Make Halloween Costumes From What You Already Own — SkimNews
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- Kristen Ahern says Halloween's biggest problem is its commodification — plastic dress-ups bought new, worn once and thrown away — and recommends building characters from things already at home: wire coat hangers, construction paper, brown grocery bags, leaves, or a single colour plus a tail and ears.
- Cat Sewell says the fun of Halloween lies in play and community, not a brand-new costume or bought sweets, and points families to simple, open-ended materials — paper, scrap fabrics, scarves, tea towels — that carry “more heart and more humanness” than shop-bought outfits.
- Paula Levis says old medical bandages turn a child in regular clothes into a mummy, electrical tape gives an orange jumper jack o'lantern features, black clothing plus white masking tape makes a skeleton, and lipstick or food dye stands in for blood and bruising.
- Nick Wakerley says one black hooded cloak becomes two different characters by adding round black glasses or a scythe, and advises against cutting up clothes: a white shirt, black trousers, slicked-back hair and a little red lipstick make a vampire.
- DisneyBounding, the trend Ahern describes as developed for adult Disney fans visiting the theme park, offers a route into costume without a full outfit — her example is Peter Pan in all green with a baseball cap reading “Lost Boys”.
- Polyglot Theatre deliberately uses everyday materials in its performances to inspire families to carry that creativity into daily life; Sewell says reusing what you have is best for a child's brain, wellbeing and development, family connection and the planet.
- Kmart and Big W are named by Levis as the fallback for parents who assume they aren't creative; she argues the barrier is belief, since the same household items can produce “grotesque and amazing” results.
Why it matters: Four quoted experts — Sewell, Ahern, Wakerley and Levis — give families one alternative to buying a plastic dress-up worn once and thrown away: a cloak, scarf, belt or lipstick already at home. The second-order gain they name is family play, with Sewell tying reuse to children's wellbeing and connection as well as the planet.
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