Every year I tell myself I’m not going to dress up. Every year I end up in a last-minute costume scramble anyway, standing in front of a closet full of things I can’t figure out. So this year I asked my readers to share the Halloween costumes they’d made in the past few years — and I was not ready for how good the answers were.
There were 10 costumes that stuck with me. Not because they were expensive, and not because they required a sewing machine or a weekend in a garage. Because the people who made them thought about what would actually be funny to the people in the room. That’s a lesson I think applies to training too, but I’ll let that slide for now.
Here are 10 reader costume ideas I can’t stop thinking about. This is the 2026 edition, and I’m keeping it here in case you need inspiration for next year’s party.
1. The Fork-and-Spoon Costume That Won Free Tots for Life
One reader, Rose, from Brooklyn, was determined to win her neighborhood bar’s costume contest. The prize: free tots for life. She found a photo in a vintage costume book and brought it to a friend who worked in a design office, and they spent multiple late nights putting it together. When she and her friend showed up, everyone loved it. They won, and she says she and her friend celebrated with a fork-and-spoon victory dance.
The lesson here: the costume that wins isn’t the most polished one. It’s the one that makes the whole room laugh at the same time.
2. The Bouquet Costume
Same Rose, from a few years earlier. She went as a bouquet of flowers, inspired by a look she’d seen on a fashion runway, and the timing worked out because her name literally means flower. It was the kind of costume that only works if you already know the person a little.
3. The Fruit of the Loom Group Costume
A reader from Long Beach, California, and her work team decided to do a group costume: Fruit of the Loom. Everyone in the office loved it. She admitted she hadn’t fully thought through what it would feel like to sit at a desk under a layer of balloons all day. Still worth it. Group costumes work best when the theme is specific enough that people recognize it in the first three seconds.
4. The Pen15 BFFs
A reader from Chicago and her husband dressed as two close friends from a comedy show. He wore a famous brand shirt, and they both wore friendship necklaces and did what she called a lot of awkward cheesin’ on the dance floor. She said she’s not sure how they’re ever going to top it. That last line is the whole costume, honestly. A good costume is the one that makes you say that about yourself.
5. The Bucatini Costume
A reader from Berkeley, California, went as a specific type of pasta. In a certain year, that particular pantry pasta was having a moment, and she and her boyfriend at the time loved making it together when they wanted comfort food. She’s happy to report that she married the bucatini. That’s the one that always makes my team laugh when I tell it.
6. The Bert and Ernie Couple Costume
A reader from Austin and her husband went as a pair of famous Muppet characters because their personalities match the pair. Her husband’s eyebrow was a thick fuzzy ribbon from a craft kit, held on with Scotch tape. She said, “Bless his heart.” I’m keeping that in my coaching notes.
7. The Pink Pony Club
A reader from Pittsburgh, who says she’s a huge fan of puns, went as a bar that doesn’t exist in most people’s minds. No one ever gets her costumes, and she says that’s part of the fun for her. If your costume is a joke that only you get, that’s a valid strategy. It just means you have to be the one to explain it, and you have to enjoy explaining it.
8. The Ice Cream Family Costume
A reader from Ontario and her family dressed up as their favorite treat. She and her oldest child were ice cream cones, her husband held the scoop, and the youngest was the cherry on top. Family costumes work when every person in the family gets a role that’s actually their size. This one did that.
9. The Nerd Gummy Cluster
A reader from Seattle has a deep love of a specific gummy candy, so much so that it’s become her calling card with the kids in her life. Her nieces, nephews, and friends’ kids text her when a new flavor drops and send her selfies while eating bags on airplanes. Last year she wore the costume. Then, a week or so after Halloween, she volunteered in a school cafeteria, and a small child tapped her on the leg and asked if she was the gummy cluster from last Halloween. She said she’s never felt more famous in her life. That’s the payoff of a costume that’s specific enough to be recognized by a kid.
10. The Home Alone Grocery Run
A reader from the Netherlands went all out and dressed as a character from a holiday movie, specifically the scene where the character goes grocery shopping. She studied what that character actually shopped for, got the items from her own pantry and a grocery store, and collected the exact amount of cash the character had to pay. She even carried extra coins so she could deliver the line about keeping the change. The detail is what made it. The costume wasn’t the outfit. The costume was the bit.
The Science, Simplified
The common thread in all 10 of these isn’t money or time. It’s specificity. Every costume that landed did one specific thing that made the room go, “wait, what?” The Fork-and-Spoon costume won a contest because it was a real object with a real story. The bucatini costume works because it’s a real pasta from a real year. The Home Alone grocery run works because the reader did the research. If you’re making a costume for next year, pick one specific thing and commit to it. That’s the whole secret, and it has always been.
What did you do last year? And what are you thinking for next year? Drop it in the comments — I read all of them, and the best ones end up in next year’s edition.
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