Mine was the year I was Miss Demeanor. I wore a very sparkly full skirted dress, sparkly heels, sparkly hose, false sparkly eyelashes, sparkly makeup and body powder, a tiara, and of course a big sash with my title emblazoned on it.

In second grade, I made my costume : it was a box with holes cut out for my head and arms - I painted it to look like a candy bar.....getting candy was the whole point of the event in my eyes. Parents were not involved, so my arms were captured from the elbow on up. I didn't think through functionality.

I have no idea if it was any way resembling the candy bar wrapper, but I managed to trip over something in the dark and fell; was unable to get up without help.... it's my most memorable costume.

Dressing O as Chiquita Banana 2 years ago. The pinnacle of my costume for children career.

The one that springs to mind is when a friend of mine dressed as a mudflap (the kind with the lady posing on it). It was just such an unexpected thing to see as a costume.

In 2003 I was the Statue of Liberty. It was completely homemade, with a torch made of a flashlight, wire, and orange shrinkwrap. I won first place at my job's contest. I've crafted a bunch of costumes since, but that one will forever be my favorite.

Not so much the costumes themselves as the combination and the situation: I was coming home late from dinner with friends, long after most people had gone home, and saw Cthulhu, the Empire State Building, and a woolly mammoth propping each other up at a streetcorner.

My favorite ever was the year my 4 year old went as a pirate, as did I. I dressed my younger son, then 8 months, as a treasure chest: taking one of those bath rings that keep babies sitting upright in the tub, I put it in a cardboard box that I made to look like a treasure chest using wood grain contact paper. I decorated an oversized fleece jumpsuit for him to look like coins; did the same with a yellow sheet; put him in the ring, covered most of him with the coin-sheet, hung some strings of "pearls" from the craft store - and bingo, he was our treasure! We marched in my home town's Halloween Parade that year. Still my favorite memory.

Bearwife, I went as "Miss Behavin'" one year! I used a bridesmaid gown, a sash, and a tiara, too. Figured it was the only way I'd ever use that bridesmaid dress ever again (burgundy velvet and taffeta!)

I am also partial to the year I didn't go anywhere but my friend's home, where I got inside a black painted box and posed all night (via my right hand only, on which I had grown my nails and painted them red and filed them to points) as "Thing," a la The Addams Family. My friend answered the door and my creepy hand delivered the candy after she summoned me from my box by calling for "Thing."