The Smeds and The Smoos
Red or blue clothes (depending on whether you want to be a Smed (red) or a Smoo (blue)).
Skulduggery Pleasant
Black clothes, skeleton mask and a cardboard fedora (or check out your local op shop and grab a suitable hat). Slightly spooky, very cool.
Captain Underpants
All you need for this one is a beige T‑shirt and leggings (if you can’t find these, white would do) with underpants over the top of the leggings, plus a red cape made from a piece of material. Done!
Rotten Romans (Horrible Histories)
This is as easy as it gets! All you need is an old white sheet, wrapped like a toga over a T‑shirt and leggings.
Clown, by Quentin Blake
Just use a T‑shirt and leggings/trousers/skirt and paint a clown face on your child – you could add a plastic red nose but it’s not essential!
Where’s Wally?
Another old favourite – blue jeans, stripey shirt (if you don’t have a white/red stripey shirt, just wrap red tape around a white T‑shirt), add a bobble hat and you’re all set.
All the books / a library
Print out a copy of the front cover of your child’s favourite books and safety‑pin them to a T‑shirt.
Mr Men / Little Miss Books
Mr Bump – blue clothes wrapped in bandages
Mr Messy – white T‑shirt with a pink/purple ‘mess’ painted or drawn on it, add a mouth and some eyes and you’re done.
101 Dalmatians
White T‑shirt and leggings with black dots either stuck on or drawn on in black felt‑tip pen – make a simple dog mask out of cardboard and you’re done.
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
Blue trousers and a T‑shirt, and a cardboard shield and sword.
Jack and the Beanstalk
Go as the beanstalk for a change – green/brown leggings, T‑shirt covered in paper leaves.
Bluey
Light blue T‑shirt and leggings (any colour would do). Add a tail and make a Bluey face mask.
The Magic Faraway Tree
Paper leaves stuck onto a brown or black T‑shirt.
The Paper Bag Princess
Just make a dress out of brown paper to go over a T‑shirt and leggings. Pop on a cardboard crown and you’re ready to rule!
Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs
Everyday clothes and a bucket of dinosaurs!
The Dictionary
Photocopy pages of a dictionary and safety‑pin onto a T‑shirt and leggings (any colour you have).
Hotel Transylvania (Vampire)
Vampire – all‑black clothing with a vampire face or mask.
Rapunzel (Tangled)
Make really long hair from wool and attach to a ‘princess hat’ which could be shaped as a cone.
Dog Man
- Blue T‑shirt, blue trousers, and a homemade police badge
- Make Dog Man’s ears from a headband and paper/card
Wolf Girl
- Long pants and long‑sleeved shirt in dark colours
- Backpack
- Dog or wolf stuffed toy
The Day the Crayons Quit
All‑one‑colour costume and go as a crayon – or get together with friends and go as a whole set of different coloured crayons.
Use what you’ve already got
If you’ve already got a dressing‑up box with lots of costumes, here are some books to go with some well‑loved, ready‑made outfits:
Fairy costume
- Ruby the Red Fairy – red dress/clothes with fairy wings
- Amber the Orange Fairy – orange clothes with wings
- Sunny (yellow), Fern (green) etc.
Cowboy
Woody from Toy Story
Spaceman
Goodnight Spaceman
Pirate
Pirates Love Underpants
Princess
- Little Miss Princess
- The Part‑Time Princess
Witch
- Witch
- Room on the Broom
- The Worst Witch
- Meg and Mog
Sports shirts and books
- Footy shirts – books: AFL Footy Kids (there are different books for different teams)
- Basketball shirts – books: Let’s Play Basketball
- Soccer shirts – books: The Worst Team Ever, Sammy Striker and the Football Cup
Sports shirts and books
- Footy shirts – books: AFL Footy Kids (there are different books for different teams)
- Basketball shirts – books:Let’s Play Basketball
- Soccer shirts – books:The Worst Team Ever,Sammy Striker and the Football Cup
Pyjama-wearing characters
Pyjama/night-dress based characters include:
- The Midnight Gang
- Sophie from The BFG
- Tom from Tom’s Midnight Garden
- Wendy in Peter Pan
- The grandmother in Little Red Riding Hood
Onesies
If the kids have an animal-themed onesie they might resemble characters from:
- The Tiger That Came to Tea
- Mog
- he Gruffalo
- Giraffes Can’t Dance
- We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
The “Little People, BIG Dreams” books
For example:
- David Beckham (soccer gear)
- Lionel Messi (soccer gear)
- Queen Elizabeth II (crown and red cloak)
- Neil Armstrong (spaceman)
- David Bowie (leggings and T-shirt with the famous lightning-bolt face-paint)
There are many more real-life people to choose from in this series.
You could also head to your local charity shop – you’ll be amazed at the dressing-up treasures you may find there!
