Not all costumes go as planned. Credit: Silvio Tanaka, Flickr
By Rachel Wharton
Even as adults one the best perks of Halloween-beyond the candy, the parties and the Witches' Brew punch-is getting to pick out a costume. Sometimes, the outfit is a huge hit but sometimes things turn out spook-taculy bad. Here are tales of costumes gone wrong.
Otherworldly Mistake
Photographer Kim Walker was attending a party in Portland, Ore., and "had the bright idea to be Saturn," she says. "I went to great lengths to make a large, beautiful cardboard ring, which hung over my shoulders, falling at my waist. The problem was that I was so wide that I had to spend the party in the kitchen, with the ring turned vertically, pressed against the counter. No fun," says Walker, "but I did have people hand-delivering me beers since I couldn't move."
Frightful Festivities
While going to college in the south, New York copy editor Bobby Young decided to get creative and attend a Halloween barbecue as a "rolling stone." He painted himself gray and donned a pair of roller skates to complete the look. The problem came when he arrived at the party. It turned out the celebration was located at the bottom of a very steep driveway - which he had to skate down in order to show-up in character. At that moment, he wished he had chosen to be something less original.
Last-Minute Losers
We all know how easy it is to transform a kid into a ghost by just raiding the linen cupboard. When she was a child, Kansas City blogger Emily Farris' father decided to employ this classic costume ploy and grabbed sheets from the car to dress up the kids. Which was all fine-except Emily's sheet was emblazoned with a Budweiser logo.
Your turn: What's your worst Halloween costume disaster? Share with us in the comments!

sjcdc,10-26-2009, 4:15PM
Little boy in the neighborhood showed up at the door with his plastic pumpkin candy holder and it was making a strange sound. Seems he grabed what he thought was a flashlight when in reality it was his mothers vibrator. He did not know how to turn it off. He had NO CLUE...DOWN right funny , in an UPSCALE neighborhood.
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Debera,10-28-2009, 5:12AM
Cute story, this happened to me and my husband. Our son at the time was around 5 yrs old went Christmas shopping for a gift for myself and hubby. Christmas morning came and he proudly handed us his gift that he also wrapped. I opened it and much to my amazement was a hatachia vibrator. He then told us that it was for Mommies sore neck to help Mommy feel better, I have a degenerative disk disease. This had to have been the funniest yet most memorable Christmas gift to date. The feeling of giving from our son was genuine. Got to love our children and the memories they create.
jo,10-27-2009, 4:21PM
boo
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Joe,10-27-2009, 4:47PM
I still think this was a great costume, however,the neighbors didn't. One year I went around the neighborhood looking in kitchen windows, I had my face covered with aluminum foil with 2 eye-holes cut out. I just stood there while the neighbor lady was washing dishes. BTW, she and her husband were good friends. Well, after a bit she looked up and out the window. Her eyes exploded and she screamed bloody murder. Then I ran. Went down the street to the house of a brand new neighbor and her husband having a small party in their house. Walk right in, stuck my hand out for a treat, said "Welcome to the neighborhood? and left. She was my kid's school teacher. A couple weeks later I attended conference. I ask her how she like living here. She related the Halloween story about someone walking in and taking a treat. I chuckled and said, "Yeah, we have some strange ones in this town." Never did tell her the truth.
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dee,10-27-2009, 5:00PM
what a stupid article
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pinkthenred,10-27-2009, 7:24PM
I agree!
cyn,10-27-2009, 10:56PM
me too. totally boring.
Melisa,10-29-2009, 11:44AM
One year I went to a party with my girlfriends as a bunch or grapes. I had purple ballons pinned all over me, and a green beenie. Well they started laughing at me when I couldn't figure out how to get in the car without ballons popping. Lets just say by the time the party was over I had two ballons left on me. When I got home and my friends parents saw me they almost peed their pants laughing at me because the bunch of grapes had turned into a stem and two grapes after the party. The before and after pictures are priceless.
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Robert,10-28-2009, 3:06PM
One time when I was younger my ever frugal mother thought it would be good for me to go as a skunk. So I dawned a black leotard and taped black and white streamers to my head that ran down my back and trailed along to make a tail. The whole night my brother would step on my tail to see the tape pull my hair. worst costume ever.
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Erin,10-28-2009, 8:01PM
I went as a skunk one year too, but it was atcually my idea. My mother pinned a white strip down the back on my black leotard and made me a tail for it. The only problem was people didn't seem to know what I was supposed to be. :)
SAMMY,10-27-2009, 7:17PM
One year , I dressed as the Michelin man with fake tires all around me and had the same effects. The next year I wore a long trench coat with a board on my head representing my shoulders and attacted a styrofoam wig head wrapped with aluminum foil and fake eyes (got it from the Gong show). I couldn't believe how many people would look at the fake head while talking to me as if it was my real head.
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Bill C,10-27-2009, 8:36PM
Many years ago, I answered our door for trick or treaters.
A little boy was dressed as a Pirate was standing there.
I asked him where his Buccaneers were, he thought for
a minute and said, " Under my buccan hat".
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jen,10-27-2009, 8:33PM
One year my husbands shipmate invited us to his party. I decided to make my own
costume. I wanted to be a ghost with a flowing, hooded cape. My neighbor and I used 2 white sheets. We made costume and before we trimmed the hood on the cape, I put it on so she could see how much needed trimming. We also were going to cut the cape and body into strips. I put it on and when my husband came to see the progress, I said, rather proudly "Look! I made my own costume hun!" He busted out laughing and asked me if I had looked in a mirror. I turned and looked in the mirror and screamed. "NO! Oh! NO,NO,NO!" All I needed was a burning cross! My neighbor had gone in the kitchen to get some coffee. She walked out and saw me and spit it across the room! "Oh! No!" She trimmed it and I cut the body onto strips. My husband and I remember that costume every year. I laughed this year when my daughter said "I wanna be a ghost ,mom!" Her ather said "We will BUY a costume for you honey!"
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SamBlob,10-28-2009, 1:35AM
Well, that should be a scary costume. Cheap, too.
Dissie,10-27-2009, 8:54PM
OMG Jen you had me laughing so hard!
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Jeremy,10-27-2009, 10:10PM
I went to a very small elementary school where one other boy and myself were allowed to study math independent from the rest of our class because we were ahead of them. One year we decided to attend our school's halloween party as the Greek letter pi. We made the costume out of cardboard and each of us was a leg of the letter. We also bought number stickers and stuck them on the bar going across the top to represent the number pi to the 50th digit. The middle of the bar was cut in half so we could travel separate from each other. My friend was explaining our costume to some people and we suddenly realized that together we were pi and where therefore each dressed as a piece of pi. One man heard this and apparently thought it was hilarious and dragged us around the entire party showing us off to various people who didn't get it.
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Leon,10-27-2009, 10:17PM
When I was in high school I made an outfit like the grim reaper. I thought I'd do something I thought was creepy. I decided to stare all night long without blinking. What wound up happening was I broke all the blood vessels in my eyes giving me blood red eyes with black pupils. Unfortunately the next day at school I was sent home for "obviously being high" because my eyes wore so messed up. I even offered to wiz in a cup but home I went and my Dad was pissed at me.
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Thumper,10-27-2009, 11:26PM
I once went naked except for a pair of roller skates...I was a pull toy...lol
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Nora Anne,10-27-2009, 11:35PM
When my daughter was 8 she wanted to be a genie. I wasn't comfortable with the amount of flesh exposed for an 8-year old in the premade costumes, so I decided to make my own.
The finished costume looked something like the 40-50's big budget prince of the Arabs costumes. Unfortunately, I was enchanted with Velcro and used it all over the costume. As she started going door to door, the genie pants kept falling down.
Obviously, my goal to not expose flesh didn't exactly happen. After about a half of a block we had to go home so I could sew her into her costume.
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saunders694,10-28-2009, 12:19AM
one year a kid came to my house dressed as a pirate i asked him where his buccaners were he looked at me and said under my buccing hat!!!LOL
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