Homemade Children's Halloween Costume Ideas

I am terrible at planning in advance for Halloween.   Alright, I admit it, I'm terrible at planning in advance for everything, but in some very rare cases this can be a good thing. Halloween, is all about getting creative. Sometimes being a slacker-mom on Halloween forces you and your kids to be more creative and have more fun since you are left with putting together a costume that you can make with what you already have or what is easy to get.

Keep reading to find out some great toddler and kid Halloween costume ideas that almost entirely use stuff you either already have or can find in a stationary store.  Plus, the best last minute costume ideas on the interweb.

Simple Homemade Costume Ideas
With little ones it's important to keep the costumes comfortable and simple.

Homemade Clown Costume:
A clown is super easy and essentially an excuse to dress really wacky.  Stick self-adhesive felt circles (or use colored construction paper and double sided tape) on to over-sized pants or shorts and tights, make suspenders out of ribbon, find a wacky hat, rain boots and put on one of Daddy's ties (check out my girlfriend's son in this get-up above).

Homemade Animal Costume:
You can dress up as your favorite animal with the right color clothes, a tail which you can make by stuffing a pair of tights and some face paint, check out this website for face painting tips.

Don't forget the stroller:
Also, its fun to think about decorating your stroller or another mode of transportation when putting together your costume, especially if you plan on joining in a local Halloween parade.

More Costume Ideas:
I love this bearded gnome costume or dressing up your kid as your favorite superhero. Also, just adding a little face paint to any costume makes most toddlers ecstatic.

Cardboard Box Costumes
For older kids, I am all about the cardboard box costumes.  I would suggest this for kids who are at least 5 since wearing a box for several hours can get a bit uncomfortable and there is no way you can sit down or be picked up in one. Check out this awesome box of raisins which was one of the entries in our Halloween Photo Contest.

For more inspiration, take a look at this Lego Costume and the classic Robot Costume.  You can also open the pantry and go as any food box you see - wrap your box in paper and start drawing.  It can be fun to change up things like the list of ingredients and the name of the product.

Last Minute Halloween Costumes
As for serious last minute ideas when you don't have a lot of supplies and are tired of the ghost and mummy thing, I scoured the interweb and found two cool ones.  You can put together a Candy Cane costume with colored duct tape or a Bag of Jelly Beans costume with a clear garbage bag and colored balloons.

And then of course there is always the cheapest and easiest last minute idea, last year's costume....

And check out our Halloween Guide for more Halloween ideas, events and activities for kids.