Top Five Scariest Halloween Costumes for Tweens

5) Elderly Person - For many tweens, and even for many people under the age of sixty, becoming old is one of their greatest fears. Why not dress up as an old person? It gives you an opportunity to be crotchety to everyone you meet, and all you need to do is go to a Salvation Army or Goodwill thrift store, and pick out an outfit that looks super-old. You also want a white wig to go with your ensemble, and perhaps even a cane. Bonus points for finding a motorized scooter from your local Target or Wal-Mart to use during your trick-or-treating activities. Plus, you'll be able to get more candy, since people aren't allowed to be outwardly mean to old people!

4) Britney Spears-style Pop Singer - This may not seem like a scary costume to most people, and it's probably one that many tweens will want to be anyway. However, to the countless numbers of parents a tween will encounter on Halloween, a thirteen-year-old wearing a belly shirt and hot pants will be a horrifying sight! Most tweens will already know how to dress like Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus or any f these sorts of singers, but if you don't, do a simple Google image search and look at the pictures for inspiration.

3) Grizzly Bear - You have to get a real grizzly costume for this, not one of those cheesy full-body costumes where the bear face is actually your own face, and you have bear ears on top of your head. Check the links below to find a bear costume with a mask that covers your own face completely. It should be baring its teeth for maximum effect. Why grizzlies? They're huge, ferocious, and most importantly, they are more common in the United States than a lion, wolverine, or Komodo Dragon. Furthermore, they occasionally can be found in human settlements - recently there was a bear sighting in downtown Ithaca, New York, a city of 30,000 people! Imagine going for a morning jog and coming face to face with a bear! I'd be terrified, too.

2) Burglar - One of my greatest fears is waking up in the middle of the night to see a stranger standing over the foot of my bed. I'm sure I'm not alone in this. What you'll want to do is dress in all black, head-to-toe. That includes a black stocking cap, and perhaps even a sweet utility belt with an assortment of lock picks, rope, bags to hide your loot, and so on. Bonus points if you wear one of those black raccoon-style masks! WARNING: You probably should not actually sneak into people's houses and steal things. I am not condoning this kind of behavior at all, but it may be acceptable to sneak an extra piece of candy from one of the houses once in a while. After all, you are dressed as a burglar.

1) Zombies - For some people, the living dead are one of the most horrifying thoughts possible. Dead people, now alive again, difficult to kill, and who want to eat your brain? Scary. To achieve this look on Halloween, you'll need to wear tattered clothing (because if you're a zombie, you've been in a coffin under six feet of dirt for a while, your clothing won't be in good shape) and apply makeup. Try using black eye shadow around the eye area (i.e., not just on the eyelid) and a white face makeup to achieve that undead look.

Good sites for Halloween costumes:
http://www.halloweenexpress.com/
http://www.buycostumes.com/
http://www.costumesupercenter.com/

Also note that your local mall might have a temporary costume store during the month of October; it's worth checking that place out, as well as any year-round costume shops that might be in your general area.