Baby's First Halloween: What's Actually Worth It

Somebody has sent you a photo of a six-week-old dressed as a pumpkin, and now you are wondering whether you are supposed to be doing something about the 31st. Short answer: you aren't. A baby has no idea Halloween is happening, and plenty of families don't mark it at all. But if you want the photo — and most of us do — there is a cheaper and safer way to get it than buying a costume that fits for a fortnight. Here is what's worth it, what isn't, and the thing to check if you do buy one.

Does a baby actually need a costume?

No. And I say that as someone who has bought one, got the photos inside about two minutes, and taken the whole thing off again because the baby wearing it was plainly unimpressed with the texture.

The costume is for the adults. That isn't a criticism — the adults have had a hard year and deserve a nice photo. It just means you can be honest about what you're buying and spend accordingly. Nobody is marking you on this, and no baby has ever felt left out of Halloween.

Worth saying too: not every family does Halloween. Some skip it on faith grounds, some just don't fancy it, and "we're not doing anything" is a complete answer rather than a problem that needs working around.

What happened when the government tested children's costumes

This is the part I'd want to know, and it gets almost no coverage in the parenting press.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards — the government's product safety regulator — tested 128 fancy dress costumes aimed at children under seven and found more than 80% of them failed basic safety tests. The two things that went wrong were flammability and long cords around the head and neck.

The costumes were tested against the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011, the toy flammability standard BS EN 71-2, and BS EN 14682, which governs cords and drawstrings on children's clothing. I had assumed fancy dress was held to the same standard as the clothes in the next aisle. It isn't, and that is worth knowing before you judge a costume by how it looks on the hanger.

The OPSS advice to parents was short: buy from sources you trust, take real care around open flames, and check for long cords or ties at the head and neck, which can strangle or trap a child.

What to check before you put a baby in one

Two minutes, and you only ever have to do it once per costume.

Face paint on a baby I would simply skip. There is no version of the evening that gets better because of it, and you will be scrubbing it off a wriggling person at bedtime.

The costume you already own

Here is the bit that saves you the price of a costume.

• A dark sleepsuit and a knitted hat. Black, grey or charcoal gets you most of the way to a cat or a bat. If you sew, felt ears stitched flat onto the hat take ten minutes. If you don't, leave it plain — a dark hat already reads as a cat in a photograph.
• A white muslin over the pram hood. Not over the baby, ever — draped on the hood behind them. It's a ghost, it costs nothing, and it goes in the wash afterwards.
• Anything orange they already have. A rust bodysuit and a green hat is a pumpkin, and you will be the only person who knows it was improvised.
• Borrow one. Every parent group in the country contains somebody with a 0–3 months costume in the loft and no further use for it.
• Buy it used. Same checklist as above, and you get to see how it has survived a wash, which a new one won't tell you.

The photo is the entire point, and the photo has no idea what anything cost.

If you want to buy something, buy something they'll wear in November

This is the rule I'd give anyone buying for someone else's baby at this time of year: pick the thing that is still useful on 1 November. A costume is worn once. A comforter gets dragged around for three years.

And if you are buying clothing, size up. Almost everything arrives newborn-sized in the first fortnight and is outgrown by the time the visitors stop coming, which is why we size our garments 3–6 months as standard — more on why 3–6 months is the better gift size if you want the longer argument.

One caveat worth stating plainly, because comforters attract loose language: a comforter is for cuddles, the pushchair and the sofa, not for the cot. The Lullaby Trust's position is that the safest cot is a clear one, kept free of anything that could cover a baby's face and head.

If you would rather give something wearable, the Baby Keepsake Gift Set in a Compact Printed Case is cotton basics and a bubble bear comforter in a printed case, with the garments sized 3–6 months.

Browse baby gifts under £25

Halloween with a baby who goes to bed at seven

The practical half, which nobody writes about because it isn't photogenic.

The doorbell

It will go roughly forty times between six and eight, which is precisely bedtime. A note on the door and the bowl left outside works. So does sitting on the step with the bowl and a cup of tea, which is more fun than it sounds and means the bell never rings at all.

Going out

Take the pram, go for twenty minutes, come home. Trick-or-treating with a baby is an outing for you, and that is a perfectly good reason to do it. There is no age at which it starts counting.

Warmth, which is the bit people get backwards

Costumes are usually an extra layer, and the instinct on a cold night is to add more. The Lullaby Trust's guidance runs the other way: babies are safer slightly cool than too warm, and they recommend 16–20°C for the room a baby sleeps in. They also ask that hats and hoods come off once you are indoors or in the car, so a baby doesn't overheat.

Which means the costume comes off before bed, along with any other outdoor layers — the Lullaby Trust are explicit that outdoor clothes come off for sleep, and that it is better not to overwrap. If you are driving anywhere, their advice on car seats is the same: take the outdoor layers off once your baby is in the car, and move them out of the seat when you arrive, because a car seat is for travelling in rather than sleeping in.

Common questions

And that's Halloween

Do the two-minute check if you've bought something, put a dark sleepsuit on if you haven't, take the photo, and have the costume off before bedtime. That's the whole job.

What did your baby go as the first year — bought, borrowed or entirely improvised? Tell me in the comments — I read them before they go up, so don't worry if yours doesn't appear straight away. Or come and show me on Instagram @babyboxshop1.