Halloween...that holiday coming up can be a tricky time when you are a tween (I've had 2 go through this phase already). Too young to dress up cute and go door to door, but still young enough that you really want to and can pull it off for another year or two. I don't know what your house rules are, but we said the cut off was 12...then you were too old to go around begging for candy (unless they are willing to take the younger ones around so mom doesn't have to:). That being said, it's still fun to dress up and get together with friends or go to church trunk or treats or enjoy the neighborhood party.
But when it comes to costumes, it's got to be something that isn't too childish and it's better if it's something clever...at least that's been my experience so far, but not too weird because then people might think they're weird...you get my point. So I thought I would round up some costumes that are age appropriate, not too hard to pull together and might be a little clever too.
Speaking of age appropriate:
This is what came up when I typed in homemade Halloween costumes for a tween
Do you see something wrong with them? I do. So here is my more age appropriate costumes.
They didn't have a fire one, but wouldn't it be cool for a group of 4 friends to go as Earth, Wind, Fire and Ice? It wouldn't be too hard to come up with a simple but cool Fire one to go with this theme.
Detective and Hound or Sherlock Holmes
So that is just a few...each of the sites I linked to has a ton more ideas so go explore and let your tween come up with something do-able, cheap and age appropriate. They'll only be this young once.
And another thing I've noticed with this age group is that they don't really want to "dress up" so much as they want to have a costume. Why not come up with something where they can wear normal clothes, but add a prop or embellish it some how. Some of the ones above fit that bill. I'm thinking:
+
=
cloudy with a chance of meatballs costume
(just wear normal clothes and hang the food from the umbrella)
or
brown clothes and a brown cloak and you are now a jedi (my boys use this one a lot still)
or
jeans, button up shirt and polka dot bandanna tied around your head and you've got Rosie the Riveter (and a great history lesson)
Just let them create something and you might be surprised what they come up with!
So now if you've stuck with me through this whole post, I have to share the funny thought that kept running through my head the whole time I was working on this. It's from the movie Penelope...don't ask me why but this scene just popped into my head and stuck. It's at the end of the movie where she is a teacher and it's Halloween. All the girls in the class are dressed as Penelope with a pig nose and there is one girl crying in the corner. She has 'laundry' stuck all over her. Penelope goes up and asks what is wrong and the girl says something like "Everyone else is dresses as Penelope and I'm just stupid static cling." To which Penelope answers, "Frankly I find you refreshing." I guess that's how I feel about these costumes over the ones you find in a store.
Lots of great ideas! Thanks for sharing.:) I'll have to have K come take a look at this post. She has to make a costume for her Intro to Theater class.
ReplyDeleteMy son who is 12 (last year for trick or treating) has said he doesn't even want to dress up, that he will just wear regular clothes and a mask. I had hoped he'd want to go out with a bang. When my oldest daughter was 12, she had all the kids in the family dress up as characters from Gilligan's Island. She was of course, Ginger.;)