Candy, costumes, carving pumpkins, and visiting neighbors, Halloween brings out everyone’s inner youth. With so many fun (and spooky) things to do, we all love this whimsical prelude to Thanksgiving.

Halloween becomes even more fun when the family bands together to make costumes with a theme.

No matter what your family chooses, the best costumes allow for varying levels of involvement. Good themes are flexible enough for those who want to get decked out but also work for the less-crafty or shy-at-heart.

Here are six ways that three generations — grandparents, parents, and kids — can have matching Halloween costumes that are a scream.

Find a Family Identity

Sometimes the easiest way to outfit the whole family is to dress up like one. Party stores and online sites are full of family-theme costumes like the Potato Head family, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, The Addams Family, and even a litter of puppies from 101 Dalmatians.

If you don’t want to buy costumes, turn your family into ghosts by donning white sheets or become a family of raisins by wearing purple clothes and black garbage bags.Try wearing mismatched clothes and shoes, red noses, and wacky hats to depict a troop of multigenerational clowns.

No matter what group you choose, kids and adults are sure to love becoming a fantastical family for a day.

Raid the Closet

For a simple theme with costumes that you can scavenge from the closet, a human rainbow is easy to create. Designate a specific color for each member of the family. If you don’t own yellow or red pants, wear similar neutral bottoms, like jeans or khakis, to offset the solid-color tops.

Those who want to go all out can paint their faces or color their hair and pile on wacky monochromatic accessories. Don’t forget to line up in rainbow order for photos.

Tell a Story

Embrace the generation gap by picking costumes that tell a story. Choose a fairy tale, cartoon, or movie and have grandparents, parents, and kids depict different characters.

Bring Old MacDonald to life by having grandpa wear overalls or jeans and a checked shirt, while grandma wears a country-style dress and apron. Outfit the rest of the family in animal costumes, masks, or headpieces.

Or have grandparents dress as Mary Poppins and Bert and have parents and kids become penguins (visit costumecraze.com for unique costumes in all sizes).

To reenact Goldilocks and the Three Bears, a grandparent, parent, and a grandchild dress as the three different-size bears, and a granddaughter (or grandma!) wears a party dress to depict Goldilocks.

For Little Bo Peep, outfit grandma in a frilly dress, bonnet, and shepherd’s staff; the rest of the family dresses as a flock of sheep, using purchased or homemade costumes. To resemble the furry animals, glue cotton balls on white sheets and cut them into shawls for family members to wear, and paint noses with black paint. Make sure to say “baa.”

Create a Scene

This is a great strategy for big families. Pick a scene and have each person represent a different aspect of what’s happening in the event.

For instance, to become a paparazzi family, have a couple of kids wear flashy clothes and sunglasses to mimic celebrities. The other family members dress in black traveling clothes and wield cameras in their role as paparazzi

When kids and parents wear black bottoms and yellow tops and paint their faces with yellow and black stripes, they become a family of bees. Give grandma a crown or sash to show that she’s the queen bee. Turn grandpa into the beekeeper by draping a translucent white veil over a wide brimmed hat and cloaking him in a white sheet.

For literary types, turn a grandparent into a librarian, and other family members dress as storybook characters, perhaps Alice in Wonderland, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, and Harry Potter.

Go as a Team

Group spirit can’t be beat when the family depicts a team of doctors, baseball players, firefighters, or police officers. This is a great way to get kids involved because they love imagining themselves in these roles. And, the hassle of coordinating various costumes is minimized by ordering or making one version in a few sizes.

When the family dresses as fitness buffs, everyone will have a good laugh, especially if family members are not fit (but full of self-confidence). Get decked out in exercise clothes, wristbands and bandanas. For an added effect that is especially humorous on kids, place stuffing under tight shirts to simulate “muscles.”

Reenact History

Generations dressing up together provides a perfect opportunity to show how life has changed over the years.

To depict how music has evolved since grandpa was a kid, have each generation dress up in the style of musicians they listened to while growing up. Grandparents can dress as one of The Beatles or as Janis Joplin, and the kids can mimic today’s stars like the characters from the Twilight series or the band One Direction.

Whether the costumes are purchased or homemade, simple or elaborate, dressing up as a family is an experience everyone will remember long after the last piece of candy is eaten.

|July 1, 2012