Crazy Christmas Costume Ideas

Christmas fancy dress costumes do not all have to be about dressing up in Santa costumes, elf costumes or even reindeer costumes. Here are a few of my alternative fancy dress ideas for Christmas this year:

Christmas tree costume
What could say more about Christmas than the Christmas tree, but did you know that custom of erecting a Christmas tree or Yule tree comes from Germany and goes right back to the 16th century! I have seen Christmas tree costumes for sale on the web and think that they are excellent.

Christmas Snowman Costume
Ok, so I know that here in the UK it hardly ever snows on Christmas, but even so the snowman is one of the iconic symbols of Christmas, just take a look at the Christmas cards for sale in a book shop and see how many feature a snowman on the cover. There are Snowman costumes available and will make excellent fancy dress costumes for Christmas.

Christmas turkey costume
Ok, so far we have the Christmas tree, a snow man, but what about the Christmas feast? There are a couple of ideas here, what about dressing up in a Turkey costume or even a Christmas pudding, I have seen both available to buy on the web.

Other stange / different Christmas costume ideas could include a Penguin costume, Robin costume or if you want to be nasty this Christmas, how about a Grinch Costume?

Fancy Dress Costumes and Google Insights

Fancy dress related search terms
Google have recently released a tool called Google Insights where you can gain an view as to what people are searching for on their search engine. I decided to see what people search for in relation to fancy dress over the last year as knowing what people are looking for helps me to know what to write about.

Fancy Dress: Top searches
The 10 top searches in relation to Fancy Dress:

1. fancy dress costumes
2. costumes
3. fancy dress costume
4. fancy dress shops
5. fancy dress shop
6. fancy dress ideas
7. fancy dress hire
8. fancy dress party
9. halloween fancy dress
10. fancy dress outfits

So all pretty predictable although it is still interesting to me how many people still search for costume hire companies when looking for a fancy dress costume. What is also great is that so many people search for "fancy dress ideas" - you see I named my blog well!

Rising searches
Things really start to get interesting when we take a look at search terms related to fancy dress that have increased in popularity over the last year.

1. leg avenue + 100% in popularity
2. wonderland fancy dress + 60%
3. army fancy dress + 50%
4. ann summers + 50%
5. joke fancy dress + 40%
6. halloween fancy dress + 40%
7. cheap fancy dress + 30%
8. ladies fancy dress + 20%
9. fancy dress outfit + 20%

So lets take a look at a few of them and figure out why they are increasing in popularity

1) Leg Avenue
Leg Avenue Fancy Dress is a costume company that almost exclusively sells sexy womans costumes as well as lingerie, shoes and swimwear. Leg Avenue started as a family owned hosiery business located in Los Angeles in 1984. From hosiery to lingerie, the company grew quickly. In 1999, the family formed Leg Avenue, Inc. to bring their new concepts to life and it wasn’t long before Leg Avenue decided to enter the Halloween industry. Their designs mix fashion with fantasy, Leg Avenue Costumes are sexy and fun and as they say themselves "No one does sexy costumes better than Leg Avenue." Which i would have to agree with as Leg Avenue are definitely one of my favourite Halloween costume manufacturers as they have some stunning outfits that are usually excellent quality.

More: Sexy Leg Avenue Costumes for Valentines Day

3) Army Fancy Dress
This is an interesting one, I have no idea as to why people are suddenly looking for army costumes? Maybe the fact that there are so may conflicts aroud the world at the moment and that they are all in the media, it had inspired people to dress up in army outfits? Who knows any ideas would be greatly apreciated.

4) Ann Summers
Like Leg Avenue, Ann Summers also stared life selling sexy underwear and lingerie and have now moved on to offer sexy fancy dress and Halloween costumes. Interesting haw it seems that sexy fancy dress is the in thing at the moment (perhaps I should write more about them!) In my experience, I have found that Ann Summers costumes are not as good quality as the Leg Avenue ones.

5) Joke Fancy Dress
I suppose this could be either people looking for novelty costumes, or possibly one of my favourite fancy dress companies in the UK, Jokers' Masquerade Fancy Dress. I think because their website is www.joke.co.uk, many people just refer to them as Jokers Fancy Dress, Joke Fancy Dress or even just as joke.co.uk. According to their website, they have the largest online collection of adult fancy dress costumes and Halloween costumes in the UK, with over 10,000 costumes and accessories to choose from. I have often used them and would highly recommend them to anyone.

9) Fancy Dress Outfit
This is also interesting as it shows that people are starting to think of fancy dress as more than just as costume, but as an outfit, which to my understanding of the word in this context makes a fancy dress outfit somehow more substancial, more seriouse than a costume.

Top 10 Childrens Halloween Costumes 2008

Top 10 children’s Halloween costumes for 2008

Every year the range of fancy dress costumes seems to grow and the largest market for Halloween costumes are children's costumes. With the traditional bricks and mortar stores and on-line merchants offer a vast range of children’s costume ideas. Ranging from traditional ghosts, vampires and scary monsters to the South Park Muscle Devil Costume, from witches to the latest movie and television characters.There are literally thousands of childrens Halloween costumes available and you only limited by your imagination and of course your budget!

So what are the most popular Children's costumes for Halloween?
According to the fancy dress company HalloweenExpress.com the top 10 kids Halloween costumes this year are:

1. Indiana Jones Costume
2. Iron Man Costumes
3. Batman Costumes
4. The Joker Costume
5. Hannah Montana Costume
6. Sharpay (“High School Musical”) Costume
7. Clonetrooper Cody (“Star Wars: Clone Wars”) Costumes (Darth Vader Costume) (Yoda Costume) (Princess Leia Costume)
   
8. Transformers Bumble Bee Costume
9. Monkey Costume (by Tom Arma)
10. Monster bride Costume (Funny Halloween Costumes)
    

A trip down any high street or shopping center is also a good indication of what is popular, yesterday I found plenty of Batman, The Joker and Incredible Hulk costumes for boys. As for the girls there were Hannah Montana costumes including countless accessories including make-up, jewellery, blonde wigs and the sparkly microphone!

We all know that Halloween costumes can get pricey, this is especially true for older children who are less likely to re-use the costume for games of dress-up throughout the year. Discount retailers such as the Wal-Marts Woolworths and Targets of this world have their aisles filled with children’s Halloween costumes which can cost anything upwards from $15, quite a bit of money for just one night of use.

So is the solution to buying, a Homemade Halloween costume? It could be, but as you probably well know as well as me, with children it is hard to beat the glamour and glitz of the commercial costumes! If this still does not help see my earlier post on Kids Halloween costumes for less than $20/£10 and Kids Halloween Costumes

Plus Size Halloween Costumes

Sometimes finding large sizes of fancy dress or Halloween Costumes can be difficult. Most website stock the normal adult costumes, as well as childrens Halloween costumes and even toddler and baby costumes, but no plus size fancy dress. The if you are looking for plus size Halloween costumes it can become even more difficult.



It's all in the name - Halloween Costumes Plus size
If you are searching on the web for larger sized Halloween costumes, you may want to try different search terms. Try "Plus Size Halloween Costumes" or "Full Cut Costumes" as depending on where you live, the terminology for larger sized costumes is different and different fancy dress websites use different names for this category of fancy dress.

I have done a little research and here are a few Plus size Halloween costumes that I think are pretty cool:

Mens Plus Size Halloween Costumes

Halloween Plus Size Adult Werewolf Costume (ref: 23082)
This werewolf costume comes in larger sizes and I think is perfect for Halloween, the Costume includes tattered red gingham shirt with black, grey and white plush fake fur on the chest using a torn through fabric effect. It is available from most good fancy dress stores, both in the UK (including Jokers' Masquerade) and the USA. Halloween plus size awoooooo yeagh! (sorry that was my werewolf impression!)

Plus Size Official Deluxe Ghostbusters Costume (ref: 21808)
Ghostbusters costumes are one of the best selling themes of fancy dress costumes this Halloween and the good news is that the men's Ghostbusters costume is available in larger sizes as well. Another great thing about this costume is it's versatility, as it also make a great 80's theme costume.







Womens Plus Size Halloween Costumes

Plus Size Sally Costume (ref: 22506)
The Sally Standard costume makes an excellent Halloween costume and is also available in larger sizes, try doing a Google search for "Plus Size Sally Standard Costume" For those of you who don't know, Sally Standard comes from the Nightmare Before Christmas film You can find out more the about the film and its cast by visiting the Internet Movie Database. The fully licensed Halloween costume includes a thin dress with printed patchwork colour detail on the front, collar, short sleeves with one slightly longer than the other and dagged finish at the base and sleeves. The back of the dress is an attractive pink and has ties at the base of the neck for easier fitting. There are also two drapes just below the bust at the rear of the dress that will add definition when tied and allow you to make as figure hugging as desired.

Halloween Plus Size Sexy Witch Costume (ref: 21485)
If you are after a more traditional Halloween costume what could be better than a scary witch costume? Something with a little twist in it is a sexy witch costume, hey you can still look sexy and be a witch these days! The good news I also found plenty of Witch Halloween Costumes in Plus sizes on the web.





Adult Devil Princess Costume (FC) (ref: 23314)
Again, a devil costume is a pretty traditional Halloween costume, less so for women, and I think costumes like this one pictured are pretty sexy as well as fitting perfectly into the Halloween theme. There are quite a few plus size women's devil costumes out there, and so you shouldn't find them too difficult to get hold of.

Many thanks to Jokers' Masquerade Halloween Costumes for the excellent Plus size Fancy dress Costume Ideas.

Best Halloween Costume Themes Ever

If you are struggling to come up with a theme for your fancy dress costume this Halloween, here is my list of the best Halloween Costume themes ever:

Classic Halloween Costumes
The top Halloween costumes that will never go out of fashion:

• Witch Costumes
• Devil Costumes
• Vampire Costumes including Dracula Costumes
  
• Werewolf Costume
• Grim Reaper Costume
• Ghost Costumes
• Skeleton Costume
• Zombie Costumes
  

Book and Movie Halloween Costumes
Characters from Books as well as Film characters that make great Halloween costumes

• Ghostbusters Costumes
• The Joker Costume from the Batman Films
• Darth Vader Costume from Star Wars
• Predator Costume
• Chucky Halloween Costumes from the Child's Play, Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky movies
• Edward Scissorhands Costume
• Beetlejuice Costume
• Addams Family Costumes - like the Uncle Fester Costume
• Hellraiser Pinhead Costume - from the horror film Hellraiser
• Skeletor Costume from the He Man Cartoons
• Saw Jigsaw Puppet Costume - From the SAW horror films
• Saw Pig Costume - From the SAW Horror films
  
• Frankenstein Costume
• Jekyll and Hyde Costumes
• Ghost costume from the Scream Horror films
• Tinkerspell Halloween Costume
• Little Dead Riding Hood Halloween Costume
• Malice in Wonderland Halloween Costume
• Freddy Krueger Costume
• Jason Voorhees Costume
  
• Miss Freddy Krueger Halloween Costume
• Sinderella Costume
• Jack Skellington Costume from the Tim Burton hit, Nightmare Before Christmas
• Sally Halloween Costume from the Tim Burton hit, Nightmare Before Christmas

Miscellaneous Halloween Costume themes
Halloween costumes that don't really fit into a group

• Evil Clown Costume
• Evil Jester Costume
  
• Bloody Surgeon Costume
• Bloody Nurse Costume
  
• Ghost Pirate Costume
• Mystic Sorcerer Costume
• VooDoo Doll Costume
• Mummy Costume
• Headless Man Costume
• Spider Princess Costume
• Sorceress Costume
• Mental Straight Jacket Costume
• Gothic Bride Costume
• Sexy Evil Queen Costume
  

So there you go, this list is by no means exhaustive and i will add to it as and when I think of more Halloween costume ideas, please feel free to comment if you can think of anything that I may have forgotten.

Happy Halloween.

Ghostbusters Costumes for Halloween

Apart from The Joker costume, one of the most popular fancy dress costumes for Halloween this year are Ghostbusters Costumes. You can see the increase in traffic in the month of October to the website with the keyword "ghostbuster" in it. See the diagram below:



Ghostbusters Costume as a Halloween Costume?
For me the choice of a Ghostbuster outfit as a fancy dress costume for Halloween is an interesting one. The continued popularity of this now pretty ancient film, shows that a popular theme can have a very long shelf life. Ghosts are a perfect them for Halloween as most of them make pretty scary costumes, but Ghostbusters? Not only do the kill ghosts, but you would in no way call them scary. Perhaps it is the funny Halloween costume theme that is the drawing card here as I have noticed that funny Halloween costumes are becoming more and more popular every year.

If you are interested in wearing a GB costume this Halloween, what versions of the outfit are there?

Adult Ghostbusters Costume
The Official Men's Deluxe Ghostbusters Costume according to the makers is not only an ideal Halloween costume, but also ideal for any 1980's party theme. The costume includes a beige jumpsuit, which fastens at the front by zip and the jumpsuit comes with collar and colour Ghostbusters logo on right upper-sleeve and also above left breast pocket. There are two breast pockets with zips to keep ghost-busting gadgets in! The inflatable proton pack comes with shoulder and waist straps and fasten with plastic buckles. The gun attaches to the backpack via Velcro. For extra value, the proton pack comes with a puncture repair patch in case of emergency.

Child Ghostbusters Costume
The good news is that there is also a children's version of the official Ghostbusters Halloween costume available

Woman's Sexy Ghostbusters Costume
I am pretty sure that this sexy version of the Ghostbusters costume wasn't in the film that I watched back in the 80's but it is nice to have a girls version and could possibly be used as the nicer part in a couples costume for Halloween!

Breasts Sell Fancy Dress Costumes

I think with the title of blog post like this, I will have to explain:

At the top right of the Jokers' Masquerade Halloween Costume website there are 4 teaser icons that they use to highlight a few of their costumes, this year for Halloween, one of the costumes that Jokers' Masquerade wished to promote were the Ghostbusters outfits, one of them being the sexy female version of the costume. As you can seen from the screen grab below, the model's cleavage was used as the part of the costume to highlight it.



When anyone clicks on this icon, it effectively performs a search on the website for "Ghostbusters" which we can track using Google Analytics.

I bet you can't guess when Jokers' Masquerade started using this image by looking at the graph below:



On top of that, the proportion of people clicking this icon is well above any of the other icons next to it and because of this, the sales statistics show, the Ghostbusters Halloween costumes have been one of the top sellers so far this Halloween.

So there you go, I am not commenting, or judging just pointing out the facts, Breasts really do sell fancy dress costumes!

Ooh and if you want to see the icon on the website, pop over to the Jokers' Masquerade Halloween costumes and fancy dress website, but you will have to hurry as I am sure the icon will be removed after Halloween.

Kids Halloween costumes for less than $20/£10

Halloween can be expensive, but that is only if you let it! As it becomes more and more commercialised, so do the Halloween fancy dress costumes. The good news is that with all this competition around, there is plenty of competition and so if you are prepared to shop around you can find many good deals and cheap Halloween costumes. This is all assuming that you are looking to buy and don't want to make your own Halloween costumes.

Even more good news for you is that I have done a little of that research for you and so here are my top Halloween costumes for under $20 or £10 (I also get quite a few people from the UK reading the fancy dress ideas blog)

Child Little Vampire Boy



This vampire costume costs around $15 - $20 (£7 - £10) and as you can see makes a perfect Halloween Costume. There are plenty of Child Vampire costumes at this price range.

For the Girls, I found this Child Witch Costume which should only cost you around $10 (£5) ans so I think is a real bargain.




Many thanks to Jokers' Masquerade Halloween Costumes for the cheap fancy dress ideas from the UK.

Your other alternative would be to make your own Halloween costumes, but be careful as I have found, sometimes buying the materials can cost more than if you were just to buy the Halloween costume in the first place!

So there you go, unless you are looking for deluxe Halloween costumes, there is no need to spend a fortune at Halloween.... save it for Christmas!

Happy Halloween

Halloween Costumes Ideas for Matt Cutts

Matt Cutts... who?
For those of you who don't know, Matt Cutts is a pretty big cheese at Google and as the head of Google's Webspam team, he has plenty to do with search and ranking (SEO) in Google and stuff. Anyway I have been following his blog for quite a while now as it is an excellent source of information on search engine optimisation, good blogging techniques as well being entertaining.

In his latest post, Halloween costume for 2008, Matt asks whether anyone had any ideas for his Halloween Costume this year... I wonder can this blog, Fancy Dress Ideas give him any inspiration?

The Joker Halloween Costume?
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Joker costume is one of the best selling costumes so far this Halloween, I feel that it may be a bit too obvious for Matt, what we are looking for is something more niche, something easier to rank for or in this case easier to stand out from the crowd in, rather than blend in with the bunch of other Jokers out there.. something that someone interested in search engines and optimising websites for them might be interested in...

The Jigsaw Puppet perhaps?
I wonder... I don't see Matt as being a very scary character although having never personally met him I could be wrong... I still can't see him in a super scary costume like Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th although what about dressing as the Jigsaw Puppet from the SAW. Somehow I do imagine him enjoying those films, which I personally found way too painful to watch! The character whilst being super scary has a somehow comic appeal and I think goes with my impression of how Matt should dress up this Halloween... The films whilst being main stream, do have a sort of cult following to them and as such make you more unique, easier to stand out from the billions of websites.. er I mean Halloween costumes out there!

What about something more niche, but still something with a strong cult following, so there is still plenty of traffic.. er I mean plenty of people who could look at the costume and immediately know who you were dressing up as and you would look ubber cool?

An Orange Clock?
That's it!... What about dressing up as Alex from A Clockwork Orange? I do hope you guys in the US and especially you Matt know the classic film from 1971 based on a novel by by Anthony Burgess that looks at Britain in the future and how a charismatic delinquent Alex DeLarge is jailed and later volunteers for an experimental aversion therapy developed by the government in an effort to solve society's crime problem... but not all goes to plan. His character makes a perfect Halloween costume, he is super cool as well as scary, the film is well known (here in the UK anyway!) and has a cult following. Perfect!





So there you have it, my idea as the perfect costume for Matt Cutts: Alex from A Clockwork Orange, hope you enjoy the read!

Happy Halloween!

Super Hairy Fairy Scary Halloween Costume!

Super Hairy Fairy Scary Halloween Costume!

It is not often that a fairy costume makes it into my top 10 scary Halloween costumes category, but sometimes it is not so much the fancy dress that is scary and more to the person wearing it!

The combination of a bearded man in a fairy costume, you have to agree is pretty scary stuff! I am not sure how well this will go down as an adult mens Halloween costume for the masses, who knows it may just take off this year.. or not!

Anyway, I have dubbed this costume a Super Hairy Fairy Scary Halloween Costume!

Happy Halloween!

Joker costumes popular this Halloween

So far this year, one of the most poplar fancy dress costume for Halloween is the Joker, based on the Heath Ledger's character from the Batman film, The Dark Knight.


Some people have gone as far to wonder if it is a macabre attempt to exploit his death or a way to honour the late great Australian actor? What ever the case according to sales statistics leading up to Halloween the Joker costume has been flying out of the door. There are even some Halloween shops in the US that just can't stock enough of the costumes. Across the pond in the UK, on-line fancy dress companies are also experiencing the massive increase in sales of the costume. "The Joker Costumes are definitely one of our best selling lines this Halloween" This is according a representative of Jokers' Masquerade fancy dress and Halloween costumes in the UK.

Halloween Homemade: Homemade Halloween Costumes

I must confess that I, like everyone else concentrate most of my efforts when thinking of fancy dress ideas towards buying costumes. Hiring a Halloween fancy dress costume seems old hat and well, making your own costume is just plain prehistoric and silly.... or is it? In this article I discover why Halloween Homemade may be the way to go.

One thing that really bugs me about Christmas is just how commercial it has become. In fact it bugs me so much that last year my partner and I decided to skip it altogether and we went traveling in The Gambia where the majority of the population is Muslim and Christmas passed us by almost unnoticed, it was fantastic. Then earlier on in the year we traveled again to the island of Malta, where they are very strong Catholics. It was so refreshing to see how they celebrated Easter in the traditional way. Don't get me wrong, I am not overly religious and I do think that it is great to buy presents for your loved ones over Christmas, I just also feel that the commercialism of it all has just gone too far. It is only the 1st of October and I have already seen the first Christmas advert on the TV!

What saddens me, is that I see Halloween becoming more and more commercial every year. It is just much easier to buy a fancy dress outfit than it is to make one. But think of it this way:

Halloween for teens & Children
If you just buy a Halloween costume for your kids, instead of making a homemade Halloween costume for them, you will be missing out on spending quality time with your children as well as it gives the kids something creative to work with and they can develop some core skills, like sewing, reading and understanding the patterns for the costumes.

Homemade Adult Halloween Costumes
Making your own Halloween costume can be fun as well although I think that most people would probably feel that if they were the only people at a fancy dress party with a homemade Halloween costume they may look "cheap" in some way. so if you are planning on hosting a party - why not insist that everyone makes their own costume? We were at a Safari Lodge on the Hwange National park in Zimbabwe over New Years eve once, this place was really remote and for a bit of fun everyone at the lodge had to come to dinner in fancy dress, making the costume out of anything that you could find in your room. I learn't that you can make so many different costumes from a sheet! It was also an excellent ice breaker as even though we did not know any of the guests, it put us all on a level playing field and we all had an excellent time that night.

So why not get back to basics and try making your own Halloween Homemade with some homemade fancy dress costumes this year!