When even cats are getting Halloween costumes, it can seem essential that the newest addition to your family should be properly Halloweened up, but there are some things to consider before you buy.
Safety first at Halloween
While there are literally thousands of Halloween costumes for young babies out there, please ensure that anything you buy for your little one is safe and suitable:
- Check that the fabric is flame retardant, because another thing that Halloween is famous for is candles!
- One of our maternity nurse candidates also pointed out that sometimes the accessories on Halloween costumes are rough, scratchy or covered in glitter and can easily irritate the skin of a baby.
- Finally, think about how long your baby is going to be wearing the outfit and the ambient temperature, because very often these costumes are made from synthetic fabrics which can cause a newborn to overheat rapidly.
Memories are made of this
Of course for us – the doting family – dressing our baby up as a pumpkin or Dobby the house elf, or a gnome, is simply adorable. However with the advent of social media, unless you ban your family from uploading photos, this is something you little one will have to live with for the rest of their natural lives – so cute as it may be, don’t burden them with something that will embarrass them when they are stroppy teenagers or ambitious adults!
On the other hand, there are some wonderful opportunities to create family costumes if you have a new baby. “The Incredibles” is always a great starting point, and can be done with a red onesie if you don’t want to buy a special outfit just for a couple of hours. Snow White, the Prince and one of the Seven Dwarves works for some families. Every single baby makes a lovely Very Hungry Caterpillar in a green sleep suit, while parents and older children can dress up as food items.
Peter Pan is a treasure trove of costume ideas, especially for large, blended or non-traditional families: babies can easily be dressed as Smee – it only requires a red beanie hat and a striped onesie whilst the rest of the family get to chose from fairies (Tinkerbell) other pirates, including Hook, Peter himself (who is of course non-gendered because of the Pantomime tradition), native Americans, crocodiles and clocks!
Families who don’t celebrate Halloween
Of course not every family celebrates Halloween and that’s okay. For newborns this really isn’t an issue, but as children grow, it can be valuable for them to have a different tradition to point to.
Going back to that issue of social media, giving your children a chance to demonstrate that they are different, rather than weird, can be important. So, for example you might want to make a special meal and photograph that process each year, or take an outdoor walk and collect autumn leaves which can be featured in your family album. If Halloween isn’t a big deal for your family or culture, that’s a great opportunity to develop a new family tradition of your own.
Photo credit: Valeriya at Pexels