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Getting Ready for #Halloween with Party City Decorations and Kids Costumes


There's a week and a half left until Halloween and I am happy to report that we are all ready for the holiday.  Our decorations are up, we have cool goodie bags to hand out to the trick-or-treaters, and our children have settled on their costumes.

Last year for Halloween, we had put luminaries in the windows.  This year, we wanted to do something fun and slightly spooky, but not so spooky that the young children in the neighborhood would be scared by the decorations.  I ended up choosing two items from Party City for the door and two more for the window.  On the door, we have the 17" Vacuform Keep Out Sign (only $.99) and the 34" Shackles on Chain (for $4.99), which are actually a costume prop.  In our window, we made a display with a 21" Small Fabric Ghost (only $2.99) and a 12' Metal Link Chain.  If you have a ghost, you have to have chains for it to rattle, right?


We have 30 Magic Wand Goodie Bags waiting to be handed out to the trick-or-treaters.  We made those using Wizard of Waverly Wands ($2 per 4pk), Spider Party Bags ($1.99 per 15pk), Spider Rings ($1.29 per 30pk), and the Charms Candy Carnival Assortment ($9.99 for approx. 150pcs).  You can find the instructions for making them here.  I do want to note that, although the description for the bag of candy says "approximately 150 pieces of candy", there were really only about 100 pieces.  I used 3 pieces in each of the 30 goodie bags and only had just less than 10 pieces leftover.


We were also sent the Party City Exclusive Boys Brave Crusader Costume along with another mass market crusader costume.  When it came time for the boys to choose which costume they wanted to wear to King Richard's Faire earlier this month, they immediately chose the Party City costume.  It really was not a tough choice because that costume had so much more detail, such as a cape, gauntlets, structured boot coverings, and a sash.  My only complaint is about the gauntlets.  The same size gauntlets came with both the size Medium and the size Large costumes, so the fingers were far too long for our 5-1/2 year old son.  Also, part of the seam on one of the fingers started to come apart on our 8-1/2 year old's glove, but I was able to repair it after the fair.


Here are the boys in the mass market costumes.  Their first complaint was that the extremely large paper tags inside were itchy, so we had to remove them right away.  Aside from being a little long, the costume looks okay on our 5-1/2 year old son, but it just does not look tailored.  A huge problem we came across was that the hood and the boot coverings were the same size in both costume sizes, except this time they were both the smaller size.  Our 8-1/2 year old could barely get the hood on and it was uncomfortably tight.  The boot coverings only covered 2/3 of his shoes and kept falling down because they are unstructured.


We also received a Girls Deluxe Rainbow Fairy Costume (also a Party City Exclusive) plus a mass market version for our daughter.  Again, the Party City costume was far more detailed and included sequined-trimmed wings that attached with Velcro, sequin trim on the attached tulle tutu, leg warmers, arm puffs, and a headband.  This costume seemed to run a little large compared to other costumes.  The elastic on the arm puffs were not tight enough to stay up on their own on my daughter's upper arms.  I ended up pulling them over her shoulders instead.  I also had to bring the straps together at the back of the costume because the bodice was sitting too low on her.  I should mention that this costume is a dress and does not have a built-in leotard.  I really thought that the tulle trim on the neckline and the tulle arm puffs would irritate my daughter's skin, but she said that they were not itchy at all.  I do wish that this costume came with a matching wand because the colors and look of this costume are pretty specific.

(Click any photo to enlarge)

The mass market rainbow fairy costume was sized for 3 to 5 year old girls.  My daughter would not have been able to fit into it if she was a half an inch taller or wider.  This costume is a leotard style and also does not come with a wand.  Our daughter actually liked the look of this costume better because it is wispy and had flowers and gems on it.  The other one is more bold and modern.  The mass market costume came with a separate pair of fairy wings that hooked around her shoulders with elasticized straps.  I could not for the life of me get the wings to sit straight.  They kept tipping no matter how I tried to bend them to balance them out.  Quality-wise the Party City costume is better hands down, but our daughter preferred the softer look of the other costume.  Personally, I think the Party City costume is perfect for Halloween and the mass market costume would be more practical for dressing up during pretend play.

What do you have left to do to get ready for Halloween?  Checkout the party supplies, decorations, and costumes at your local Party City store and on www.PartyCity.com, who is now offering 25% off all Halloween merchandise plus Free 3-Day on orders of $60 or more.


Thank you to Party City for providing complimentary product samples for us to base this review upon.