A Halloween Zebra, and a Spooky Prize, too

Who wouldn’t want to be a zebra?

 

Are you ready for Halloween? In the not-too-distant past, I had a lot of fun putting together costumes for my kids–but I also quite liked dressing up myself. While nothing ever quite brought me the joy I got from my ready-made Casper the Friendly Ghost costume I wore at age five, I got a big kick out of my homemade zebra costume from 2009.

Tell us about your favorite Halloween costume!

If you comment between now and midnight, Saturday the 28th of October, you might win the next package of four yummy mystery novels, as well as a paperback copy of the delightfully spooky gothic anthology, DEAD ENDS.

24 thoughts on “A Halloween Zebra, and a Spooky Prize, too”

  1. Scarlett says:

    My favorite costume was my Care Bear costume. I was Tender heart. I have vivid happy memories of Halloween in that thing, I may have worn it more than once!

    1. Laura Benedict says:

      I can totally see that, Scarlett. I bet it was darling. Can’t wait to see what your kids come up with this year!

    2. Laura Benedict says:

      I can totally see that, Scarlett. I bet it was darling. Can’t wait to see what your kids come up with this year!

  2. Peggy says:

    My favorite costume was one my mom would make up from items we had in the house, mine was a hobo costume and I got to carry a pillow case for candy. My mom was really good at making a costumes for us.

    1. Laura Benedict says:

      I think moms enjoy Halloween as much or more than kids. 😊

  3. skyecaitlin says:

    This year this area is really cranking up the Halloween volume! I told you that my daughter, Sunny, was very much into Halloween and creating her own costumes; in fact, her room was a perpetual nightmare of scary things from different movies. She had a definite crush on Pinhead and saw him more than once in person. My favorite Halloween movie is Halloween ( the first with Donald Pleasance and Jamie Lee Curtis). I always dressed as a beatnik ( yeh, real original, huh?). I signed up for a Dead Ends giveaway — YIKES. so many others did as well.

    1. Peggy says:

      In our house our favorite Halloween show is Peanuts and Sleep Hollow, have a great Halloween.

      1. Laura Benedict says:

        Watch for the Great Pumpkin!

    2. Laura Benedict says:

      Yours sounds like a wonderful house, Skye, and your daughter was much like mine. She was very into special effects makeup and would go out covered in sores and scars, lol.

      1. skyecaitlin says:

        Laura, she worked at a party store, not a Halloween party store, but a store that remained open all year long. Somehow, she disassembled a full size mannequin, brought it home and reassembled it, dressed it and painted it; she called it Purple, and she made it very ghoulish. She had toys that were replicas of all horror movies and it you touched them, they played the first chords of the movie. She met Pinhead several times and told us she was going to marry him.

        1. Laura Benedict says:

          That is real dedication!

  4. Lily Smith says:

    One Halloween my husband ended up with no costume so he put on his gray trench coat and a brown paper sack (with eye-holes) over his head. He answered the doorbell with lurking ominous silence. Turned out to be the best costume ever – even gave the late evening teenage trick or treaters pause.

    1. Laura Benedict says:

      That is inspired and super-creepy, Lily!

    2. Laura Benedict says:

      Lily! Congratulations– won the drawing for the mystery books! Email me your address so I can send them on their way to you. laura@laurabenedict.com

  5. Debbie says:

    Two years ago my husband and I did a trunk or treat at our church. We were Mr and Mrs Gnome. The children all thought we were Mr And Mrs Santa Claus…we got lots of hugs that year!

    1. Laura Benedict says:

      That sounds completely adorable! Trunk or treats are great. I did them for a couple of years and our family had a great time.

  6. Leta Sontag says:

    Ours were always homemade growing up in the ’40s and ’50s: The boys wore burnt cork on their faces and pillows down baggy pants held up with suspenders. I got rouged cheeks and hats with veils, old coats and pocket books. And we said, “Help the poor” instead of “Trick or treat”—wow, that was a very long time ago, I guess!

    1. Laura Benedict says:

      “Help the poor.” I wonder if that was a regional thing? There was Trick or Treat for Unicef, I recall, with the little boxes. Did you get candy or money?!

      1. Leta Sontag says:

        Maybe it was a regional-thing. Everyone we knew sing-songed the same phrase.. And it was an unspoken fact that if there wasn’t a treat (apples, cookies, popcorn balls, cider and donuts, pocket change) then there would be soaped windows, even tipped outhouses. “Tricks for sure!

  7. skyecaitlin says:

    More about my costume: I was a beatnik: I wore black tights and a very long black sweater with a beret on my head, and said ‘thank you, Daddio,’ whenever I got candy and snapped my fingers.

    1. Laura Benedict says:

      Cute!

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