halloween fun

Each year brings a new crop of Halloween costumes for kids and adults. New characters are modeled after movie and television characters. The old favorites are always represented among the partygoers and trick or treaters. You will see many little toddlers dressed as pumpkins.

Sprinkled among the ready-to-wear costumes you will see a zombie, a witch and an alien from outer space. Vampira, the female vampire will be dressed in black and red, with red blood at the corner of her lips. Watch out as she may turn into a bat at any moment.

The little ones will select from Superman, Batman and Spiderman. All the superheroes are represented at the store selling costumes. They will carry bags or pumpkins in which to collect trick or treat candy in the neighborhood.

One beautiful little girl made the rounds in her custom-made genie costume. Her mother made it after the child picked out the pattern. Sewn in pale blue silk with a pink chiffon overlay, it was quite fancy. The top had puffy sleeves and gold braid trimming with tassels at the waistline. The harem pants had gold trim at the waist too.

Other little girls appear in improvised princess outfits and store-bought ones complete with jeweled tiaras. Cinderella is out and the evil stepmother as well. Many witches and good fairies roam the neighborhood as well. There goes the scary Freddy Krueger and a white-wrapped mummy who escaped from the museum.

For one improvised costume, put a colorful bandana on a stick. Wear a ragged shirt and jeans and rub some make-up on the cheeks to simulate dirt. Plop one of dad's old hats on and become a hobo for the night. However, there are few ghosts wearing a sheet with holes cut out for the eyes. Could this be due to a shortage of sheets that are white rather than colored?

The adults might choose to be dancing girls, nuns, priests, Ichabod Crane carrying his own head or a two-person costume with a husband and wife playing a horse or cow. Other possibilities include skeletons, mimes and clowns. Possibilities are endless. You can choose to be scary, cute or just plain funny.

It's fun shopping on the Internet for your Halloween costume. Some are intended for wearing to the Renaissance Faire. These are heavy and quite elegant and made to be durable. Find Little Red Riding Hood as well as the big bad wolf. Some couple's costume sets include Tarzan and Jane, King Kong and his lady love and the horse costume for two to wear.

Men in female garb are fun to see. It's especially amusing to watch them hobble about in high heeled shoes. One man who obviously didn't want to spend a lot of time or money on his costume, stuffed dollar bills in his shirt pocket and posed as a rich man.

The many Costumes, both store-bought and improvised, are fun to see. It's amazing what a make-up kit can do to turn a child's face into a cat face or a vampire face with blood dripping down from the corners of the mouth. Smiling or booing, you can do a little of both when viewing the many Halloween costumes on parade under the full moon.