Halloween. You love the tradition of kids roaming the neighborhood, trailing their costumes and candy bags along the sidewalk, cheerfully shouting “trick-or-treat!”
And yet you can’t help but cringe at the consumption and waste that accompanies this October holiday. Especially the costumes.
With a little planning, you can create meaningful, low-waste costumes for (and with!) your children, and enjoy the day by following your little pumpkins and princesses around as they delight in the magic of this holiday.
Here are a few tips to help you enjoy Halloween without overspending or adding to the landfill.
Go as a fall foliage with a little thrift store help (Photo by Anja Nettew / CC BY-SA 2.0)
Look around. What do you already have?
My babies were just over 6 months old on their first Halloween. They couldn’t have cared less about what they were wearing, but it’s basically required to dress your infants up for Halloween, right?
And with twins, there are loads of creative ideas for Halloween costumes — cookies and milk, ketchup and mustard, peas and carrots. Any classic pair can be easily turned into two costumes.
After looking through ideas and considering how to put a costume set together, I decided that my babies would be salt and pepper for Halloween.
I started the costume with something we already owned: a white, long-sleeve onesie for the “salt” baby.
I see pepper…a black onsie does the trick! (Photo courtesy Shein)
Need ideas? Scan these costume sites
Check out costume websites to see what’s trending and look for ways you could create something similar without buying new. A great site for this purpose AMightyGirl.com. It has a fun, interactive, costume-finding tool that sorts by age and category. And honestly, a lot of these costumes are not gender-specific. Another great place to look is CostumeWall.com. Not only do they show images of full costumes, they break them down in to each costume’s specific components so you can make a list and look for them at thrift store. Yes, these stores allow you to purchase full costumes online either through A Mighty Girl or, for Costume Wall, through Amazon. But for our DIY purposes, use them as guides and for ideas.
What could you use?
Then, of course, I purchased a black long-sleeve onesie for the “pepper” baby.
I also ordered two grey beanies. These would serve as the salt and pepper shaker tops.
I purchased some grey felt, cut out some letters and circles, and loosely stitched an S on the white shirt, a P on the black shirt, and a handful of small circles on the hats (to represent the holes in the shaker tops).
After a very adorable baby Halloween gathering, I cut the felt pieces off the clothes and, voila! We had new, useful staples added to our wardrobe.
Upcycle old coffee bean bags for a costume (Photo courtesy Three Tree Coffee Roasters)
Use recycled materials
Fast-forward to the following Halloween, when I decided to use burlap bags to make my toddlers into bags of coffee beans. We almost didn’t have to purchase anything for this costume.
I picked up some recycled burlap coffee bean bags from a local coffee shop, cut the burlap up, and loosely stitched some holes in for heads and arms. I’m not much of a seamstress, but that didn’t matter at all for these loose-fitting costumes.
Instead of buying black hats (I couldn’t find any I liked and that I thought they would wear again), I purchased some black fabric and fashioned two loose hats with a simple stitch, and rubber bands. In just a few steps, we had coffee bean hats.
The hardest part of this costume? At 1 ½ years old, my toddlers were not interested in wearing costumes. My son had his on for about 10 minutes. My daughter, not at all!
Here’s another secret source for you makers:
Seattle ReCreative: You never know what kind of treasures you will find in this Greenwood crafting oasis, so it’s worth taking a peek at what they have. Also, if you need space and equipment to assemble the costume, you can find it here. Seattle ReCreative’s maker space contains various useful tools, including a sewing machine, a serger and a mat cutter.
This costume was supplied by a neighbor whose child had outgrown it (Photo by Jillian O’Connor)
Buy Nothing or local parenting groups/forums
OK, OK — you might not be into hand-making a costume for your child.
No worries! Here are some other methods to keep your cost down and your consumption low this Halloween.
We find and give all kinds of items on Buy Nothing and other parenting groups. Halloween costumes seem perfect for these sharing economy groups.
Simply search through your local group to see if you find anything that might work for you, or write a post describing what you’re looking for. You will likely be surprised at what might happen. A neighbor just around the corner may have a firefighter costume that will fit your toddler perfectly.
Have extra costumes from past Halloweens? Offer them up on these forums and help other families find their perfect costumes for this year. You can either gift or loan your costume. The only rule for these kinds of exchanges is to find an arrangement that works well for both families.
Consignment stores
Check in with some of the Seattle-area’s fabulous consignment shops to see if they carry costumes. They usually do.
Can’t find anything locally? Search online for consignment shops that carry and ship costumes right to you.
Whether you trick-or-treat or enjoy the festivities in another way, here’s to creating fun Halloween memories this year without breaking the bank or creating excess waste.
Goodwill reels
Good ‘ol Goodwill and Value Village
Let’s face it. Goodwill is the mothership of recycled items and clothing and a great place to search out low cost costume bits and pieces—or the full costume. As are Value Village and other thrift stores. The fabric industry is one of the heaviest pollutants when it comes to climate change. So skip buying new fabric and head to the mothership instead.
The big thrift stores carry useful items like hoodies and sweatpants in all colors of the rainbow. These sweatsuits can be the base for all kinds of critter costumes. For example, add ears, a tail and some markings to a yellow sweatsuit, and you have yourself a perfectly serviceable Pikachu. These places are also suitable for accessories, cheap plastic helmets or silly shoes.
Goodwill and Value Village websites are also a wealth of information and costume inspiration.
- Locations Goodwill: Seattle (Ballard, Capitol Hill, Central District/Dearborn area, SODO Goodwill Outlet), Shoreline, Burien, Tukwila, Renton, Redmond, Kirkland (Juanita), Edmonds, Lynnwood, Everett (South Everett and Outlet), Monroe, Marysville
- Locations Value Village: Kent, Renton, Redmond, Woodinville, Everett, Issaquah, Lynnwood, Tukwila, University Placy, Puyallup, and Lacey
(Photo courtesy Honestly Modern)
How about a costume swap?
If you live in a neighborhood or school community with lots of kids and good community connection, why not organize a costume swap? All you need is a yard, a couple hours, some flyers or the community email list. Families bring all their old costumes. The organizer lays them all out and when you “open the gates” the swapping begins. Note: Remind parents to that there is no promise that they will find a costume of equal value and all should be willing to give away the costume they bring whether or not they find something to replace it. Check out how to do a costume swap in this article by Honestly Modern.
*Seattle’s Child staff contributed to this article.
Find fall fun:
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