Costume Time Again

What’s your favorite Halloween costume? I won a large costume contest in my early-20s as a urinal – as the night proceeded and the drinking accumulated, I had to be vigilant against the easily deceived.

The most intricate, colorful and serious costumed gathering I can recall was when I DJ’d a Halloween party for the Hollywood Art Directors Guild – those people did not take costuming lightly, I’ll have you know. Oddly, there was much cross-dressing.

The National Retail Federation has just released the results of a survey of children’s costumes for this year:

Top Halloween Costumes for Kids, 2004

Rank
Percent
# of Children

Spiderman
1
8.4%
2,150,116

Princess
2
7.2%
1,837,372

Witch
3
5.0%
1,290,069

Vampire
4
3.5%
899,139

Monster
5
3.2%
820,953

SpongeBob
6
2.9%
742,767

Ninja
7
2.6%
664,581

Athlete (Football, Baseball, etc.)
8
2.1%
547,302

Ghost
9
2.1%
547,302

Power Rangers
10
2.1%
547,302

Angel
11
1.7%
430,023

Pumpkin
12
1.5%
390,930

Batman
13
1.4%
351,837

Yu Gi Oh
14
1.4%
351,837

Pop Star
15
1.2%
312,744

Barbie
16
1.1%
273,651

Harry Potter Character
17
1.1%
273,651

Pirate
18
1.1%
273,651

Clown
19
0.9%
234,558

Firefighter
20
0.9%
234,558

What an interesting conglomeration of hopes, dreams, fears and popular culture. Survey results also indicate that 54.1 percent of consumers plan to buy a costume for Halloween this year, spending an average of $28.11. With an estimated $3.12 billion to be spent on the holiday, Halloween ranks as the sixth-largest spending holiday of the year.

But while it is only the sixth in spending, Halloween has come to dominate the entire month of October with haunted houses and decorations springing up by the last week of September, making it second in cultural dominance only to Christmas.

Our little princess will be a convincing, if blonde, Snow White in a costume made by my mother-in-law, who is quite talented at such things.