Best Halloween Costumes

Every year at the end of October kids and adults alike get dressed up in costumes and try to scare neighbors, friends and relatives.

It's called Halloween and when you combine candy, spooky costumes and fun you've got a holiday worth celebrating. Here are some of my favourite costume ideas from years past.

The cowboy and particularly the sheriff has always been a favourite among younger boys. It was popular when I was a kid and every year I still see my fair share of young cowboys, pretending that they are the good guys.

What the cowboy costume is to little boys, the princess costume is to little girls. Little girls love to get dressed up, the more sparkles the better. Don't forget the tiara. Some little girls also like to have a sceptre or wand to complete the costume.

Pirates have been popular forever and with the Pirates of the Caribbean series of movies having had such success, every little boy, and my little girl, wants to be captain Jack Sparrow. Don't forget the other popular pirate related characters like Captain Hook and Peter Pan.

The witch and princess witch are two costumes that work very well. This all depends on your little girl, some want to be scary, others want to be a friendly witch. The pretty witch has the hat, but not the nose and the clothes have some lighter colours in them.

The devil is a controversial Halloween costume. I know some parents who are so against this costume that it causes them to ignore Halloween all together. To these people I say "get a grip". It's just pretend. Anyway, the devil, all in red with a tail and horns is one of the coolest kid costumes around.

The mummy costume, like pirates has seen a revival lately. This is mostly because of the success of The Mummy and The Mummy Returns movies. It's an easy costume to do and can be pretty creepy in the dark.

I'm going to group all of the super hero's together. Spider-Man should be big this year, as should Superman. Just don't forget the Hulk, Wonder-Woman and Batman. All are favourites almost every year.

Star Wars seems to be it's own genre of Halloween costume. So many characters in the movies translate well into costumes. Chewy is always fun. When I was a kid it was Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia and of course Darth Vader and storm troopers. Nowadays it's Anakin and anyone else in the Jedi order and the Sith or of course Padme for the girls.

For scary costumes, look to the movies. Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nighmare of Elm Street and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. If there aren't enough scary examples in those, then you're not looking hard enough.

When I was in university I needed a costume for a Halloween party. After much searching, my sister said that she would make me one and we started looking through patterns. I found Sylvester the cat.

This was my personal favourite costumer of all time. It was about 300 degrees inside, but it was a big hit at the party.

The next year she made me a shark, not quite as good, but still pretty cool. A couple of years after that my girlfriend decided she wanted to be Tweety. I found Sylvester again and we went to a party as Sylvester and Tweety.

Her big old yellow bird head made her about a foot taller than me. It was probably our best Halloween party ever, the costumes made it.

By Jon Murray

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