Vintage Kiddo :: Creepy Cool Retro Halloween Costumes

So I was shopping the other day and wandered into the Halloween aisle. I was kind of bummed out and horrified by all the creepy masks—the weirdo from the Saw movies, the Scream ghoul, super slasher monsters. I thought to myself, “Where is the childhood innocence? Who lets their kid dress up as a crazy murderer?? These masks are terrifying!” I shook my head thinking, “It’s not like back in the day when we were kids!”

Um…..OK. So I’m not sure when you last looked at old school Halloween masks, but shut mah mouth because some of these are positively terrifying!!! The cheap plastic only adds to the appeal. Of course I still love ’em all. And frankly, they’re miles better than the Scream ghoul. Let’s take a look at come vintage kiddo Halloween pics. I swear each kid is better than the next:


Yes the clown is terrifying, but my heart belongs to the stressed out little Planet of the Apes dude on the end.


The vacant Snoopy. That draggy clown. The “phonin’ it in” Charlie Brown. All genius. Not sure what’s happening with the faceless Mr. Skelly. Is that kid just wearing a pulled down hat over his head??

OK. These little kiddos from 1951 are actually really cute.


I love that you can see her little dress in the reflection of the mirror. So sweet!

Here are the same happy kidlets one year later:

I’m amazed at this nonchalant baby…like it ain’t nuthin’ but a thang….If that devil child showed up at my door step I’d run screaming. I can’t imagine anything more terrifying.

Oh wait, that’s because this little creeper hadn’t showed up yet:


This poor child is like a Tretchikoff painting on acid.

I can’t stop starring at and giggling at this next kiddo:


That poor child….looks like a classic victim of the dreaded, “It’s freezing out there! You wear a coat under that costume or you’ll catch your death of cold!” I always hated when mom made us wear our coats under our costumes.

These guys are actually all pretty cute:

The Top Hat wearing ghost is oddly adorable. Wolfie would never have let me get away with that…

This next one kills me. Devils in a Red Granny Flannel Dress.


OK, check out the wig on the little nurse. Hee.

I love this one. What child decides that they want to be George Washington??

Count Chocula? Cheap Bear in a Micky Sweat shirt? Love these guys…

Mod Darth Vader looking suspiciously like an Ewok….

And finally, my favorite of the bunch:


The Colonel Sanders girl? I mean….c’mon now. Seriously, I can’t wait for Halloween.

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Don’t forget, there is still time to send me your Best and Worst Homemade Costume Photos! Check here for details! We’ll be posting the Costume Parade on Wednesday!!

22 thoughts on “Vintage Kiddo :: Creepy Cool Retro Halloween Costumes

  1. the colonel sanders girl is MY FAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!
    i love this post. you’ve inspired me to dig into the vaults around here to see if i can find any vintage freckle halloween pics. i remember going as the statue of liberty, a bum (what?!) a witch and a very madonna inspired 80s girl. to name a few. oh my.

  2. I was going to see if I could find some of our kiddie halloween pics but remembered they were on our old computer. I’ll have to dig tonight to see if I can find them 🙂 These costumes are hilarious, I love love love the homemade star wars ones!

  3. These are hilarious! We never once had a plastic-mask costume–my mom made us all our costumes, so plastic masks were out. (I used to get really irritated by the plastic costumes that had a mask and picture of the superhero on the costume itself–I mean, HELLO! Wonder Woman doesn’t have pictures of herself on her abdomen, so why is that a costume?!)

    And by the by, Alix, I was MARTHA Washington one year. Betsy Ross the year before. Not that I picked it, of course–my mom is a history buff.

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