There are only 38 days left to prepare for Halloween. Have your kids decided on what they want to be? Have you figured out how you’re going to make that happen? Today I’ll give you some popular costume options for the trick-or-treating set.

Some kids know exactly what they want to be and never waver from that decision. Others, like my younger self, change their minds at least 10 times before the big night. How do you help your child pick out a costume? The first question should be, “What would you like to be for Halloween this year?” If she gives you the blank stare, you have more questions ahead of you. Try asking her what her favorite movie was this year, what her favorite book is right now, or who’s her favorite TV character. You could also ask him what he wants to be when he grows up. You just need to get their brain storms brewing.

Superheroes are always a hit and this year Ironman, Batman, and the Hulk made it big. These are popular characters this year and costumes can be easily found for each of the movies. If you kids were more into the Narnia movies, you can find lots of medieval and movie themed costumes in the stores. Star Wars costumes have been big ever since 1977. Darth Vader, Leia, and the new Clone Wars are readily available.

When I was a kid, I fell in love with book characters more often than movie characters (I was an awesome Nancy Drew). Over the last ten years one literary cast has been more popular than any other: Harry Potter. It’s a great book cast to mine because there are lots of girls and lots of boys depicted in the story. All you need is a wand and maybe a tie and you child can be a Hogwarts student too.

Television has many options for the kids. Choose from cartoons like Scooby Doo, science fiction adventures like Star Trek, fantasy shows like Pushing Daisies’s Ned or Aunt Lily, and educational personalities like Dora. Many shows and cartoons have licensed costumes available at your local retailer and online.

Career costumes can be a lot of fun for kids. It allows them to see how the job looks on them. Could be she spends one night with a giant fireman’s hat on her head and she’s done with the fire department and moving on to the police force. My youthful ambitions including being a astronaut/doctor. Kinda tricky to make that work in costume form, but doctors are easy to outfit. Encourage him to try on a camp shirt to see what it’s like to be an archaeologist (don’t forget a brush set and bones).

If you son or daughter is still having trouble making up his/her mind it’s perfectly acceptable to fall back on the classics. Witches, ghosts, vampires, monsters, creatures, and animals are always well received.

I hope this helps you and your child narrow down the field.

Tomorrow I’ll help you with the DIY costumes.

Tags: batman, clone wars, costume ideas for kids, doctor, mermaid

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Ideas, costumes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.