Halloween costumes are one of the most important parts of Halloween for young children. They love being able to dress up as a fantasy character and to walk around the streets of their neighborhood collecting goodies in their trick or treat bags. This is really exciting for them.
It is very noticeable, by the age of two, sometimes even younger, that boys and girls will start to prefer the stereotypical costumes. Boys want to be brave, fierce or scary, favoring knights, pirates, monsters and superheroes and girls will be drawn to the pretty, cute and sweet costumes such as princesses, strawberry shortcake characters or flower fairy costumes.
From a parents point of view, you can indulge your own childhood fantasies with your baby dressing them as you wish, in furry bear, monkey, ladybugs or cute and funny costumes, but come the age of eighteen months plus, you will start to see these preferences emerge and with it their resistance to your choice.
This is due to a number of factors such as the media, advertising, TV, movies, books, friends and parental influence. Genetics plays a part too, but whatever the reason, this is a force to be reckoned with and almost impossible to avoid.
Trying to persuade your stubborn single minded two year old daughter into wearing funny face pumpkin outfits when she really wants to be wearing pink flower fairy costumes or Cinderella ballgowns is a stress producing recipe for a Halloween disaster.
It is much better to buy an 'evergreen' Halloween outfit suitable for a boy or girl that they will love to wear. You can either ask them outright what do they want to dress up as or show them a picture of some costumes first. This is not guaranteed to be a perfect solution by any means, as children can be very fickle with their choices, but at least you will be on the right track.
For little boys, Superman, Batman or a current movie hero is a good start and for little girls any of the Disney Princesses or pretty colored tinkerbell flower fairy costumes will usually be happily accepted. If you are thinking 'well, that's not very original or unusual!' then of course you are quite right, but there is a good reason why these sell so well every year and that is because these costumes are what children really want.
Halloween is an occasion that should be fun for everyone. By keeping your small child in a good mood, with little effort of your part, it will avoid any Halloween stress and enable Mom and Dad to concentrate on their costumes and hopefully thoroughly enjoy themselves as well!
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