Creative Halloween Costume Ideas

Once Halloween starts barreling around the corner, a collective shiver of panic tends to run down partygoers' spines. It's supposed to be a time of tricking and treating, dressing up and having fun. But all that merriment can be marred by the fact that you're sitting at home in a panic because you can't think of a good costume. Every idea that does pass through your head seems to be either something you've gone as in the past or something you saw somebody else go as once.

Don't become the dreaded costume repeat offender, and cease your costume quandary immediately. Here's a short list of some fun and inventive ideas sure to be the envy of every outfit toting partier.

What you need: Lots of purple balloons, green pants or tights (depending on the temperature outside…or your gender), brown or green long sleeved shirt.

What you need to do: Wear the green or brown pants and brown shirt, then proceed to fasten the inflated purple balloons all over your shirt, as many as will fit. Safety pins seem to work the best. Just fasten the pin through the knotted end of the balloon (not the inflated end!) and then through the shirt as well. Voila! You're a delectable bunch of grapes.

2. What you're going as: A streaker

What you need: Beige unitard (if a unitard isn't available, beige pants and top work as well), a long, black trench coat

What you need to do: Simply wear the beige clothes and the trench coat. Keep the trench coat securely fastened until ready. At the opportune moment, unknot the belt, throw open the two sides of the coat.

Note of warning: you'll only get to stay at the party if you remember the beige unitard underneath…

3. What you're going as: The road

What you need: Black pants, black shirt, white construction paper, toy cars

What you need to do: Wear the black clothes, cut out strips of the white paper and fasten to your pants and shirt in thin vertical, dotted lines. Fasten cars to your clothes.

(For additional fun, add paper cutouts of road signs.)

4. What you're going as: A stop light

What you need: Black pants, black shirt, three tap lights (round battery operated lights that you push to turn on-think infomercial, they're advertised all the time), red, green and yellow tissue paper, duct tape, large pieces of cardboard or tagboard, string, hole-punch

What you need to do: Fasten tissue paper over the tap light, one color to one tap light. Cut two pieces of cardboard to the same size-a comfortable size for you to wear (you'll basically be making a sandwich board). Hole-punch holes into the cardboard, one where each shoulder will fall and one on each side. Duct tape the tap lights onto the cardboard red on top, yellow in the middle and green on bottom. Dress in your black pants and shirt. Put on sandwich board, secure front and back with string where you've hole-punched. Tap your green light, and you're ready to go.

These are just a few suggestions. The bottom line is that there are hundred upon hundreds of creative ideas out there. Don't settle for being the hackneyed ghost, witch or black cat of the party.