There are many different Halloween costumes for children. However, the best costumes require some ingenuity. Whether you select a popular costume or an unusual costume, you'll want your child to stand out from the crowd. When creating a do-it-yourself Halloween costume, it's best to look first in your own closet to see what you've already got on hand. Thrift shops and eBay are also good sources for clothing to convert into costumes. Just add some creativity, and you've got a winner.

Harry Potter Halloween Costume

This is a good Halloween costume for children ten and up. Get a long child's coat and basic white shirt. Put one of Dad's ties on the child. Place a grey sweater vest over the top. Get some black pants for boys. Dress girls in a black skirt. Create a Hogwarts insignia out of colored felt or construction paper. Create a tall wizard's hat out of felt. Then whittle a twig into a magic wand. Get a larger branch and shape that into a broom. Tie some straw onto the end. The wand and broom will look better if they're slightly crooked.

Transformers Halloween Costumes

Transformers Halloween costumes are also popular with children over ten. Get some basic cardboard boxes that will fit around your child's body. Do a few fittings to see how the boxes fit. Create joints with duct tape. Duct tape is also useful for holding the separate costume parts together. Paint the boxes in colors to match your child's favorite transformer, such as Optimus Prime or Bumblebee.

Hannah Montana Halloween Costume

Hannah Montana is another favorite. This Halloween costume is also very inexpensive to make. You may already have all you need already in your child's closet. Dress your child in black capris or a black mini-skirt, a white tank top and an off-white scarf. Give her a belt with a large buckle. Add a long blonde wig and rugged brown boots.

If your child is under three years of age, try out some of these cute Halloween costumes for babies and toddlers.

Baby Burrito Halloween Costume

Decorate a dark brown shirt with fabric paint. Use red for hot sauce, yellow for cheese, green for lettuce and white for sour cream. Put the shirt on, then wrap a light tan or white blanket around the body of your child. Pin at the front with safety pins. Finish off the costume by placing a little bit of green yarn or shredded tissue paper on his head to indicate extra lettuce.

Macaroni and Cheese Halloween Costume

Get a bright yellow shirt for your kid. Put a little orange fabric paint on the shirt at random. Then take some styrofoam packing peanuts into a well ventilated area and spray-paint them yellow. Add dabs of orange with craft paint. Attach them to the shirt with hot glue. Hot glue some of these to an old hat or cap. Also consider putting some on a pair of old shoes.

Hot Dog Halloween Costume

Start with a hooded brown sweatshirt or jacket. Then get a large piece of orange felt or foam. Use red and yellow felt or foam strips, or red and yellow craft paint to create mustard and ketchup strips on the orange foam. Apply this with tape or glue. Finish the costume off by dressing your kid in brown pants and shoes.

Pez Dispenser Costume

For this costume, you'll need a long, slender cardboard box. Cut holes in the box where your kid's arms should be. Paint the box any color you like, and mark the side with the Pez logo. The head can be just about anything you want. You could create a mask which looks like Spider-man, a dog or a cat, a monkey, Mickey or Minnie mouse, Darth Vader, Snoopy, Kermit the Frog or Daffy Duck. Get creative; the sky's the limit!

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