For most of the last decade, I've spent the second half of October managing a tent at Nashville's "Boo at the Zoo" trick-or-treating event. I manage a tent for the main zoo sponsor, where we pass out candy to kids. Over the years I've enjoyed seeing all the kids show up in their costumes, and I've been impressed at how often the parents dress up too, or the whole family comes in costume.
The parents are obviously not trick-or-treating (the zoo wouldn't give them candy if they tried - our tent does, though!). So all these adults are dressed up, I can only imagine, for the sheer joy of putting on a costume. I don't imagine too many of these toddler parents are off to bars or afterparties. (Or are they?)
Anyway, observing all the fun costumes over the years inspired me to want to create my own.
And it just so happens I know the best source of cheap inspiration...and so the House of Goodwill costume challenge was born.
In 2023, I decided to make my own costume, inspired by whatever I could find at Goodwill. Here is the result:
This was fun to make!
Except for the headband (that came from Wal-mart - I needed it to glue the star tree-topper to), everything I'm wearing is from Goodwill.
I think it cost me $20-something dollars for all.
I put it on for some photos on Halloween, but I wore it to work and pass out the candy one night.
The next year, 2024, we had just returned from five weeks in Colombia (adopting our daughter), and were just settling in when the zoo job started and I didn't have the time to plan anything.
So this year was the first official year of the Goodwill Costume Challenge. I told the whole family they had to come up with a costume based on something(s) found at Goodwill.
I have to say, the costumes of everyone (even my husband's who planned his at the eleventh hour and bought everything on Halloween) came out great! Here they are:
The costumes:
an undead baseball player, an old rich man, a scarecrow and a crazy cat lady.
We even had enough daylight for a photoshoot in the backyard before trick-or-treating.
It turned out to be a fun way for our family to spend time together. Everyone's costume was his own idea, which I loved. My son and I based our costume idea off something we found while browsing through Goodwill, my daughter came up with her costume inspiration from the internet, then I took her to the store to find what she needed. We all helped each other with the shopping and making accessories.
Here's the breakdown of the costumes:
Nothing like the last minute!
So, my husband said he found the cape and mask in a bin of formerly used costumes we have.
He had seen a baseball helmet at Goodwill the day before, but didn't buy it.
When he went back to buy it, it was gone, so he bought this bike helmet and altered it.
He also bought the "baseball" (actually a black pumpkin decoration) at Goodwill.
The rest of the baseball uniform was his from the 1990s.
(See, it DOES pay to hang on to things!) 😆
Total cost of costume: $9.
When I saw this pink bathrobe at Goodwill, I immediately thought it would be perfect for a crazy old cat lady. I was really happy with how the costume came out! I bought the bathrobe ($9), leopard slippers ($6), three cats ($5 for all) and hair curlers ($3) at Goodwill. The haircolor, face makeup and velcro to attach the cats came from WalMart. My friend saved an empty cigarette package for me and I made the cigarette out of a piece of wooden dowel.
It was just over $30 for the whole costume.
My son found this lounging robe at Goodwill, and said he could use it to be "an old rich man." After he'd already picked it, we saw it had a giant Playboy logo on the back. So I bought some black stick-on patches at Wal-Mart to cover it (that was a definitely not) and it actually didn't look bad from the back.
I gave him a vintage silky shirt from my closet; his sister made him the huge dollar sign (that we attached to a faux-gold chain) and the pipe (from a piece of dowel and a wine cork). Everything else was his. Total cost of costume: $7.
My daughter decided to be a scarecrow. We found the overalls ($9) and t-shirt ($4) at Goodwill. She also bought the boots at Goodwill (though not for Halloween, but they were perfect!). The hat was my husband's and plaid shirt she borrowed from my son. She painted the sunflowers on the overalls herself, and the two dahlias on her hat we cut from my garden.
Her outfit was so cute I told her she needs to wear it not just as a Halloween costume!
Total cost of costume: $13.
My son is twenty-five, but everyone always thinks he's sixteen, so his job is take his sister trick-or-treating. This was her second time going in the U.S., and she loves it! In Colombia (where both my kids grew up), kids trick-or-treat in stores only. So it's a much different experience here, and the candy haul is greater. 😉
My husband and I walked the neighborhood with them in costume. I had three people stop me to tell me how much they loved my cat lady costume.
Since I first had this idea, I've been wanting to plan a Goodwill costume contest on a bigger scale, and with prizes. I'd love to host a Halloween party where everyone comes in their created costume. It's challenging, because it's the one time of year that I'm working every night and have to replace myself at the zoo. So we'll see what happens in the future...
Stay tuned!
