The genius girls in the office next to mine have come up with a new way to wile away the hours: a Quiz of the Week. Every week, a new question appears on their dry-erase board. Last week, the question was “What Would You Be If You Weren’t a Lawyer?” The answer to that one is easy. A princess. Duh. Someone else put “a frog”, which struck me as going for the wrong end of the fairy tale. But I suppose frogs are always being tossed golden balls and other trinkets by princesses on the lookout for princes in disguise, so it can’t be all that bad, even if you are stuck croaking on a lily pad all day and have to deal with all those snide comments about warts.
But I digress, as usual. This week’s question, appropriately enough, was “What Was Your Weirdest Halloween Costume?” Someone put “a frog”. We seem to have an amphibian leitmotif running– or rather, hopping– through our office.
My Halloween costumes always tended towards the esoteric rather than the amphibian. In college, I belonged to a group which held a “Come as your favorite literary character” party every Halloween. As you can imagine, there was usually a plethora of Scarlett O’Haras in big, hooped skirts (it’s amazing what you can do with three hoola hoops and a roll of duct tape), a few Daisys from The Great Gatsby, and generally at least one Phantom of the Opera lurking in the general vicinity of the punch bowl, searching for a susceptible Christine Daae. The very best costume was that of my friend Evan, who borrowed a burka from a Middle Eastern friend and went as an ink blot.
As for me? Well, let’s just say my costumes were usually greeted with, “Who?” One year, I went as the Belle Dame Sans Merci, complete with a friend dressed in tin foil who was meant to be my “knight at arms, alone and palely loitering”. (There’s nothing like a human prop– among other things, they fetch you drinks.) I got a lot of “the Belle Dame sans WHAT?” Another year, I was Catherine Morland from Northanger Abbey (yep, you guessed it, “Catherine WHO?”). For my crowning achievement, I made myself an elaborate eighteenth century gown with panniers so wide I had to sidle sideways through doorways and went as Evelina from Fanny Burney’s novel of that name. Find me someone else who has read Evelina and I will be their friend for life.
As for this year? I think I’m going as a Tired Author, complete with unfinished manuscript pages heavily scored with red ink.
What about you? Do you have Halloween costumes of which you’re particularly proud– or embarassed? Any plans for this year’s costume?
On a completely unrelated note, I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve just received a very large pile of advance copies of my new book, The Seduction of the Crimson Rose. Well, maybe it’s not so unrelated after all, since most of the characters are wearing disguises of one sort or another, some masking their identities, others their emotions. One person posting (one posting person? I can’t bring myself to write “poster– it sounds too much like a wall-hanging) will receive an advance copy of Crimson Rose. For more chances to win a copy of Crimson Rose, stop by my website for this month’s contest!
EDITED TO ADD:
Hi, all! I couldn’t resist adding a little note. Right after this post went up on Wednesday, I discovered that my very best friend in the whole world, who is a crafting genius, designed a Halloween costume so clever that it’s going to be featured on this Saturday’s CBS Early Show! Not only that, but it’s going to be modeled by her absolutely adorable niece. So, if you’re an early riser, tune in to CBS at 7:45 a.m. Eastern Time to see Nancy’s amazing Halloween costume! The details are on her website: http://belleepoquewhimsy.com.
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Most people don’t celebrate Halloween here in Finland, so no Halloween costumes.
by Minna
on October 24th, 2007 at 6:32 am
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I don’t dress for Halloween in a costume, just a T-shirt with a Halloween design on it and sweats so I’m comfy. I’ll just be passing out candy and checking out every one elses costumes.
I checked out your book Crimson Rose, it sound really good. Like a book you would want to keep reading and not put down. I sooooo want a copy!!!
by Tammy G.
on October 24th, 2007 at 6:37 am
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as i was explaining to a coworker last week, i used the same costume for a couple of years in a row because i couldn’t think of anything else. I went as a catholic school girl to a couple of parties because since i went to catholic high school, I already had the uniform. my boyfriend (now husband) thought i was completely uncreative, but didn’t stop me. I think i was always more amazed that the uniform still fit. 
by faith
on October 24th, 2007 at 8:03 am
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My favorite was my oldest son’s first halloween. I dressed him up as a gOrrilla, and I went as a gUErrilla. He wore one of those one piece fuzzy costumes and I wore my combat pants from work, a long sleeved black tshirt and tucked a BB gun in my waistband. I thought I was brilliant. Everyone else said “Huh?”
by LorelieLong
on October 24th, 2007 at 8:11 am
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Yeah…I’m usually “tired, overworked mom” for Halloween, although if I won, I’d be “overjoyed mom”! 
My youngest daughter will be Snow White (or brown ), my middle girl will be the Evil Witch, and my oldest son is going to be a firefighter (the cloest thing to “the woodcutter I could find, the costume came with an ax). Yeah..we got a sort of theme going!
by Sharmi
on October 24th, 2007 at 8:39 am
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The most embarassing one was a cow. It had the udders and people thought that was funny. Wanted to know if they could get some milk.
by Stacy S
on October 24th, 2007 at 8:42 am
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Alas, I haven’t dressed up in ages. The best one was when I wore my Star Trek: The Next Generation shirt uniform. 
I was an Admiral. . . no stinken Captains here! LOL The second best was when I wore the blue astronaut suit I picked up during a trip to Kennedy Space Center a little bit before then. Now that would have been really cool if someone didn’t just so happen to wear the exact same thing from his trip to Space Camp the summer before. Ugh.
That was high school. Before that I was a cheerleader, hobo, had an old fashioned bathing suit (you know, from the days where you had to get dressed to go swimming, the dress, the pants, the hat and all LOL) and I had found a jumpsuit that I turned into my first astronaut outfit. . . although people said I looked more like a cosmonaut because it was red. Hey, you gotta go with what you have.
Lois
by Lois
on October 24th, 2007 at 9:16 am
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At work we are allowed to dress in costumes on Halloween and a few years ago a few of us decided to dress as the group ‘Kiss’. We did the whole get-up with painting our faces and the wigs and it was a blast. It took forever to get dressed and all the make-up on, but it took even longer afterwards to clean it all off…ha,ha. We had a ball at work even though it was a little difficult to work in our outfits.
by Shari C
on October 24th, 2007 at 9:22 am
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I didn’t dress up as a child…though I did go out and trick or treat. This year I have an orange t-shirt which has blacklettering saying, “I Don’t Do Costumes!”
by Little Lamb Lost
on October 24th, 2007 at 10:31 am
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This year I will be dressing up because I love to and I will be Jean Harlow. I love the ook of that era and it is so unique and special to wear those dresses and have my hair in that style.
by jenna
on October 24th, 2007 at 11:52 am
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Me and my girlfriend sit on my front porch every year and hand out candy while her husband takes her kids around. Sometimes we where masks while handing out candy. Just love seeing all the different costumes every year.
by Teresa W.
on October 24th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
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My best costume was as a cowboy. When I used to work full-time we always had costume parties. I did the whole thing, wore my husband’s jeans and flannel shirt, cowboy hat, cowboy boots, bandana around neck, a thick rope hanging off the side of me, suede jacket with fringe, along with a rifle. Yep, I wore it all to work along with the rifle. My boss raised his eyebrow at the gun. I told him it went with my costume! He just nodded in agreement and said, “Uh huh”.
by Michele L.
on October 24th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
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I loved dressing up as a child. I think my favorite costume from then was a pilgrim costume.
by Maureen
on October 24th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
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I haven’t dressed up in ages. Your book Crimson Rose sound really good.
by Emma
on October 24th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
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I don’t dress up for Halloween. This will be the first year we have lived in a place where we are apt to get trick or treaters. Will just go to the door and hand out treats.
by Estella
on October 24th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
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When I dress up it is usually as a character from a book. This year it will be as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz with Toto since I have an adorable Maltese who gets to dress up as well.
by ellie
on October 24th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
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Sometimes I dress up when our book club plans something but we didn’t plan anything for this year. I did make sure to get my son his costume. Last year, he had so much fun trick or treating (he was three then). This year, I am dressing him as a ghoul. He’s really into the witchy and ghost theme when it comes to having me read to him.
by Janet
on October 24th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
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I haven’t dressed for Halloween since I was a teenager.
by Linda F
on October 24th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
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I don’t dress up for Hallowe’en anymore but I loved it when I was younger and I will dress up a little to giveout the candies. I will be a cowgirl with the black felt hat and the skirt and cowboy boots. I love that look.
by ruth
on October 24th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
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Congrats on all these ARC… I never played dress up… one Halloween… I just tried to be a white witch… and everyone asked who I was!
by Lily
on October 24th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
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I loved to dress up… playing in my mom’s closet, try her makeup, so Halloween was great when she allowed me to do just that! My favorite costume was a little princess 
by Nathalie
on October 24th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
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I love Halloween, so I have a large array of costumes, but I think this years costume is the best. My best friend and I (our spouses refuse to dress up) are going to a party as Lucy and Ethel. The costumes are surprisingly eleborate and the husbands and kids think there great. I have been everything from a Queen (my daughter was a princess and my son a prince), a referee (daughter cheerleader, son football player). Do you see a pattern here? LOL
by Patty L.
on October 24th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
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This year… I’ll be at home, asleep by 9PM… and I am pretty embarrassed by one year where my school was holding this major costume event and I came as…….myself! So forgot about it… it was humiliating!!!!
by Lila
on October 24th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
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I don’t celebrate Halloween… haven’t since grade school. So, no dressing up for me. In fact, I usually find some place to be other than home while trick-or-treating is going on.
I do, however, have a picture of me when I was about 5, dressed up as Casper the Friendly Ghost. It was probably my best costume.
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This year I will be dressing up probably as Little Red Riding Hood. Got away from that years ago but now that I have a one year old baby girl and a 4 year old boy who are dressing up I am more excited about it. The baby girl is being dressed up as a Rainbow Baby from the Noah’s Ark collection and my son is dressing up as Diego from The Nick Jr. Cartoon Go Diego Go. The funny thing was when I told my son I was dressing up as Little Red Riding Hood his response was “Daddy should dress up as the wolf”. I cracked up laughing. My favorite costume was the year I dressed up as a bunny. I think I was about 8 or 9 and the costume was so cute on me and my twin sister. We made the cutest twin bunnies.
by Cherie J
on October 24th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
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Last year, my first year at college I went to a party as Pippi Longstocking!
by Alison D.
on October 24th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
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I adore Halloween!
My favorite costume was the year I was Tammy Faye and my best guy friend was Jim Baker. The next year I was an Angel and he was the Devil.
Jennifer K…I was Casper one year when I was aroung 6 years old!!
by Angie T
on October 24th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
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Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful costume stories with me! I wish I could give books to everyone who replied… but since my number of advance copies is limited, I had to close my eyes, jab a finger blindly at the screen, and pick just one. So the advance copy of Crimson Rose goes to Nathalie! Congrats, Nathalie. If you’ll email me at willig@post.harvard.edu, we can arrange for book conveyance.
Thanks to everyone else for replying! (And I have so many reply comments I want to make about costumes, but it’s getting late, so it will have to wait till tomorrow….)
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OK I see I’m way behind here…oh well…I’m a grad student, ’nuff said.
I love Halloween, and since our department’s graduate student Halloween party is at my house, I usually insist on costumes (actually, I threaten to not let any one in who is NOT in costume…but anyway). I think the worst was when I tried to be a Mardi Gras Reveler, complete with feathered mask, beads (which I got at a theme park in Florida, not New Orleans) and a green dress and purple tights. Why? Because they are Mardi Gras colors. I got a lot of “what” that Halloween.
My proudest is two years ago when I went as a little girl playing dress-up: a dress too big, gaudy costume jewelry, lots of blue eyeshadow and pink blush, striped tights and silver shoes. It was a hit!
by Jessica
on October 26th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
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My costumes tend to be something I can throw together at the last second. In recent years, I’ve been a Hitchhiker in the style of Arthur Dent, sporting a bathrobe and a towel, and a newsboy, achieved with a cap, newspaper, and a few song and dance breaks from ‘Newsies.’ This year I’ve got my eye on a fedora and a giant scarf knit by my sister- it’s the Fourth Doctor for: http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42714000/jpg/_42714351_sarahjane_seeds400.jpg
by Emily
on October 27th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
