If you girls have been searching for costumes like I have, you may have noticed a trend toward less clothing and way more skin. Everywhere I look, the costumes have the word “Sexy” or “Hot” in the names. Sexy Cat? Hot Cop? When did Halloween turn into an excuse to be trashy?!?! Well, I’ve devised a list of ideas to help insure your costume gets noticed for it’s ingenuity as opposed to it’s skin quotient.

1. Go For the Gore Halloween is scary. It’s supposed to be. Think the classics: Zombie, Witch, Vampire, Ghost, Bride of Frankenstein, Devil. The more gruesome your makeup, the better. You can find tons of tutorials online for doing crazy Halloween makeup.

2. Get Creative Originality is key. Put a twist on a traditional costume (Dead Disney Princess, anyone?), think of a fun play-on-words (Deviled Egg? Cereal Killer?) or just dream something up. In the sixth grade I dressed as a “Tiger Lily”, my face was painted as a tiger and I had the paws and fur, and a necklace of petals around my neck. I thought I was pretty clever.

3. Pick a Theme Possibilities are endless. You could choose a decade and dress from that era. Or go as a character from Greek Mythology or from a comic book. Themes go nicely with group costumes too. Have a friend who has no idea what to be this year either? You may have just found the Betty to your Veronica (no fighting over Archie though!).

4. Go as an Iconic Female There are tons to choose from. Just a few suggestions: Amelia Earhart, Pocahontas, Jackie Kennedy, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, Florence Nightingale, Julia Child, Nefertiti, Marie Antoinette. Searching through thrift stores can be the best way to find authentic looking costumes, but you can also get creative with the glitter, felt, and whatever craft supplies you have on hand.

So go forth and dress yourselves ladies! You’ll have your dignity and be warmer than the girls in the skimpy outfits, I swear.

About Jen

Jen Pimm is a freelance graphic designer and writer who feels blessed to have found a way to turn her love for all things creative into a grown-up career. As a writer and Editor for Girls By Design, she wants to encourage self-expression and confidence in young women because, once upon a time, she was not so sure of herself. When she’s not working like a fool, she’s probably taking artsy pictures of stuff, watching Jeopardy, or snuggling with her pug Stella. She appreciates a quick wit and is currently planning her next travel adventure. And now she’s on Twitter! At http://www.twitter.com/JenniferPimm or just tweet @JenniferPimm.

Mexico ~ Binks
In Mexico, our Halloween, or “Dia de los Muertos” (aka Day of the Dead) is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd. The 1st usually honors the children as “Day of the Innocents” and the 2nd is the official “Day of the Dead”. Although we don’t see this as a spooky, gruesome day where the ghosts are going to haunt us. Nope. Instead, we make it like a celebration! Cause let’s face it, Mexicans rock at parties. Duh.

Throughout the year we build private altars to honor the deceased, usually decorating it with food, toys, trinkets, offerings, marigolds and sugar skulls. Most peeps build the altars at cemeteries in a picnic-like fashion, to share the meal with the dead. Talk about a family reunion. We believe it’s a time we can communicate with our deceased loved ones and they can share the feeling of living with us through our earthly offerings, and can reminisce about the good ole’ days.

In my old school, we would build a huge altar where our teachers would let us go visit, upon entering they’d hand us a cup of hot chocolate and the traditional “Pan de Muertos” (”Bread of the Dead”) which is more like sugar coated bread. Sometimes they’d hand us sugar skulls that we could either eat, or write which deceased soul we wanted to dedicate it to. Pretty darn delicious stuff if I do say so myself! We go all out I tell ya! No stops.

We’d also get to write these nifty “calaveras” which are comedic epitaphs and paste them all over the school, next to the drawings of skeletons in costumes and build skeletal masks.

So ya see? Over here where the Taco reigns supreme, we love dead people! Eh…well…you get what I mean. It’s a time to celebrate life, cherish the memories of those who have passed on and accept death, not as something to fear, but as just another fun step in this cycle we all go through.

There ya have it ladies, a little slice of a different culture. Now go put on a white sheet go Trick-or-Treating and then share your candy with some old buds at the cemetery! Eh!? No? Ok…maybe bring a flashlight, a teddy bear and some pepper spray instead.

Philippines ~ Patrice
Halloween is a bit different in the Philippines. It’s called All Saints’ Day on November 1st, and All Souls’ Day on the 2nd. Basically, people flock to the cemeteries and visit their dead. Tons of people bring flowers and light up candles. Some people bring their dead loved ones’ favorite food. Some people hang out, drink and play cards on the tombs. People light up candles in front of their houses because this lights up the way to heaven for the souls that may be lost. It’s very traditional and serious, except for the playing cards on your dead uncle’s tomb part.

Ireland ~ Tracey
Basically in Ireland, Halloween is a really big celebration for all ages. One of the most popular things to do is trick or treating, which most of us already do! A really old tradition that still lives on today is ‘The Barnbrack’. The Barnbrack is very light fruit cake into which items such as a ring, a rag, a coin and lots of others are placed. When the cake is being eaten, different people find all the different items with each item meaning something. If you pick out the ring, the legend is that you will find your love within the next year, and the coin symbolizes wealth in the near future. Some items have unlucky myths attached to them, so people try to avoid getting a bad slice!

Another tradition is snap apple. In snap apple, an apple is hung from a piece of string and people have to try and snatch it with their mouths (no hands allowed!). Most of the time coins are stuck into the apples and when one is caught the player gets to keep the money! Bonfires on Halloween night are also very popular. A legend says that if you drop a piece of your hair into the fire you’ll dream of your true love!
Those are the main ones that take place in Ireland during Halloweens, but we do all the usual stuff as well, like putting up decorations, pumpkin carving and trick or treating!

Puerto Rico ~ Jenipher
The traditions of Halloween being celebrated here come from the US. The concept doesn’t change much but Halloween depends on the area in Puerto Rico you’re from, in the “city” area parents plan out parties for their children in which the kids get all the candy they can, and they dress up as their favorite characters, etc. They plan these parties because it isn’t very safe to take children out and trick-or-treat. Now in the “rural” areas Halloween isn’t really celebrated at all. No one puts up Halloween decorations or anything. Rural areas are the party poopers hahaha.

Halloween, here we come! You’re going to have to stop for a minute though, because you can’t celebrate properly if you don’t know the foundation upon which the Halloween we all know and love was built upon. I am talking about hopping into my time machine and traveling all the way back to when the Druids roamed the areas that house all of those lovely accents and a wee area swarming with delicious food. Way before The Romans came and set up shop and wiped the Druids out. So buckle down, because we’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy!

A mere 2000 years ago, a civilization mainly composed of Celts and Druids inhabited the areas we now know as Ireland, Scotland, England and Northern France. (Oh that’s right, places responsible for such hotness as Henry Cavill, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Gerard Butler have given us more reasons to love them.) This civilization believed in celebrating their New Year on November 1, seeing as it marked the beginning of the cold, dark winter. This time was heavily associated with death, so for some reason, they believed that the veil between the two worlds that the living and the dead resided in was at its utmost thinnest on the night prior to New Years. Therefore, on good ole October 31st, Samhain was celebrated and it was a common belief that the dead could return to walk among the living for this one night and stir some trouble up. I bet more than one scorned spouse came back and did some serious damage. It’s a good thing people don’t believe that anymore. The Gabor women would have been under lock and key every Halloween…

Scorned spouses aside, Samhain was a very coveted celebrating. The otherworldly presence was thought to strengthen the Druid priests’ abilities to make predictions about the future and since these people basically relied on the unpredictable, natural world, such things were very comforting. So comforting that aside from carving funny faces in vegetables to ward off troublemaker spirits, the Druids built massive sacred bonfires for the people to gather around and burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. That’s not all though! The Celts would also wear costumes consisting of animal heads and skins, and would attempt to read each other’s fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

Sadly, the big, bad Romans had to come sometime and when they did, Samhain was combined with two similar Roman holidays. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second paid homage to Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. Of course, that could not be all that assimilated with Samhain. Christianity had rolled in full force by the 7th century and Pope Boniface IV declared November 1 All Saints’ Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed that this was an attempt to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. There you have it, the incredibly long history of Halloween!

What a ride Halloween has had, people! What a ride. So if you feel the urge to cover yourself in animal skins and dance around a massive fire this Halloween, don’t be ashamed. Just don’t get arrested and it’s all good and I hope you all have a very HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! MUAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHH!

Sarah “G”

Waaaazzzuuup?! Y’all already know my name(s) so I’ll just skip that part and move on. I’m the token Canadian girl, but not-so-token these days, because there is actually several Canadians around! Isn’t it amazing? It’s definitely amazing. Hmm… I’m also pretty accident prone and by ‘pretty accident prone’, I mean dangerously accident prone. It’s quite bad, but apparently entertaining at the same time. I’m a complete and utter history nerd, a big Canucks fan, a roller coaster junkie and I have a slight addiction to Snuggle fabric softener and I’m rambling; so I shall bid you all adieu.

This is a rundown of what I think to be some of the best Halloween songs. They’d be perfect for a Halloween party to get a good atmosphere going!

1. Michael Jackson – Thriller
2. Bobby Picket – Monster Mash
3. Ray Parker, Jr. – Ghostbusters
4. Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t Fear the Reaper (One of my personal favourites!)
5. Rick James – Super Freak
6. Richard O’ Brien – Time Warp
7. Rockwell – Somebody’s Watching Me (Beatfreakz do a pretty awesome cover of this!)
8. The Killers – Bones
9. John Carpenter – Halloween Soundtrack (Downright creepy!)
10. Coldplay – Cemeteries of London (Saw these guys in concert a few weeks back! Thought this song would be perfect for Halloween!)

Happy Halloween Girls!! Or in Irish… ‘Oiche Shona Shamhna!’

About Tracey

I’m a young girl with big dreams living in a tiny little corner of Ireland! As you probably guessed music is my life and means almost everything to me. I laugh way too much and spend too much time with my guitar! My nails are always painted black and I have way too many earrings to fit in my room! I love Paramore and hope someday to be the next Hayley Williams. I love spending time with my amazing family and friends and making the most out of life!
You can check me out at www.youtube.com/XXxxtraceyfxxXX

It’s G again! RUN, EVERYONE, RUN! Run straight to get a pen and paper so you can take notes on how to have a cool looking house for a fraction of the cost. Ahhh, see what I did there? Took a negative and turned it into a positive. Wink, wink.

Now, you may not think I’m good enough to teach you how to do this, but trust me here. Years of Halloween/Birthday parties have prepared me for just this day when I pass the mighty thrift torch onto you.

1. Check the dollar stores! Seriously, dig through the cheap-looking things and you can find some pretty cool and usable stuff. Like the Caution tape. If you put it all around your house and tear it, it looks like someone broke in. Or the signs to go all over the windows and doors. You may find some good cheap “blood” to add to that. Or cheap masks to hang up so it looks like things are popping out of the walls and want to eat your brains!

2. Thrift stores: old looking coffee tables and chairs, anyone? With the proper eye and accessories, you could be a 17th century mistress of a vampire lair!

3. Raid the grandparents’ attics and basements. Cool old stuff, hello! Just make sure you can sweet talk properly, because you could find like phonographs which always make stuff look cool. Or some old pictures to hang up, or anything really. The sky is the limit there!

4.Get back to basics. Go get that glue and construction paper. Hang the toilet paper, sew stuff together, hammer the nails!

5. Hit the party stores up, but not to buy things! To get ideas of what to do with all of the lovely stuff you’ve collected from the first 4 steps.

So, ladies, just remember, the potential is in you. You can make whatever you want from whatever your mind thinks up! If you don’t believe me, then give it that old college try!

Sarah “G”

Waaaazzzuuup?! Y’all already know my name(s) so I’ll just skip that part and move on. I’m the token Canadian girl, but not-so-token these days, because there is actually several Canadians around! Isn’t it amazing? It’s definitely amazing. Hmm… I’m also pretty accident prone and by ‘pretty accident prone’, I mean dangerously accident prone. It’s quite bad, but apparently entertaining at the same time. I’m a complete and utter history nerd, a big Canucks fan, a roller coaster junkie and I have a slight addiction to Snuggle fabric softener and I’m rambling; so I shall bid you all adieu.