Thoughts on Boys' Halloween Costumes

I just realized that finding a decent Halloween costume for a boy over age 5 is rather difficult. I was thinking that Halloween’s just around the corner, and since I usually try to find a Halloween costume for Kolby (we should already have one for each of the other boys) a little early so as to save $ on it on eBay or something, I should start looking. I asked Kolby what he wanted to be, and after he was informed that he probably wouldn’t fit into the Big Bird costume he wore last year, he said he wanted to be Cookie Monster. (It’s kind of funny, since we haven’t watched Sesame Street since we moved from Milwaukee, and we don’t even get PBS here so we couldn’t watch it if we wanted too, but I guess he really still likes the characters). Anyways, my search for a Cookie Monster costume in his size on eBay turned up nothing – there are some cute full-body fuzzy Cookie Monster baby costumes, some men’s costumes, and a few older kid ones that are like a sleeveless shirt with a Cookie Monster head on the hood (not exactly what I’m looking for, but not in his size anyways). I like the full-body suits, not only because I think they’re cute, but it’s nice to have warm costumes when you live in cold places.

So I started looking for other costumes. I thought maybe an elephant or a monkey would be cute. Nothing in his size. All they’ve got is baby Halloween costumes and adult team mascot costumes.

So, I just looked up costumes in size 6 – not much. There is an overabundance of superhero costumes, but Kolby doesn’t even know about Power Rangers or the black Spiderman from one of the recent movies. And I don’t think he’d be too excited about Zurg (the bad guy from Toy Story 2), a Ninja (well, even though he’s never heard of a ninja before, he might like the idea of carrying weapons around, but I don’t think so), or Robin (Batman’s sidekick). And I won’t dress my child as a devil.

Parents of girls have it so much easier at this age – endless possibilities of cute princesses, fairies, butterflies, ladybugs, ballerinas, etc. I just want some costumes like the ones we’ve always been able to find for the boys in the right size for a 6 year old – cute animals, dinosaurs, or Sesame Street or Winnie the Pooh characters. I guess I could always learn to sew or something (although you kind of need 2 things I don’t have for that – a sewing machine and at least some sewing talent). I guess I could default to a fireman or policeman costume if all else fails. We’ll see what I’m able to find.