A dad has seriously won at parenting by sharing the quick and easy way he transformed his son into a hobbit for Halloween.
Tom Fowler revealed that a hobbit costume can quickly be cobbled together by finding some men’s socks as close to your child’s skin tone as possible, and popping them over some crocs to give your child massive feet.
Use a marker to add toes and toenails, then paint them to look a little more foot-like, et voila! Instant hobbity goodness.
For the rest of the outfit, Fowler, who is a cartoonist, advised parents to hit up charity shops. “There are precious few stores where you can pick up a plum, suede women’s jacket for twenty bucks or less,” he added.
If you can’t find any suede goods on the rails, you could also fashion a hobbit’s cloak from an old bedsheet.
Or if you’re going down the harfoot route (they’re descendants of hobbits, as seen in the latest spin-off, Rings of Power), you can stick some dried foliage to a headband and backcomb their hair to give them that ‘I’ve been walking for miles and hiding in the undergrowth’ kind of look.
Not feeling the hobbit? Here are some other quick and fuss-free Halloween costume ideas to try.
Beanie baby
Perfect for babies and toddlers – simply find their fluffiest, comfiest onesie and add your own handmade label (or cheat and print one off).
Boo from Monsters Inc
A great option for any child with a fringe and brown hair. Simply stick two pigtails in and dress them in a pink t-shirt or t-shirt dress with white trainers/socks.
A cloud
Ok so this one will require the sacrifice of an umbrella and a lot of cotton wool. You’ll need some decent glue as well, but you can pick up glue guns for fairly cheap from places like Amazon and The Range. Simply glue large chunks of cotton wool to your umbrella to make the cloud part.
If your child has any rainbow-coloured clothes, you could pop them in it so they look like a cloud and a rainbow. Or you could cut out raindrops from paper and attach them to your child’s clothes, or hang them from string attached to the umbrella.
A ghost
The classic sheet will come out at least once in your child’s lifetime when you completely forget it’s Halloween until the day itself. Thankfully you can do the sheet vibes with a cool twist – simply add jeans, trainers and a beanie to keep the sheets on their head. Cut out some holes for eyes, and colour the surrounding area black, and you’re done.
A tub of bubble solution
What could be cuter? This idea comes from Agnes Hsu at Hello, Wonderful and requires a bit of craftiness – you need some clear balloons and recycled materials to make it – but on the whole seems fairly straightforward. Check out the full tutorial here.
Mr Messy
Mr Men and Little Miss characters can be a great source of inspiration for a fairly basic Halloween costume – and the easiest to recreate (even for the most creatively-challenged parents) has to be Mr Messy, as produced by mum and craft queen Emma Scottchild.
All you’ll need two sheets of white card, some pink and black paint (and a paintbrush), some tape and rope. Check out how to make it (along with some other simple ideas) here.