Let’s be realistic: If you’re not ready for Halloween today, you’re pretty much out of luck. At the very least, I hope you don’t have any other plans for the day, like, I don’t know, working or eating.

But don’t despair! If somehow you’ve managed to find yourself with a small person or two following you around but no Halloween costume plans, I have a few suggestions, because I care deeply about your Halloween needs. And it’s a terrible thing when a kid has to go costumeless.

So here’s your handy Toy Box Mommy’s Guide To Last-Minute Halloween Costumes:

1) Ghosts are so last year. Sure, a white sheet turns a kid into a ghost, but that’s so done, don’t you think? Dress a kid in white and glue cotton balls all over her hat and her shoes, though, and she’s a Q-Tip! Dress a kid in white and run a few lines of painter’s tape down her body and she’s a drinking straw! Think outside the box, is what I’m saying.

2) It’s in your closet. That old suit Daddy refuses to get rid of will be an excellent hobo costume on a kid half his size. One of Mom’s floaty tops will go great over leggings… throw on a belt and some leggings and voila! Instant hippie!

3) If I say it’s a costume, it’s a costume. My daughter is going out this year dressed as she normally does, but with a baby doll pinned to the seat of her pants. She’s a babysitter! (Duh.) Tell your kid to talk into his watch and look furtive—he’s a secret agent! As long as they play the part, it’s a costume. Trust me.

There. Now don’t say I never gave you anything.

A couple of other things to note, on the day before the big event:

You know when the very best time to buy a Halloween costume is, right? That’s right—right around or just after Halloween. Then you save money and put it away for next year, secure in the knowledge that you won’t be scrambling at the last minute. (Well, not unless you can’t remember where you put it. That I can’t help you with, sorry.) Anyway. Right now all of the costumes in Ty’s Costume Shop are marked down by 20% to 50%. Pick something up now for next year, and you won’t be left gluing cotton balls the day before.

If you plan to watch It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown this year (and if you don’t plan to watch it, I’m not sure we can continue being friends), it’s on ABC tonight (October 30th, 2007) at 8:00 Eastern, 7:00 Central. I highly recommend introducing your children to this fine tradition as soon as possible if you haven’t already, even if only because it will spice up your trick-or-treating when they learn to look into their bags and intone, “I got a rock.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 6:14 am and is filed under Kid Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.