When Do You Purchase Your Halloween Costumes?

Yup my daughter changes her mind every year over and over. Then we get to the store and she picks up something totally different than what she was debating on.

Buy it as soon as you want, its more than likely once they have one, they will stick to it. Or like someone said you can tell them that once its bought its bought.

Just bought my sons in Target this week. $7.99 ninja ensemble. I can't believe he went for it and loves it. I usually buy in Sept, because the sizes go so quick. I lloked first on line and everything my son liked was "not in stock". He also knows this one is it. I found this year nothing new except for Toy Story 3 stuff othrewise pretty much all repeats for last year. Not enough ood kids movies or cartoons out this year for them to merchandise as costumes this year.

go witht them to buy it soon.. usually around the 1 or 2 of oct.. then tell them they can't change.. it's already bought.. when they see something else they like tell them wow,... you can be that next year..

I ask my kids, "Are you sure that's what you want? If I buy this, I'm not going to let you change your mind later, ok?" And that's it. I got my kids costumes about 2 weeks ago. My 3 year old is a pirate and my 9 year old is the grim reaper. And they are girls! lol. The cutest stuff goes quickly, so I'd get to shoppin'!

I got my kid's costumes already. This past week.
From E-bay.
It was less than $12 and then about $6 shipping.

This is the costume I got:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Kids-Friendly-White-Ghost-Casper-Hall...#

Costumes are SO expensive.... so I bought my kids' costumes from E-bay.

I told my kids, Blatantly, that they cannot change their minds. They KNOW that.
They both, with me, looked at costumes on E-Bay... I told them which ones were in our price range, and that's it.
They chose to be 'ghosts.' They will both be ghosts, brother and sister. And from the dollar store, I got them Pirate hats... so they will be pirate ghosts. Its real cute, They love it.
They both wanted to be the 'same' costume... which is real cute.
The costumes I got is real cute... my kids tried it on as soon as it came in the mail. I like it myself.

I bought their costumes already, because sizes runs out pretty quick.... so keep that in mind.

IF they change their minds... I told them, then they go trick or treating without, a costume. They KNOW that, too. And the fall back plan will be that they go in their pajamas. Which they both did last year.

all the best,
Susan

I tell my kids on a Monday that I need to know what they want to be by Saturday so I can go shopping. Then they have all week to talk about it and change their minds, back and forth, etc. Usually they will have decided on their own by then. My son is struggling right now between an army guy and a cop so I will prob just take him shopping this weekend and see which he likes better. But once it's done....it's done!

It depends on what she wanted to be. If it was pretty common, we would purchase it when we were close to the store or before the first Halloween party or carnivals were held.

Many times she wanted something "she made up" so we would have to work on gathering the pieces and parts together for a while.. It might have taken us a few weeks. We tried to go on week days right after school because the weekends were nightmares here in Austin, where Halloween is as big as New Years..

I already have!! :) My daughter had been going back and forth between two different costumes, so I just told her that I was going to go out and buy her costume so I needed to know which one she really wanted to be. For my little guy who will turn one a couple days after Halloween, I picked up his costume earlier as I was afraid of not getting his size.

We got ours about 2-3 weeks ago when they FIRST come out. I waited late one year and had a VERY hard time finding "something" that they would like or even fit. So I didn't want to go thru that again. My youngest changes his mind but I tell him, THIS IS IT! What you pick out is what you will be! And then they all try them on to make sure they fit and if so, I put them in MY closet until the 31st. One year I let them play wear them until then and half the costumes got lost! So we don't do that anymore either. And actually they are very excited since so much time has gone by it's almost like Christmas when they get to put it on that night! Have fun!!!

Get it now. I've seen people shopping towards the end of October and it's slim pickings!

Last year, I was pretty much able to dress both kids in what I wanted. This year I have a definite butterfly (which we are putting together with things from here and there) and a shark and there was no changing them (in their mind...I wanted them to be something else). We bought our costumes two weeks ago.

We buy them when we find something we like. We buy them at thrift stores, so I peruse the racks and pull out options for my boys (weeding out the ugly, ripped, incomplete, or worn ones). There are usually a few they can choose from.

I had one son just fall in love with a cute dragon costume. He ran around the store in it, getting tons of attention. I warned him that he could not change his mind, and was he sure he wanted to be a dragon? He assured me YES!!! He wouldn't take it off to buy it, or to go home. I was so happy, because it was like $4, and was awesome. I figured his big brother could be a knight.

But when we went to get big brother a knight costume, suddenly, the dragon wanted to be a knight, too. It was a battle, but he wore that dang dragon costume! We did buy him a set of knight stuff, too, because it was cheap and he could play in it. So we compromised. He was a knight at a party, but trick-or-treating and for pictures, he was a dragon.

BTW, my kids were only 5 and 3 when that happened, so maybe it's not even applicable!

I got my oldest sons two weeks ago at a Costume Unveiling at our local consignment shop and my youngest sons this past weekend at a retail store (consignment shop didnt have a cute dog costume). I would tell them that you need to get costumes this weekend so please decide so we make sure they have your size and a good selection. Good Luck. My boys are going to be a firefighter and a fire dog, I'm going to decorate our wagon to be a firetruck. :-)

Tell them: You can pick now, but if you change your mind, there won't be any money for a new outfit. You can pick later, but there might not be a lot of good costumes left by then. Let them learn a lesson about making choices.

For my 2 yr old, we are shopping now. I actually prefer to "make" my own. "Make" in quotations b/c I might get overalls and a ratty shirt and an old paint bucket, splash paint on it, and he's a painter. So I am shopping early this year b/c I am trying to find a yellow button up shirt that looks like Woody's. Then we'll get/make a cowskin-like vest. He'll wear his hat and his holster. We'll cut a star out of cardboard and he'll be Woody. So I'm shopping early b/c I can't find a good yellow w/ red shirt!

We are buying ours tomorrow. Last year, I waited too late to buy (at Target) and they didn't have my sons size left on the costume he wanted (spiderman). I ended up buying a bigger size and just sewed the bottoms and arms on the costume but it didn't look great although the upside was that he was happy. This year we are buying ours at the Disney store he wants to be Buzz Lightyear with the wings but I'm buying early because last time I looked they didn't have very many on the rack. Good luck.

i usually make one, so I start in August. :-) We're going to buy our daughter's as soon as we find it (she wants to be Jesse from Toy Story and has all year!). We bought hers last year a couple of weeks before.

I always waited until the week before halloween... otherwise I would catch my daughter playing in her costume or trying to wear it to school, and she did try to change her mind more than once...

If your just getting normal costumes, they should be available up to the day of halloween... and who knows, when you get to the store your kids might find something other than what they wanted to be... mine usually does!

Edited to add: Oops--I misread your question..... sorry!
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We got ours at Once Upon A Child. If you're looking for a specific costume, call the different OUACs and ask them to check. If they find one in your kids size, I think they will hold it for you.

We got a full-body, soft suit dinosaur costume for our LO for $10; I was in there in July & saw & couldn't leave w/o it. LOL. Whether he'll wear it is another thing entirely, though.... (he'll be 2 in Nov).

I have bought my daughters Barbie costume last weekend,my babies Angel costume last yr on clearance,& my son's police costume by the end of this week...Good Luck

I'm actually buying them this afternoon. If you wait until October, the choices get to be limited. If your child wants to be something in particular, get it now. Mine also change their minds but also know that once I've purchased their costumes, that's what they're going to use.