Twelve Months of Halloween

One epic ‘Star Wars’ battle.

by Sarah Smiley


My kids start begging for Halloween costumes in August, and every year the boys do some variation on Star Wars characters.

Dustin, my military-trained husband who is as frugal as he is opposed to any holiday that involves cheap costumes held together with flimsy seams and rubber bands, always suggests that the boys make their own costumes out of materials from home. This doesn't go over well. Cardboard boxes, construction paper and glue has nothing on the display of a Darth Vader costume that looks movie-quality, if not for the ties and gaping holes in the back that will expose their underpants.

By September, the boys were running around our deck dressed as Anakin Skywalker, Jango Fett and R2D2. This caused jealous neighbors to beg their parents for Halloween costumes, too, and with more than six weeks left to go until Oct. 31, there were full Star Wars battles commencing daily in my backyard.

Each day the boys put on their costumes, a new seam would burst open or a thread would pull out of the hem, and I knew we were on borrowed time until the whole thing unraveled. The Jango Fett helmet was cracked on one side and dented on the other. R2D2's hat was missing, and Anakin's light saber was permanently stuck in the down position.

The boys didn't care about any of this. Damaged costumes were more evidence of battles fought and won. I sensed that the boys could do without Oct. 31 all together if they could continue to play in the backyard in their costumes. (But then Mom couldn't eat all their candy, and that's the best part of Halloween, now isn't it?)

I had come to a place of acceptance with the cheap, tattered costumes that were not made at home but purchased in a store for less than a pair of tennis shoes. (Yet, when the boys said that they wanted me to dress up as "the Princess Leia who wears a bikini," I told them it would be too expensive.)

I admit I was somewhat sad to throw out last year's costumes in exchange for new ones. Anakin, Jango and R2D2 kept the boys busy and out of my hair for many hours these past 12 months, making it the best $19.99 I ever spent.