Saturday, October 31, 2009

Halloween - Star Trek Costume For Kids

In our home, Halloween is dress up like a Star Trek character day.

We're not big on Halloween because it's just not something we care about. We're also not anti-Halloween, because if we rejected all holidays with pagan roots, we'd be skipping Easter and Christmas, too. But we love Star Trek. And a day where the whole gang gets to dress up like the crew of the original series is a great day indeed.

What do you need?

Black pants or skirts for everyone
Long sleeve shirts, either solid red, green, yellow, or blue
Masking tape
Black electrical tape
Band aids (optional)

It's obvious what you do with the black pants. Put them on. Now, we're going to fancy up the shirt a little. The electrical tape goes around the collar. I just put it around the front.

I make a basic emblem cut out of two pieces of masking tape. I also rip the masking tape into strips to make the rank braid around the cuffs that show the rank of each officer. This one will be a lieutenant.

The band aids I use to wrap around the top of one child's ear, making a point. That's how we get our Vulcan, or Romulan if you want to be real creative with the Star Trek timeline.

Maybe this post would have been helpful before Halloween. For those of you without any ideas, this one is pretty easy.
What, if anything, are your kids going to be today?

24 comments:

Marie said...

I don't have kids, but here are a few of the costumes my mom made us as kids that were super cheap:
-dress a boy as a girl and a girl as a boy (works well if you already have kids of both genders)
-business man (put on dad's jacket and tie and draw a moustache); this can work on guys or girls
-farmer (jeans or overall, flannel shirt, put straw or something in your pockets, and carry an optional garden tool)
-pregnant woman (stuff your stomach)
-baby (wear pjs, pig tails, and optional pacifier)

SheilaPCT said...

My daughter loves to dress up like a fairy or a princess, we have lots fo dress up stuff for that, so that is what she will be.... I made her a skirt from some $.94/yd tule I got from wal-mart and just followed free online tutorials for making a fairy skirt. Wands were made from scraps of felt cut into heart shapes, a skewer (from the dollar store) with the poity part cut off and some glitter glued on.

Lori said...

I think you have a great attitude and appreciation for the holiday. You're celebrating the get-in-the-fun spirit without compromising the things you believe in. I can really respect that, as I am a big Halloween enthusiast myself.

And we're big Star Trek people, too.

Kimber said...

OMG! He is so cute!!!!!! We normally do Star Wars in our house!!!

Devon said...

LOL, awesome, Emily!!! I have read a number of Halloween rants lately, and I am always thinking about how strange the logic is with the pagan roots of Christmas and Easter...glad you pointed it out.

I was raised watching the original Star Trek, and that moved on to the rest of them. I swear I have seen every Star Trek series episode...no, I guess I haven't watched Deep Space Nine. Other than that, though...

My son will be Handy Manny today! And it's a homemade costume. YAY!

Have a great day!

Captain Cleavage said...

Our little bug wont have her first halloween till next year but We are all ready. my sisters and I loved dressing up when we were younger and i still have all of my dress up clothing which consist of birthday and christmas gifts and various bits of clothing donated by family members.

Clisby said...

My 13-year-old daughter is going as Medusa (decidedly *un*frugal, since I bought her costume - no way I'm going to attempt to make snakes come out of her head); my 7-year-old will be Poseidon, with a dark-blue toga, trident (a devil pitchfork spray-painted gold) and a crown. Yes, it's a classical Halloween around here - we all read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series over the summer, so that was the inspiration.

Anonymous said...

I love Start Trek and I love Halloween and I am so respectful that you acknowledge the Pagan roots of Christian holidays. Many Christians do not and while I do not believe the same as you, I now have a lot of respect for you.

My son is going to be a Storm Trooper this year. While I am a big "trekker" he is all about Star Wars!

I'll be back.

Jane

Catherine at Frugal Homemaker Plus said...

I don't have kids and we're not dressing up this year, but our dog is going to be a hotdog! :)

Robin said...

My son is going as an astronaut with a rain coat we found for $12. It's very cute, and will work well for a rain coat after Halloween! My daughter will be a duck with a hand-me-down costume.

Anonymous said...

Clisby - I was Medusa for Halloween as a kid and my mom did my hair with pipe cleaners! Worked great ;)

I have photos posted of my kiddo's costumes on my bloggy (due to dd's halloween party at school).

DD is going to be a puppy dog. My ex bought her a costume for $4 at goodwill but it was too small for her.

He gave it to me to tinker with an I ended up cutting off the hood part and saving the dog ears and the body.

I glued the ears to a headband and fixed the neckline with hot glue (I can't sew...I <3 glue!).

Voila! Fixed :)

We found a cute and warm pumpkin costume for ds at goodwill as well!

I'm going to be rainbow bright (I have a weird wardrobe and didn't have to spend any money on this...haha!).

Not sure if dh will dress up or not. Once he gets home from work and sees that I am dressed up he just might. We'll see :)

Blessed said...

My mom always made our costumes when we were kids, and we still have some of those around to use for our girls--frugal and nostalgic and not like anything else the other kids are wearing! I, alas, can't sew worth anything, so around here we use our imaginations and make do. And we borrow! This year the two older girls are native American princesses, using borrowed costumes--esp. perfect because we have been studying Native Americans this year in our homeschool. Younger daughter is a ballerina, using hand-me-down dress up. Baby boy is going as a butterfly--we are re-inflating a large helium butterfly balloon we got him a month ago for a birthday present and tying it to his back.

(helium balloons make the BEST birthday presents for babies--clip to his sleeve or sock toe while the baby is laying down and he will move his limbs and watch the balloon move. Soon you can see the little brain gears moving and he is moving just the limb that moves the balloon. Just don't let him mouth the balloon itself, in case there is anything questionable about the ink if there is printing on the balloon. We always do mylar balloons, since they are more durable and won't pop accidentally!)

Here is a great idea for a fun and educational costume/party game: use masking tape and a book for reference and make a fairly accurate skeleton on your child. We did this yesterday for a homeschool party--so great! One child had dark sweatpants and sweatshirt and lay on the ground and the rest of us tore strips of manilla masking tape to make bones, using the carriage of this child as our reference points, so that when he stands and moves the bones are in about the right places. A very thifty costume--all you would need is a skull mask to top it off!

And if you were thinking in advance, there are places online where you can get GLOW IN THE DARK masking tape. how cool would that be?! Just make sure you get the classroom safe version (not the super bright military version!).

Anonymous said...

My girlies are going as Minnie and Mickey Mouse. We decided to not go out and buy costume stuff this year (even going the thrift store route can get pricey!) and borrow costumes from a friend. These are handmade and are adorable!!
~Ryann

alison said...

I'm going to be a superhero! (tie my daughter's blanket around my neck, add swim goggles, voila!) And my hubby is too. :)

My daughter wanted to be a "little bitty ninja turtle," with a green long-sleeved shirt and green pants, and a cardboard circle we painted green and added glitter to, attached with elastic like fairy wings.

My son (6) wanted to be a ninja, so I just bought a cheap ninja costume... but then decided he wanted to be a ninja-bat! We made some bat wings out of card-stock, a pipe cleaner (hold the 2 wings together and let them move a bit) and elastic to hold them to his wrists, and a safety pin to attach to the back of his shirt.

My other son (5) wanted a wolf suit of his own after he saw a preview of Where the Wild Things Are. Two towels, 4 pipe cleaners, 4 buttons, and 1/2 a piece of faux fur later, (okay, and about 6 hours of me sewing/figuring out how to make it), he has a very cute Max-wolf suit! That's the one I'm the most proud of. :)

Devon said...

Clisby--I LOVE the Percy Jackson series!!

Lyndsae said...

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Star Trek and those costumes are awesome! I especially like the idea of using bandaids for Vulcan ears. I would never have thought of that.

When you guys dress up, do you ever shake around and fall on the floor, and yell "red alert" because the ship has just been hit by a photon torpedo? No....ok....I guess that's just me?.... ;p

Allison said...

That's a cute idea!

For cold years, I went as a hobo. My parents would just find an old large jacket and other warm clothing. I'd then carry a stick with a bandana tied around it and my dad would color a beard on to my face with eye liner.

For rainy years, I went as a fisherman. I'd just wear my raincoat, hat, and boots and carry a small wooden fishing pole around.

If it was sunny/warm, I was generally a clown which the most complex part was always my makeup. My dad was really good at doing clown make up though so it worked out.

Growing up on Long Island, my costumes were very much dependent on the weather as you can see.

Stacy said...

Well, Halloween is just not my holiday. However, I got a really cute hand-me-down costume for my 2YO son--it's a horse and rider costume. It's a bit of a contraption, but he ends up as both the horse and the rider--lots of legs and straps and such. Very cute. We were invited to a party and he was going to wear it, but got tired of it after a minute or so...so he sort of went as a cowboy instead. I'm holding onto the costume for next year when it will fit him better and he may enjoy it more too.

Carla said...

My MIL is a holiday junkie. For Halloween she has a huge closet with every costume she has ever found at second hand stores. All the kids to go her house to pick out costumes. DS was going to be SpongeBob until his friend (or rather her mother) stole his costume. Still mad over that. So he decided to be Harry Potter instead. DD was going to be Pocohontas but decided to be a clown a the last minute. They had fun. We only had 5 T-or-T'ers despite the fact we live off the two busiest streets in town. The whole town was dead, no kids, no cars, just like a ghost town.

TL Black said...

Emily--very, very nice and creative costume ideas. Adorable baby startrek character!

And it's always great to see what can be done for next Halloween.

Treva said...

My DD was a black cat using clothes from home, a $5 kit from Walmart, and some make-up from my box. We went trunk-or-treating at the high school; it's a combo indoor/outdoor activity day sponsored by the churches in the 2 towns that use the high school. The car trunks are mostly Biblically theme, but a few were simply kid-friendly. Inside the building there were a slew of activities, dinner, and a puppet show. Everything was free and it ran so that families could go there and do trick-or-treating, which we also did.

Pam said...

You are absolutely a girl after my own heart for dressing up like Star Trek characters! We don't celebrate Halloween, but we are Trekkies!

Halloween is my birthday, so we celebrated by my husband taking me on a romantic weekend getaway for the first time since the kids came along!

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised that you KNOW of Halloween's (and Christmas and Easter's) Pagan roots and still take part. There is a scripture that speaks of calling "what's bad good, and what's good bad". I just can't go along with something I KNOW is based on Paganism. Not to mention what many people's costumes are, not a cowboy or a princess, but actually something gorey and like you'd see in a horror film. Definitely not something I would think glorifies God.

Emily said...

Anon,

Romans 14:6 says "He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it."

As long as what we are doing is not sin, we have a choice to partake in these holidays or not. For me, my main concern is this: my family does not know the Lord, and dismissing Christmas and Easter would push them further away. Considering my family's eternity does glofy God.

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