Halloween Costumes – Not Just For Kids!

Nowadays fancy dress costumes and dressing up are essential parts of the festivities surrounding Halloween. Halloween has its roots and origins in Ireland and it is widely considered that it dates back to a Celtic tradition of Samhain Eve when it was believed that the links between the living world and that of the dead were at their strongest.

During these Celtic celebrations bonfires were lit in order to prevent evil spirits from destroying or damaging crops and livestock and there was a practise of dressing as different animals in order to tell the fortunes of others. This is widely believed to be the derivation of the tradition of dressing up at Halloween.

The name Halloween comes from the eve of All Hallows’ which was what All Saint’s Day was called during medieval times.

Although today’s children choose to dress up as their own favourite superhero or other cartoon character, it was the case that people would dress up as ghosts or goblins in order to confuse the spirits that returned to this world during All Hallows’ Eve and roamed in search of souls to take.

In today’s society, the choice of costume reflects more the personality of the wearer than it does tradition although a great number of children do still enjoy dressing as ghosts, witches, ghouls and other Halloween nasties. And maybe it doesn’t really matter that they don’t understand why.

And dressing up is not just for the children. In today’s market more sales are registered on adult costumes than on the traditional children’s sector. In the main, the adult market sector comprises two main elements, the first which mirrors costumes similar to those of the children and those which are a little er; shall we just say a little racier and wilder. It is therefore very important to keep in mind the type of event that you will be attending when making your costume selection.

This is the major rule to keep in mind when selecting your costumes; you need to determine what you actually need it for.

Is it required for a child who will be going trick or treating? If so, then you should make sure that there is no impairment to visibility and that it would not restrict them in walking. From the other perspective, it should not be so scary that people opening their doors will feel intimidated and scared – more so with older children and teenagers wearing masks. If it is to be worn outside then it should be able to keep the child warm as a costume hidden under a coat is actually no costume at all.

The same basics apply to the adult costume if they are accompanying children on trick or treating. The considerations of warmth, restriction of movement and restriction to vision all need to be taken into account when selecting an adult costume in-order to keep the group safe.

If on the other hand the costume is to be worn at a kiddies Halloween celebration party or adults Halloween cocktail party then the costume selection is likely to be much different. So understanding the kind of event that you need the costume for is key to allowing you to find the right one.

Once you have created a list of possible costume ideas you need to research whether you want to make it or buy one already made. Certainly, there is nothing nicer than a hand made costume and there are a number of readily available patterns available from larger haberdashery stores or departments which you can adapt or make as presented. It will take time and having gone this route a couple of times when our own children were much smaller finding the right fabrics and finishing pieces is usually the major headache. As an example I remember my wife spending hours gluing different coloured fruit pastilles to a dress so that our daughter had the perfect Elisabeth I dress (and yes, it was perfect).

There are two main routes to purchase your Halloween costume. Firstly you can visit your local fancy dress hire shop and trawl the costumes and accessories that they will have available. In the larger stores in the States, this is a more pleasurable experience as they seldom hire, and this market is shrinking given the reducing overall price differential between hire and buy.

The other alternative is to consider buying online. There are a number or very good internet based fancy dress costume retailers and all should offer secure money transaction and most a no quibble money back guarantee subject to some sensible provisos. Online retailers tend to lay their shops out so that it’s easy to find the costume that you are looking for and a few will have an exceptional variety of fancy dress costume accessories. And in the main, it is the careful selection of your costume accessories that really brings the whole costume together.

Karnival Costumes stocks a huge selection of fancy dress costumes and accessories for Halloween or for any other party theme you may choose. We have a whole section devoted to Halloween and as well as huge ranges of costumes and accessories, we are also specialists in supplying Halloween props, decorations and party goods. Feel free to browse our website and purchase your costumes and accessories with confidence from one of the leading costume suppliers in the UK. Go to: http://www.karnival-house.co.uk/acatalog/Halloween.html

We also have a large selection of articles on a wide range of party themed topics. Why not join our newsletter for up to date information on the latest trends in costumes, news and notification of our special offers.

Alternatively; for everything Halloween including articles, jokes, projects and entertaining tips visit our sister website Halloween-UK at http://www.halloween-uk.com

Article submitted by: KV Sinclair. Keith Sinclair has over 35 years of business experience and in addition to being a part time University Lecturer on Business Studies, he is CEO of Cavalcade; a group of companies operating in the party sector. Cavalcade operates Karnival-House at karnival-house.co.uk one of the UK’s leading internet Fancy Dress Retailers. With massive stocks for immediate dispatch and an ever expanding range, Karnival-House continues to strive simply to offer outstanding service combined with outstanding value.

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