I’ve never felt creative enough for Halloween. I like to think of myself as imaginative but these generally tend towards other projects. Something about Halloween just isn’t inspiring until it has already passed. I suppose it’s similar to birthdays in that you can only think of a good present when it’s not someone’s birthday. Or you can only think of things you’d like for your birthday in March when it’s July. There’s something about the pressure to come up with something in preparation for a deadline in real life that just stops the ideas from flowing.

Halloween, in particular, has a lot of ‘guide-lines’ it seems, especially depending on the category chosen. If you’re going scary, it can’t fall short which puts on quite a bit of pressure; sexy presents its own set of issues; funny is also difficult to pull off; and playing it safe or simple always seems like a bit of a cop out. I won’t pull the ‘but this year, we came up with the perfect costume’ line because I’m fairly certain we haven’t. That being said, I think it’s probably more important to dress up as someone or something you’d have a good time being. Halloween is one day where you can pretend again, so becoming someone or something you’d like to be seems like a good way to go.

For one of the Halloween nights (we have a few just to make sure you really get in the spirit), my group decided on professional soccer players. We represented a few different nations and clubs. There were a few major bonuses to the soccer outfits: 1. How many times do you get to go to a bar in a t-shirt and sneakers and still look like you made some kind of effort? 2. It’s pretty easy to move around because you’re basically wearing work-out clothes and 3. You get to sing football chants and there seems to be some kind of context. The third was particularly good for the hype. Nothing like a line outside a bar giving it a bit of ‘olay’ and jumping around.