er I mean share, just email me at anna at randomhandprints dot com, I'd love to include it in the Halloween postings here!

Not compensated for anything listed, just in case you were wondering.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 15 - Fun Jack O'Lantern Ideas

I was taking my daily shopping excursion to Target with my toddler, when I saw this in the Halloween section:

That's right, you can buy a kit with five plastic pieces that you just push-in to the pumpkin, and voila! your pumpkin becomes Woody from Toy Story!

I thought it was a pretty genius idea, especialy for those of you who aren't interested in covering every inch of your home and front steps with glitter in pursuit of a glam'd up Halloween pumpkin.

In addition to the Woody push-in, there's also a bunch of other ones to chose from, like Mr. Potato Head.

And if those aren't your pumpkin style, check out these ideas I shared at New Jersey Family to Jazz up your Halloween Jack-O-Lantern, like making a pumpkin out of a book. For realz.

In case you are wondering, I was not compensated for this post. I just think the pumpkin push-ins are a really cool - and easy - Halloween decorating idea.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 14 - How to Make a Glitter Pumpkin

One of the many festive Halloween crafts I've seen on Pinterest is how to make a glitter pumpkin. So this morning, we glam'd up one of our pumpkins. It turned out great and it was really, really easy - but a little messy.

Here's How to Make A Glitter Pumpkin:

1. Find a place outside to work or somewhere else you don't mind getting glitter all over.

2. You'll need:

• A pumpkin (any size)
• Glitter
• Glue (Elmer's works fine)
• Paintbrush
• Cup of Water

3. Mix the glue with a little bit of water in a cup so that it will be easier to paint on your pumpkin.

4. Paint your pumpkin with glue.

5. Gently and carefully cover your pumpkin with glitter. You'll have to turn it a few times to get all the spots. If you need to, add a little more glue to any spots where the glitter doesn't take the first time.

6. Shake the pumpkin to remove any extra glitter.

7. Leave your pumpkin to dry, and enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

P.S. An important update! The pumpkin needs to reside indoors or in an outdoor space that is protected from the elements. In short, what I'm trying to say, is the glue is not waterproof. If your pumpkin gets wet, it will look like this:

You can read the whole story at CraftFail: Glitter Pumpkin - nailed it!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 13 - Toddler in the Pumpkin Patch

When my third and youngest child Ziggy was a year and a couple months old, I was seriously wracked with guilt. Whereas I had taken his older sisters to all kinds and fashions of pumpkin patches, apple orchards, hay rides and haunted mazes, I had taken him... nowhere. I had no iconic photo of him as a baby in the pumpkin patch, no cute pics of him amongst the corn.

It was killing me.

I went and bought Ziggy a pumpkin outfit (which for the record, I had never done for his sisters despite the other autumn excesses they enjoyed) and invited my mom to join us for the sole reason of documenting our clearly-going-to-be-perfect trip to the pumpkin patch.

So you can imagine how it was a complete and utter surprise - and downer - when it was raining on the day this was all supposed to go down.

"Should I still come?" my mom called to ask in the morning, "Of course!" I screamed. "He's going to the pumpkin patch. Today!"

Off we went, on a miserable day and with a child who it quickly became apparent had a cold, and wanted to be anywhere else but the frickin' pumpkin patch.

I remember all of the actual truth of that day when I look at these photos. But I also believe in this total fiction we managed to capture in film.

And I love these photos as much as I thought I would, and then some.

I'm writing this tonight, with nostalgia, as we prepare to take a family trip to the same pumpkin patch tomorrow. Be back tomorrow with this year's crop of pumpkin photos!

P.S. This is my own little contribution to The Mom Stays in the Picture.