Scary Halloween Costumes For Kids

The Best Scary Halloween Costumes for Kids

For the young, Halloween is supposed to be a frightful event, and they expect to have some things to strike fear in their hearts, even if just for a moment.  It may be getting harder to find scary Halloween costumes for kids because they see so much more gore and monsters in movies and television than children once did.

If you are helping a child choose from the gothic Halloween costumes of the day, keep in mind what the child thinks is important and interested in at the time the costume will be used.  Kids Halloween costumes are more often related to their current interests than to what might have been frightening in their parents' youth.

A scary Halloween mask to a mother might be silly to the youth who has seen a "slasher" movie or two.  The camp look of vampire costumes as they were fifty years ago won't interest the younger vampires from "Twilight" or other modern day movies of that genre.  When was the last time a child older than five wanted a Frankenstein costume?

Young ladies generally have a much wider range of wants for scary Halloween Fancy Dress costumes, and in some ways are easier to please than boys.  A parent might be able to suggest several Halloween costume ideas that might meet with a girl's approval, making it easier to find an outfit when shopping at the store.

Boys tend to zero in on two or three ghouls or goblins that they want to be, and it's often hard to get them to change their minds.  Scary Halloween costumes for boys lean more to the gory than those for girls.  They want the shock and awe type dress more than the kind that impresses.

To Make or to Buy

Scary Halloween costumes for kids tend to be more of the "off the rack" variety than the creative type.  Generally, a costume can be bought so inexpensively that it doesn't make sense to take the time to design one that will probably be worn only once.  Add to that the fact that kids think everything worthwhile is new from the store and you usually will buy their costumes ready-made.

How Real Do They Have to Be?

It's hard to judge at what age a child develops the "it's got to look real" mentality about scary kids Halloween costumes.  Some children don't seem to care about that, even when they get to be teens, while others might start to take a great interest at age seven or eight.  Buying for a three or four year old is a feeling that is sorely missed when they are old enough to begin to have opinions of their own.

What are the Most Popular Kid's Costumes?

Kids who are from five to twelve are the ones who most often have very set ideas of how they want to dress and who they want to be.  Beginning in the early teens, they pretty well will be making up their own minds and usually are quite creative.

As soon as young girls have an opinion, there are predictable characters that impress them.  These vary slightly based on TV, movies, cartoons, and social circles, but the main ones tend to be:

* A princess
* A fairy
* A witch
* A current do-gooder heroine

Boys want to depict the standard male dominant type villain, monster, or alien.  They have a tendency to dress as:

* A current superhero
* A current monster or creature
* A pirate
* A Ninja or other fighting character

As a parent attempting to find the perfect scary Halloween costumes for kids, a person has to realize when to choose for their children and when to let the children choose for themselves.  Halloween is a fun time for kids and adults, and the costume is what makes the holiday enjoyable to the wearer and those who get the frights.