I am about to get on a plan and head to Denver for the weekend to photograph a wedding and see some of my favorite people. As I was leaving DC this morning, I was more than a little sad that I am missing such an awesome fall weekend in the city. The trees are showing off like nothing else and there are a whole bunch of Halloween parties among our friends this weekend. James is not typically someone who voluntarily dons a costume, but he told me that he’s planning on hanging a bike wheel around his neck and going with some married friends of ours as a third wheel. And that’s why I love him.
Anyways, in true Throw Back Thursday style (something I have only participated in once because it is wayyyyy too much work to get old pictures onto my phone), I have been reflecting on some of the costumes I have loved.
I love costumes with a passion that some people reserve for sports teams or Olympic events. I LOVE THEM. When I scan through pictures of my childhood, I can’t help but notice that I spent more time in costume than out of it. Let’s be real — I was still trying to find ways to make everyone dress up all through high school, and when I was flipping through some old college Facebook albums the other day, I noticed that this was a collegiate trend as well. What can I say? I love costumes.
And I’m not alone in this. My parents’ house has an adult sized costume closet and trunks and many a dignified friend has come over thinking they were too cool for that and left after spending an afternoon in a hoop skirt.
I grew up in a small town with 5000 people and probably 30 churches. You would think this meant Halloween wasn’t a big deal, but you would be wrong. It just meant that you took whatever you wanted to be and made it Bible based. Want to be an animal? Get on the arc. A caveman? Adam or Eve. A soldier? One of the Philistines. I was Queen Esther for many a year, which really just meant I was a princess. Oh, and we didn’t buy actual costumes, so I kind of just looked like a homeless person in a prom dress. I can make a ball gown out of a sheet and some safety pins like no one else.
In college one time, NOT for Halloween, some friends and I painted our legs green to go to a masquerade party. Every other girl was there in a cute dress and mask, but we were the Ninja Turtles. The fact that our legs were all still green for a dance the next day just didn’t even matter.
And apparently one time I was a Hersey Kiss… for no reason, other than a moment of inspiration at Walmart. 
Are you dressing up yourself or any little ones this weekend? What are some of your best costumes?
The Art in Life 
I love costumes too!! I posted earlier this week about some of my favorite ghosts of Halloween past and today about what a few of my friends and I dressed up as today for work. 🙂 It’s a sure bet that even as adult if I’m “allowed” to be in costume, I will be.
I loved both your posts! : )
Part of the reason I became an actress was to continue dressing up! I did spend one afternoon dressing up as a pirate, darkened my eyebrows with eyeliner and drew on a beard- just for the joy of it- gave my Mum a shock when I emerged from my room! Love the creativity of costumes. Don’t ever let it go!
I have got to find a community theatre or something to let me leap around in costume in the background!!!
I’ve been wheedling my husband to dress up with me for years, and then finally, last year, he did! It helps that he looks almost exactly like Jim Parsons and already owns lots of nerd shirts, so we went as Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler. So much fun!
I LOVE IT.
I dressed up at the slightest provocation all through high school, and thought I would continue all through college… but for the first Halloween at Hillsdale, I dressed as Gollum. All the other girls from my hall were cute things, and I spent the evening crawling around on the floor, grabbing at people’s ankles and listening to them swear at me.
I realized later (Eric told me, and it hurt) that I fell into what Eric calls the “Mean Girls” trap, where I assumed that I was supposed to be something scary for Halloween. Since I also spent my high school years battling the assumption that since I grew up in Africa I was “just like Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls!!” this was rather a let down.
So I’ve avoided costumes since. Overkill?
Ok, I actually remember LOVING your Gollum get up… please dress up again, or at least dress Emma up on a regular basis, since I am in withdrawal.
Girl . . . I remember you grabbing my ankle at the 3FN Halloween Party, and then realizing it was YOU . . . and I was *so* proud. 🙂
I love your analysis of growing up making halloween costumes into Bible characters. I grew up Presbyterian in the South, not allowed to celebrate Halloween, but allowed to celebrate REformation Day. We could dress as a reformation character (the only female would be Luther’s wife who is knowsn as being unattractive) or Bible characters. There is only a certain number of glitzy Bible characters though– angels, Esther, etc. One year I convinced my mom to let me be Pharohs daughter who found baby Mosas– it meant I got to wear a Cleopatra costume with white shiny material and gold sequins!!!! A dream costume for a girl who had been a shabby Bible character for too many years!!!!
Excellent. I think a key Christian life skill is reassigning non-Biblical costumes into Biblical roles.
I can totally empathize with your more-than-superficial sentiment regarding Fall-Color-FOMO, Hannah. Being in the Middle East right now, where the predominant color is *brown* (albeit, still breathtaking), I’ll take all of the shared pictures I can get!
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