How to Make Your Halloween Costume Stand Out From All the Rest

...Or your kid's Halloween costume. There's a few things you can do to make a costume one of the best, and make people think you're a creative genius.

1 - The Idea: Choose something unique for the costume. Anyone can be a cat, a bumblebee or anything like that. Go for a more specific animal, object, or person. If you're thinking "cat," pick a specific cat like Garfield, Puss in Boots, or Tom from "Tom and Jerry." Same goes for specific people. If you were thinking "doctor," put together a costume that represents a doctor from TV or a movie like Gregory House from the TV show "House," or any of the cast members from "Scrubs."

2 - Create Your Costume: Anyone can go to the store and buy a costume in a bag. And sometimes you have to for those last minute parties or events,  but if you have time to put together a costume definitely go that way. Spirit Halloween or those other costume shops are a great option for pieces of a costume, not the whole thing. Thrift shops are a good bet when looking for specific colors, vests, patterns or whatnot your character will be wearing. It really adds that "spark" to your costume, and people will think you're pretty crafty.

3 - Accessorize: A costume isn't complete unless you include the little things. Does your character wear a necklace or even a ring? Make sure you include that into your costume. If you're going as Garfield or another cat character, do you have a collar with a tag on it? Does your character wear one of those? Don't skimp on the extras, those will REALLY make you stand out.

4 - It's All About the Little Details: This goes hand-in-hand with #3. Last Halloween we spent a good hour-and-a-half coloring an old pair of shoes red, with a sharpie marker. That was because the character had distinctive shoes. Spend a little time and effort on the costume. Sure, you could just wear a different pair of shoes and say it doesn't matter, but let me tell you, people noticed the shoes (and not because they were colored in with sharpie). And yes, that's yellow duct tape on those thick tights in the picture above. We couldn't find tights or leggings with those specific colors (striped) so we improvised. Does your character have black hair? Get a wig or that black temporary hair dye to complete your costume. The closer you can look to your character, down to the little details, the more people will notice, and be impressed.

And finally, to just add more fun to your Halloween outing (or your kid's), play the part. Does your character have a catch-phrase people will recognize? Is the person you're dressed up as always moody or crying? Act like that. It just ties everything together.

No matter what you choose to do, even if you just choose to buy a costume out of a bag (hey, we're not judging), we hope you have a fun, safe, and happy Halloween celebration. And we wish a happy Halloween to all the trick-or-treaters going out this year.

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