^{Posted by: DrMommyKC}

When I think back to all the Halloween costumes I had growing up, one word comes to mind: LAME.

I don't blame my parents. They were immigrants to this country and Halloween, you have to admit, is a bit of a strange concept. You dress up in costumes and attempt to threaten neighbors to give you candy or else suffer the consequences..

From childhood photographs, my first Halloween appeared to be when I was around 6 or 7. I had one of those plastic costumes that come in a box with a flimsily attached plastic mask: C-3PO from Star Wars. (Did I pick this?) This would mark the first of many plastic costumes that come in a box with a plastic mask. As far as I knew, this was the only kind of costume there was.

When I started getting older and had more of my own ideas of what I wanted to be for Halloween, the lameness was compounded. Since I took it into my own hands the planning and execution of my Halloween costumes, they were decidedly low-budget and low-resource requiring get-ups.

A baby for 4th grade, the only expense being a baby bottle which I filled with juice. Pigtails. Girly dress. Stuffed animal. Done!

I can't even recall what I was for most of those childhood years, the costumes and characters were so lacking in creativity and design. I seem to recall Tinkerbell, a Tinkerbell that you only knew was Tinkerbell if I told you.

In fifth grade, I was introduced to the Serious Halloween Costume. A girl in my school was an actual kitchen table. She walked around with this big homemade contraption around her and when she stopped and ducked her head in, she was A TABLE. With things on it. My mouth dropped in amazement. That's when I realized people went all out for Halloween: there was carpentry, sewing, serious creativity.

Despite seeing such impressive examples of Halloween pageantry, my costumes never progressed beyond my low-budget, low-talent-requiring beginnings. It was never a big deal in my family and by the time I remembered Halloween was coming, it was pretty much too late for anything beyond Something Lame.

But, maybe things will change going through Halloween now with my own children. I can anticipate it ahead of time, plan, and really have the chance to be creative with their costumes. I can't promise much of sewing or carpentry, and I don't want it ever to be a huge expense, but I'm hoping I can top LAME. I'll settle for CUTE.