Christmas Gifts and Costumes

Halloween is officially over for another year. Phew. That was a busy one. But the fun isn’t over yet. Now it’s time for Christmas madness to begin. Costumes make great christmas gifts for children of all ages. They nurture imagination and encourage healthy play.

Little boys and girls will go wild over their christmas presents when they receive great toys like super hero costumes. What little kid hasn’t tied a towel or sheet to their necks and pretended to be superman or batman. Keep your towels and sheet clean and give your kids the real deal. They’ll be ecstatic with the christmas gift and their playtime will be supercharged fun.

Course giving halloween costumes as christmas gifts is not limited to super heroes nor is it limited to only children.

Other great costume gifts for kids might be Star Trek, Transformers or Super Mario Brothers.

For adults the story is a little different. Maybe you can surprise your wife or girlfriend with a sexy costume for private fun. Good places to start your search might be cheerleaders or french maids. Although you may want to first determine your honey’s preference before making this sort of purchase. You wouldn’t want to offend her with an inappropriate choice.

The same kinds of costume gifts are a neat idea for giving to guys as well. Maybe a gladiator or a viking might spark a night of naughty fun.

If you want to go all out decorating your home for christmas this year consider getting some santa costumes. They are available for dogs, kids, women and men. It’s fun to dress up. You don’t have to wait for halloween.

Scary Things: Another Halloween Poem

scary things…
scary things…
everywhere i see;
witch in the air and
spiders in the trees.

a cold wind blows -
the moon is big;
fallen leaves crunch
under my feet.

scary things…
scary things…
i know they’re there,
even though i
cannot see.

vampires hungry for blood,
werewolves on the hunt;
wicked witches and
attacking flying monkeys.

scary things…
scary things…
this is Halloween.
all afright with
spooks and demons.

scary, scary,
frightful Halloween fun.

This Is Halloween

What does Halloween mean to you?

Carving spooky jack-o-lanterns. Haunting up your home. Scary monsters and howling ghosts.

Of course to children it means FREE CANDY. But what makes Halloween of such great appeal to grown-ups. We can buy ourselves all the candy we want any time we want. And besides, we don’t go trick or treating. At least not usually anyway. So why has a holiday that was originally just kids fun turned into such a big hit with adults?

Sure marketing gurus, the media and the entertainment industry all have a hand in its mass-appeal, but there has to be an underlying factor which caused so many non-children to embrace this once child exclusive holiday. My guess is it’s the whole costume thing. The idea of dressing up as someone else for an entire night has lots of freudian appeal. If it were socially acceptable a lot of people would probably disguise themselves more often. Unfortunately Halloween is the only day of the year that it is. Okay, there’s Mardi Gras, but that’s pretty much just a New Orleans thing (so far).

Halloween and its array of personal disguises is similar to many other social lubricants like alcohol, food and sports. All these things make it less stressful for people to interact with each other, especially unfamiliar people. All these activities provide a rare sense of internal freedom to act more boldly than we normally would. Instead of mulling over what to say or do, we just let it out. It’s a wonderful thing and so is Halloween.

Obama-rama

President Barack Obama is consistently making headlines – both good and bad.  Debate continues over his health care plans and his Nobel Peace Prize award.  History was made when the United States of America elected him their very first african-american commander-in-chief.  How much history he will make in office remains to be seen. But whatever you think of him, there’s no denying he is a part of history now and forever. Obama’s election as 44th president of the USA was arguably the most significant milestone in american history since the (supposed) walk on the moon in 1969. At least this one we know for certain is real. Rigged, maybe, but real nonetheless.

What better Halloween costume to choose this year than him. It’s all very economical during these hard times. All you need is the mask. Use a business suit that you already own and you’re good to go. Plus it’s a multi-tasker. Save it to wear at political rallies. Works just as well whether you are protesting or supporting.

Or if you’re a melancholy republican still grieving the democratic take-over of washington and Tom DeLay’s exit from Dancing with the Stars, there’s always nostalgia to keep you going until the next great elephant regime.

Politics and Halloween may not seem like they go together, but they do.  On Capitol Hill every night is Mischief night.

Happy Halloween.

Halloween + Internet = $$$$

It seems to me that Halloween has only become the uber popular holiday it now is because of our good friend the internet. If the internet can do that for Halloween what other untapped sales channels do you think it might awaken?

Mardi Gras? St Patrick’s Day? Easter?

While Halloween in America as well as other nations across the globe has  been a fun little holiday for many, many generations, it wasn’t until around 2002-2003 that it really began to explode as a retail phenomenon. Nowadays come September the halloween related searches begin surging and sales of all related paraphernalia go positively nuclear.

My educated guess for the success of this marriage (halloween and the internet) is simple – choice.

Back in the dark ages before Google and Amazon and everything else we now take for granted, halloween costume shopping meant going to Caldor or Woolworths. Combing through long and bloated racks of cheesy plastic cookie cutter costumes. Plastic jumpsuits – all the same – with different less than artistic prints. Hard plastic half masks with sharp edges and awkward eye holes. The only thing these sad halloween costumes had going for them was low cost and limited competition. It was pretty much that or nothing. Barring home-made costumes of course. But most kids mom’s don’t want to spend 6 months sewing something their child will only wear once or twice. The fancier costumes were sparse at best. On top of that they seemed incredibly expensive in those days. In an ocean of $5.00 costumes that every other kids was wearing any way, spending $30.00 on one seemed downright insane.

Then came the internets. It didn’t have much effect on Halloween at first. It was a slow evolution. Though fast by most evolutionary standards. Over the course of the late 90’s and early 2000’s  retailers gradually began loading their wares onto e-commerce stores in the vague hope of retail bliss. Seemingly overnight, our choice of halloween costumes went from a few to thousands upon thousands. As people discovered all these new choices and began to purchase and wear them – even more choices were added by manufacturers and in turn by retailers.

Early adopters were blessed with a firestorm of Halloween sales greater than even in their wildest dreams. As word of this phenom spread it only served to further increase choices and sellers and interest.

Today the internet halloween costumes sales market is saturated, probably over-saturated in fact. Good for buyers and for Halloween. Great for manufacturers. A lot tougher for each individual retailer though. Will the market even out? Will the bandwagon jumpers fade away and the pioneers rise to the top again? Or will those visionaries need to seek a new mecca and work the magic of the internet anew on some as of yet untapped sales nirvana.

Only time and google will tell.

What do you think will be the next big thing?

Most Popular Least Popular Halloween 2009

There are only 22 days til Halloween October 31, 2009. Not much time left for you procrastinators out there.  To make sure all you last-minuter’s can still find a Halloween costume you’ll love I’ve decided to offer a modest list of this year’s most popular in stock costumes and this year’s least popular in stock costumes.

For those who like to follow the current trends – Halloweencostumes4u.com has a large selection of extremely popular Halloween costumes in stock and ready to ship within a few days of ordering.

Most Popular for Halloween 2009

The Most popular by a long shot – top of the list… Super Mario Brothers for kids. Mario is besting Luigi as expected. Still Luigi is making a strong showing. Super Mario Brothers costumes are available in kids deluxe and kids regular as well as adults deluxe and standard. The deluxe kids super mario is the most popular of this very popular costume line.

An unexpected come back is the Batman Dark Knight Joker Costume for children. This costume was super hot last year and evidently that cache has carried over. They are going fast as they are currently 30% off. This one could be a true keeper that stays strong through many, many years.

Two big ones for the girls are the Magical Mermaid and the Ninja Girl costumes. It’s nice to see that balance in popularity amongst young girls between beauty (magical mermaid) and girl power (girl ninja). Although, personally I prefer girl power!

G.I. Joe has seen quite a spike in sales as Halloween draws closer. The Snake Eyes Kids’ Muscle chest costume being the big winner.

Hannah Montana is also surging. The Polka dot clad Hannah winning the popular vote so far.

For the non-conformists out there amongst us, you can be unique by snatching up some of these costumes which everyone thought would be popular, but turned out not to be.

Least Popular Costumes for Halloween 2009

X-Men Wolverine is one that was expected to be big. It’s seen modest sales. But for fans of the x-men movies and comics it’s a great costume that won’t be overplayed this year.

Power Rangers is another popular franchise that’s costumes are doing okay, but not as expected. Power Rangers are fun for all ages and they probably come in your favorite color no matter what your favorite color is.

Though the Terminator Salvation movie seemed to be a success its costume line is not drawing many takers. They’re very cool despite this. With John Connor and the T600 for both kids and adults. and a Blaire for Women and Teens.

Harry Potter – once the all-time best selling king of Halloween costumes for all ages has slipped in his old age. While they still occasionally sell, they have not regained their momentum despite new book and movie releases. If you love Harry Potter or Hermione or Ron Weasley – now’s the time to grab yourself a costume from the series. Your costume will be quite original this Halloween.

Star Trek 2009

Did I misunderstand all those news articles? Wasn’t Star Trek 2009 a huge, insanely popular, blockbuster movie across all demographics? Wasn’t it? I could’ve sworn that it was. I need only check my Netflix saved queue to confirm. Release date of the DVD is still unknown. Always a good indicator of a movies popularity. The better a movie does in theaters the longer it takes to come out on dvd. Plenty of other movies that came out way after it did are long released to DVD.

So what gives people? No one is buying the Star Trek costumes for Halloween. The only things that are really selling are a Women’s Uhura and the Spock Ears/Wig. How can you buy just the Mr. Spock ears and wig combo and not buy the Blue shirt costume to go with? I don’t understand. I’m very confused. And upset. I thought Star Trek had finally broken through to the mainstream.

Why would only the ladies costume be a big hit? No one wants to be Captain Kirk? No little boys? No big boys?

Maybe no one is buying the Star Trek costumes because everyone thinks that everyone else will be wearing the same thing. Well, I’m here to tell you that it just isn’t true. YOU CAN BE Captain Kirk and there probably won’t be that many other Captain Kirks hanging round. You can be Scotty or Sulu. You can be Nero. You can pretty much be any character from Star Trek except for Uhura and you won’t be surrounded by clones.

Get yourself in a Star Trek costume for Halloween 2009 – Boldly go where no one has gone this Halloween.

Licensed Michael Jackson Costumes

In a previous post (Michael Jackson Costumes), written shortly after his untimely death, I explained how there were no Official Michael Jackson Halloween Costumes, but pointed out some very respectable generics.

Since then, a major Halloween manufacturer has acquired the licensing rights from his estate and has started shipping/producing a modest selection of Genuine Mr. Jackson, King of Pop costumes and accessories.

There are two jackets. His classic military style jacket and his red thriller video jacket. The rest of the current products in the Michael Jackson costume line are essential accessories if one truly wants to look like the King of Pop himself. Some wigs from his various hair eras. The super duper important SEQUIN GLOVE. Gotta have that.

There’s also a pair of sunglasses. Which honestly, look like any old shades you could buy anywhere. And a black fedora hat, which also is pretty much the same as any ordinary costume fedora. These two items you’re probably better off using true generics as there’s no visual difference and you’ll save money not buying the branded ones.

But if you really want to be Michael Jackson for Halloween this year you will definitely want one of the official costume Jackets, a wig and of course, of the utmost important – the Michael’s Jackson’s famous sequined glove.

Browse all the Official Michael Jackson costume stuffs.

Thanks to these brand new Licensed Michael products being him for Halloween is as easy as  A B C – 1 2 3 or do re mi.

Have a killer, thriller Halloween night!

Halloween Poem III: Space Heros

Which is scarier,
A werewolf a ghost?
Fangs or spooksters,
Which scares you most?

Star Wars or Star Trek,
Which would  you be?
Had you your choice of
costumes come  this Halloween.

Mr. Spock is very
logical, and Kirk is the man,
but don’t forget Uhura,
She ’s pretty fab.

Han Solo was hero,
and Leia the princess,
Darth Vader fought hard,
but Yoda was the best.

Are you counting down the days yet?
Cause it’s almost Halloween.
We’ll wear cool costumes all night
and we’ll munch on lots of candy.

It doesn’t matter if we’re Skywalker,
Anakin or Sulu. Just ring the bell,
Shout Trick or Treat and enjoy
all your Halloween treats.

Halloween is Nigh

Halloween is drawing nigh. About a month and a half until. You may think that’s still plenty of time to pick out and purchase a costume, but you would be gravely mistaken. Mwwhahaha.  [scary music]

Unless you don’t care if you end up with the last grubby, battered, run of the mill, generic $10 witch costume at the local Wal-Mart you need to get hopping. For the best selection of Halloween costumes it is IMPERATIVE that you shop early. Even if plan on shopping an online vendor and don’t mind paying twice the price of the costume to have it shipped next day, you still may miss out.

Just like regular real-life stores, online stores also run out of the popular stuff as Halloween day draws closer. You’re setting yourself up for disappointment by procrastinating.

Shop early for the primo selection of Halloween costumes in full sizes ranges. Pay less for shipping or nothing at all in some cases. Receive your first choice costume in plenty of time without the aggravation.

Plus right now at HalloweenCostumes4u.com there is a pre-halloween sale going on. 30% off some of this year’s hottest tv and movie costumes. Star Wars, Spongebob, Dora the Explorer, Indiana Jones, Shrek, Halo, Clone Wars, Backyardigans and Batman The Joker to name just a few.

On top of those huge savings, spend just $50 to receive free shipping. You’ll get your costume in plenty of time for Halloween. No nail biting or angry calls to customer service. No frantic kids missing out on the fun.

Plus you’ll save a ton of money. So you’ll have plenty left over to buy some pepto to settle your aching stomach after you eat way, way, way too many reese’s peanut butter cups.

It’s a win win situation.

Happy Halloween!