halloween costumes for kids?

Hi,
Where do you buy halloween costumes for kids and how much would you pay for it. i find some costumes very expensive, just for one time use. sometimes i feel it is just not worth it, but we do have to buy something for the day. i was wondering what others do for halloween?
any suggestions?
what did u buy for ur kid?
does the kid has any preference on costumes? ( my son is small and haven't asked me yet for particular costumes)

Chaaral.

I'd look in stores like Marshalls, TJ MaXX or Homegoods - they usually offer Halloween Costumes at a more reasonable price. Another good way is to plan ahead and buy them for the next year at this year's clearance after Halloween, in November.

I've also seen that CVS has some costumes on sale - of course, the cheapest way would be to make them yourself using ideas from places like Michaels or websites online.

Hope that helps!

Have you checked in Dollar shops ?
Here I've seen wonderful face masks, accessories, skull lights /crowns, witch gown sets etc. & not more than $5 you can finish your entire kid's costume . The quality obviously will not be excellent but certainly not bad at all -- in fact much better than the ones I've seen in Walmart where the starting price itself is $65 for a small-size princess frock ----- just the basic one without any glittery jewels or wand or tiara !!!

Chaaral,
Just visited a Walmart Supercenter today, and the variety of costumes they've put out is endless. And price is ok, not so high as in earlier Walmart branch I saw. For small kids also they have pirate costume, bunny dress, spiderman costume etc. for $35. There was also a few witch costumes for just $10, but quality was rather poor. For girls princess frocks starting from $28 but colors are too gaudy, Better ones like Tinkerbell, Snowhite are $35 + . More elaborate ones like Red Indian, Scarecrow, Commando, Ball gown , Zombie etc. [ Very scary to look at ..] are from $45 & above. But I think in US will be much cheaper than here.

if your city has "Party City", they carry Haloween costumes too. just google for it in your city and am sure there'll be an answer. I bought the "spider man" costume for my 18 mnth son last year for $20. it is little expensive taking into account that it's going to be worn just once or twice but that IS fun & excitement for kids wearing diff costumes every year :)

Oldnavy puts a costume sale around first or second week of october. I once got a zebra costume from ON for $5. They have upto 5T in sizes. Other than that I usually order from disney online stores. They also put costumes on sale during second or third week of october.

-Uma

The traditional thing was to make a costume. Lots of families will put together something from stuff in the house or sew....lots of fun if you hve the time. A friend of mine years ago needed a costume to go trick or treating with her kid...she got a big pumpkin plastic bag (you can get for disposing fallen leaves), put holes for arms and legs, got in it and filled with crushed newspaper and had her own costume for like a dollar. Creativity is the key.

Costumes like little rabbits or angels are easy: use tights and shirts, put on cotton tail, make ears from cloth or paper, draw on whiskers with eye pencil. Angel wings can be made from wire coat hangers and covered. Gypsies or bums from old cloths in house.

Some stores sell sleepers that you use initially for costmes and then the kid can sleep in them so you don't waste money.

My suggestions is just go to craiglist and select baby and kids coloumn and check for Halloween costumes.Kids wear these costumes only on Halloween day so its not worth to spend 30-40$ for that .I buy halloween costumes from craiglist they are you can get extremely good costumes for a fraction of price.Today only I bought Power ranger costume for just 5$.And it wont bite out pocket

Last yr, I picked Little Red riding hood from local Halloween store for my Daughter..

And after Halloween, I went to walmart one day, and was surprised to see at the customer service people returnign the Costumes . Its easy to return with a reciept...

Thankyou for the ideas. I will check ON and other stores, but i dont have much ideas for making a costume at home for a boy, for girls it is easy, for boys if anyone has made any costumes at home pls let meknow.