Video:How to Have a Kids Costume Contest

Transcript:How to Have a Kids Costume Contest

Hello, My name is Christina Gavenda with About.com. Today I will be showing you how to have a Halloween contest. A costume contest can be a great way to spice up a Halloween themed party and the kids just love it.

Keep the Halloween Competition Fun and Friendly

It is important to keep the competition in kid's contests light fun and positive. A great way to do this is to applause everyone who participates. You can also give a bag of candy to everyone involved and then a larger gift to the people who win. Keep it light, don't give out to big of an award, it can cause jealousy. Also award the top two or three. This will make all of the kids feel like they had a fair shot. How extravagant you get and the list of supplies you will need is up to you.

Costumes Should be Judged on Creativity

You can also enlist a couple of friends to be judges to make it more fun. Don't judge to harshly and give everyone praise. Also judge based on the creativity of the costume rather than the quality.If you are organizing a larger contest it may be easier to break it up into categories. Like age or theme of the costume. Such as animal costumes, witches and ghosts, zombies and vampires, aliens, and celebrity look-alikes.

Make the Contest a Special Event

Treat every kid as an individual. Print off name tags from your computer, cut them out and safety pin them on to each child. Spice up you contest by having a staging area. You can use Halloween decorations to make it more festive. It can be great fun to have the kids parade across the stage and show off their costumes. When the winners are selected invite each child up to the stage to take a bow. Give then child their award and lots of applause. Remember to enlist the help of family and friends the more people you have involved the more creative your ideas will get.

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