By Jared Janzen
Local Yokel Reporter
My years of trick-or-treating may be long behind me, but that hasn’t stopped me from continuing to dress up for Halloween parties with my friends in recent years.
For a lot of people, the easy go-to is buying a pre-made costume from the store. My philosophy, though, is that it’s more fun to make a costume. If I can put a fun costume together for zero dollars and zero cents, that’s a win in my books.
One year I dressed as Charlie Brown from “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” If you recall, he and his friends go trick-or-treating as a group of ghosts, but at every doorstep, while all his friends are getting candy, poor ol’ Charlie gets a rock every time.
So for my simple costume, I threw a white sheet over my head, filled a paper bag with stones, and then spent the Halloween party complaining, “I got a rock!” to anyone who didn’t know what I was dressed as.
This costume may have gone over some people’s heads, but I personally found it very amusing. It was super simple and super budget-friendly.
Two years ago, I was the folk hero and friend of the forest Johnny Appleseed. This was another easy costume of just assembling stuff I already had access to. All I needed was a flannel shirt, a pair of overalls from my dad, a pot upside down on my head like a hat, and a Red Delicious in case I got hungry.
Oh, and ditch the shoes. Mr. Appleseed goes to Halloween parties barefoot.
Last year, I had one of my favorite costumes to date: the Planters spokesman, Mr. Peanut.
This one did require a little bit of prep. I used the cardboard from a big, recycled box to draw and cut out a giant peanut shape. I then strapped this around my neck over some black dress clothes.
I was able to borrow a cane and a hat, but I didn’t have access to a monocle. If you’ve picked up on my costume philosophy so far, you can probably guess that I wasn’t going to shell out to buy one. So I did the next best thing and drew a black circle around my eye instead. It was crude, but costumes don’t need to be perfect, especially when you’re only going to be dressed up for a few hours.
The only money I spent on this costume was about $3.50 on a can of mixed nuts as an additional prop, but when you’re spending money on an edible prop, that hardly counts.
My working idea for this year’s costume is William Shakespeare. I figure I’ve already got the long hair and mustache for it, although thankfully, I don’t share his receding hairline.
A lot of the images of him online show him with a gold earring. Obviously, I’m not going to spend $50 to pierce a lobe, so this will be another “Mr. Peanut’s monocle” situation of coming up with a cheap imitation.
Otherwise, the costume should be pretty simple: black clothes, white collar, a five-pound anthology of the complete works of Shakespeare, and maybe a big feather to represent a quill. My anticipated expenses for this costume add up to $0.00.
Between costumes, candy and spooky decorations, Americans are expected to spend a record-setting $13.5 billion on Halloween this year, according to the National Retail Federation. That’s a crazy amount of money, but Halloween doesn’t need to break the bank. With a little creativity, repurposing what you have on hand, and borrowing props as needed, there are endless possibilities for fun costumes.
No matter how old you are, I encourage you to consider dressing up for Halloween this weekend.
Jared Janzen is a reporter for the Hutchinson Tribune. He may be reached at jared@hutchtribune.com.