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BOSTON — A Boston woman with a passion for dressing up created a different costume for her children every day throughout October and documented the experience online.
Jacqueline Kontoes said she decided to do the project because each year she thinks of a lot of costume ideas after Halloween and can’t decide which one to use for the following year.
“I like to dress up,” Kontoes said. “I’ve always been a costume person. . . When I was really large and pregnant on Halloween a couple years ago, I was so mad that I wasn’t Ursula. When I miss an opportunity (to dress up,) I get really mad. When I look at my kids, I’ll think, 'Gosh, there’s like 15 things you’d be perfect for for Halloween, but it’s only one day.' ”
To utilize all her perfect costume ideas for her children, Kontoes decided to make a different costume each day during October. Her 2-year-old, Johnny, became characters like Sloth from “The Goonies,” and Ralphie from “A Christmas Story” while her 5-year-old twins, Darla and Dexter, became Garth and Wayne from “Wayne’s World” and Doc Brown and Marty McFly from “Back to the Future.”
Kontoes said each costume only takes 30 minutes to an hour to create and photograph and she documents it on her Instagram. She said her husband is also involved in the planning and creative process and her kids have done well at portraying the characters.
“It’s been something that we really do together,” Kontoes said of the project. “We’ve kind of put a little table out in the living room with a sewing machine and glue gun and sometimes we’ll put together a costume together. I think our kids really like it.”
Along with being a fun project she enjoys, Kontoes said she also created the costumes to show that people don’t have to spend a lot of time or money on Halloween.
“I really wanted to kind of show that you don’t have to buy a lot of things,” she said. “You don’t have to get so elaborate with a costume. I have a lot of friends who get really overwhelmed and stressed with Halloween with costumes and I was just trying to show you can really use anything you have around the house. You can do it cheaper and better if you just do it yourself.”
Kontoes said she wants to continue the project by dressing up her kids as old “Saturday Night Live” characters each Saturday throughout the year.
“My 2-year-old can pull off Chris Farley really well,” she said.
