The Secondhand Cookie

This is gonna make me sound like someone who pops Geritol, swills Metamucil, and walked "uphill both ways" to school every day, but I've got to say it: they don't make Halloween costumes like they used to.

Last year, we bought Cameron a Sonic the Hedgehog costume at Walmart. We took it out of the package long enough for him to wear it to the fall festival at his school. Before we even got there, it was ripped in two places. Yeah, I know: it's a clear-cut case of "you get what you pay for," but still ... it's not like I sent him out to play football in it or something. It isn't unreasonable to expect that your kid's costume will last longer than a few hours.

Especially when you have an everlasting Cookie Monster costume to prove that some costumes do in fact have a long ... long ... long life. With no end in sight!

Let me explain.

When our oldest son Colin was really little, we purchased said Cookie Monster costume for like twenty bucks (also at Walmart). He wore it for two Halloweens.

And then we handed it down to Cameron, who wore it for two Halloweens.

And then we handed it down to Coby, who wore it for two Halloweens.

And then we handed it down to Corbin, who just this Halloween wore it ... for its eighth year.

I'm telling you what, folks: that is a sturdy costume. Its ruggedness is even more impressive when I tell you that in between Halloweens, it lives in our dress-up box and is regularly worn all year-round. I'd estimate someone puts it on at least once a week. See? Here's Coby using it as dinner attire.

It has been tossed around, slept in, made gummy with candy residue, and washed a million times because it was funky from frequent use. Yet there isn't a rip, stain, hole, or bald patch to be found. In fact, despite the regular beating it takes, all I have to do every Halloween is brush the nappiness out of it a little bit.

Nick thoroughly enjoys a good photo-bombing.

Yeah, it takes a few minutes and afterward my brush is loaded with blue fuzz, but it's a small price to pay for a costume that has brought not hours, not days, but literally years of enjoyment to all four of my kids.

Did I mention it's also plushy and warm? And that because it's just a loose vest-thing with no legs, it takes forever for them to outgrow it? (Like, my fourth-grader can still put it on. Not that he'd be caught dead in it, but still.) And that it always gets TONS of comments about how flipping adorable it is? Yeah. Halloween costume perfection.

Just out of curiosity, I searched the Internet for it so I could put a link in this post in case you too need a costume that you can hand down to your great-great-great-grandchildren. Problem is, it was seriously hard to find. A couple places have it listed, but it's mysteriously "out of stock." I did locate it here for like $23 bucks. (As I recall, there was a very similarly-styled Elmo costume being sold at the same time - so if you can track down one of those, I'm sure it will be just as durable.)

I bet it's a conspiracy. I bet the manufacturer thought, "Hmmm, if we keep making these costumes so easy to hand down, we're never going to sell any." So instead, they started making costumes so flimsy that it takes mere hours to destroy them, thus ensuring that we have to fork over another bazillion bucks for Halloween costumes next year. And the year after that. And the year after that.

At least we've gotten our money's worth - and more - outta this one!