I’m a big fan of Halloween, and every year I try to come up with an original costume idea. It’s hard to be creative for such a widely celebrated holiday, but I think my family’s costume this year is pretty good. It’s also easy, which is nice because we usually wait until the last minute before deciding what to dress up as. For Halloween we’re all going to dress up as The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

We have a couple of young children in our family, so we thought it would be fun to have them play the roles of Cindy Lou Who and Max the Dog. We already have Max’s dog costume from last Halloween when he dressed up as Clifford the Big Red Dog. My daughter has never been Cindy Lou Who, but she has worn her hair in pigtails often enough that she will look cute with her hair styled that way. My wife can wear a long-sleeved green shirt and brown pants, and I can wear some green face paint under an old Santa hat that we still have from last Christmas. All I need is some cotton balls for the beard and mustache!

This budget-friendly DIY Halloween costume idea is perfect for us because we hate spending money on costumes when our kids will only wear them once (

My son and I were talking about what he wanted to be for Halloween. He said, “I want to be a Grinch.” I said, “Is there something else you might want to be?” He thought for a minute and asked if he could be the Grinch’s dog. So we made this costume together.

I started with a green sweatsuit, but it was not quite the right color. I had some extra fabric from another project, so I sewed a piece of the fabric over the top of the sweatsuit collar and along each sleeve, then added a v-shaped piece at the bottom of each pant leg. My son wore his own black shoes and carried an axe (it was actually a toy chopper).

For his head, we cut out two pieces of foam board that fit around his head and attached them in back with velcro. We hot-glued fake fur on top. The nose was made from papier mache over plastic wrap. We added some fake fur at the bottom of it too, and drew on the eyes with black permanent marker.

We cut out teeth shapes from foam board and painted them white. We used more hot glue and fur for his eyebrows, whiskers, beard and hair, and attached them

Here is a picture of my son, and my friend’s daughter, in their halloween costumes. My son is the Grinch and she is the sleigh.

The sleigh was made from a cardboard box (the one he got his bike in) that was covered with silver wrapping paper. We used duct tape to secure the wrapping paper, and then I used spray adhesive to glue the white pillow fluff on it for snow.

My son wore green sweat pants and a long sleeve shirt, along with his grinch mask that I bought on eBay.

To make the Grinch costume complete, we borrowed our neighbor’s dog and put antlers on her!

When my daughter was a year old, we took her to visit some family during the Halloween season. We didn’t have a costume for her, so at the last minute I dressed her as a pumpkin: orange footed pajamas, green hoodie with a stem on top, and a black marker drawing in the face.

The reaction was unanimous: “How cute! She’s an acorn!”

“No, she’s a pumpkin.”

“What?”

“She’s a pumpkin.”

“Oh yeah? Well I think she’s an acorn!”

This went on for several minutes. It pretty much sucked the joy out of Halloween for me, and I vowed never again to take my child out in public without a costume that everybody could recognize on sight.

I thought about it all year long. How to make sure people would get it? How to make sure nobody would ask “What’s she supposed to be?”

Every year, I have to decide on a costume for the kids to wear for Halloween. My son is about 3 years old and my daughter is about 10 months old.

I knew that I wanted to dress them up together in some sort of coordinated costumes. I also wanted us all to be able to stay warm and comfortable (since in Canada we have snow for Halloween sometimes). So, I decided on dressing them as the Grinch’s dog Max and Cindy Lou Who from Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

My son was the Grinch’s dog Max because he has a pair of long furry ears that could easily be attached to a hoodie or any type of hat. Also, Max is usually depicted as wearing a shirt or sweater with a decorative collar. This would allow my son to stay warm during trick-or-treating as well as look like he was wearing Max’s “shirt”.

I dressed my daughter as Cindy Lou Who because she has long red curly hair just like Cindy Lou Who and there were many different outfits available that were Cindy Lou Who inspired. It was easy to find a white dress with red tights for her at the local store. A red bow in her hair and some red mary janes completed the

I’ve always been a big fan of Dr. Seuss and I love to read his books to my children. One of my favorite stories is “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”. When I was given the opportunity to make a costume, I knew right away that I wanted to make the Grinch.

I started out by purchasing a green velvet capelet at the local fabric store. I then glued green fur around the edges and on the back. To attach it to my shoulders, I used two pieces of elastic that would go under my arms and around my neck, holding it in place securely.

The next step was making the Grinch mask. I used an old plastic mask from Halloween and simply covered it with green fur and painted on the face details.

For his hands, I covered an old pair of gloves with green fur and attached them at the wrist with elastic so they would stay in place.

Finally, for his feet, I cut out some long sections of fur to cover his feet and legs like high boots. Also attached with elastic bands, they were easy to slip on over my shoes!

I live in a small town called Brevard in Western North Carolina. It’s a cute little town, with a very low crime rate and generally friendly people. It’s usually pretty safe to walk around without locking up your house or your car, but there is one day a year where it just isn’t safe. You see, on Halloween I’m known as the grinch. I’ve been dressing up as the grinch for about 4 years now and it has become somewhat of a tradition in my town that everyone expects me to come out every year and scare all of the kids who come to my door. If I don’t, they call me and ask why I didn’t dress up like the grinch again this year.

I’ve had some very interesting experiences with kids who have come to my door on Halloween, including some little kids who have cried because they think that I’m the real grinch who stole Christmas! One time, a few teenagers came over dressed as gangsters and tried to intimidate me by telling me that they were going to rob my house because they thought that I was an easy target and wouldn’t fight back. Needless to say, they were mistaken and learned not to mess with the grinch.

I’ve decided that this Halloween will be my