There is one Halloween problem Canada has that Britain and most of the United States do not, and every Canadian parent has had the argument on the evening of 31 October: the costume has to work over a snowsuit.
In much of the country, Halloween night sits somewhere between chilly and genuinely cold, and snow on the 31st is entirely normal on the Prairies and in the North. A costume designed for a warm American autumn does not survive contact with it.
Design around the coat, not against it
The mistake is treating the coat as the enemy. The costumes that work incorporate the bulk instead of fighting it.
Things that are supposed to be large: - Inflatable costumes — dinosaurs, astronauts, sumo. Already enormous, plenty of room underneath - Monsters, yetis, bigfoot — the bulkier the better - Ghosts — a sheet goes over anything - Snowman, marshmallow, Michelin-style characters — the joke is the bulk - Robots and boxy costumes built from cardboard and worn over everything
Things that work because they are outerwear already: - Scarecrow — layers, and the layers are the point - Hockey player — pads over a coat, entirely convincing - Lumberjack — plaid over a fleece - Pilot, explorer, arctic scientist — a parka is the costume - Superheroes with capes — cape over coat, cost nothing
Buy up a size
The single most useful piece of advice. Buy the costume one or two sizes larger than the child actually is, so a snowsuit fits underneath without splitting a seam at the door of the second house.
Check the arms specifically. Costume sleeves are cut for a bare arm and are the first thing to fail over a padded one.
Face paint beats a mask
A mask over a hood does not work, fogs up in cold air, and stops a child seeing traffic. Face paint goes on over a scarf and comes off in the bath.
Use a cream-based product rather than water-based in genuinely cold weather — water-based paint can crack.
The practical list
- Boots, not costume shoes. Non-negotiable, and nobody sees footwear after dark anyway
- Gloves or mittens in a colour that matches, so they get worn
- Reflective tape on the back of the costume and the bucket. Costumes are dark and drivers are not expecting children in the road
- A torch each, which doubles as a prop
- Hand warmers in pockets for a long route
- Plan a warm-up stop — a friend's house halfway round, or a car following at walking pace on rural routes
Go early
Canadian trick-or-treating tends to run earlier than the American version, and there is a good reason: it gets dark early and cold fast. Dusk to around 8pm is the norm, and younger children should be out at the start of that window rather than the end.
The decorated-house convention holds here as it does everywhere: a lit, decorated house welcomes callers; a dark one does not.
And for the adults afterwards
Once the children are in, the directory has the version with no snowsuits involved — though be warned that the outdoor haunts have exactly the same problem, and Saunders Farm in late October is not warm either.